Kansas City, Mo ? Hallmark Cards Inc. is reducing its sales staff by more than 12 percent, as part of what the company says is a reorganization of the sales force.

Hallmark has laid off 95 employees and eliminated 80 open positions, reducing its sales staff to 1,225.

Company spokeswoman Julie O’Dell said the reductions resulted from a reorganization of the company’s sales force.

Before the reorganization, O’Dell said, the division had employees who would work in both sales and service.

“This reorganization was really about improving productivity,” she said. “Now, instead of each of those employees being a generalist, this will make them more of a specialist in either sales or service.”

Kansas City, Mo.-based Hallmark is the largest greeting card maker in the world. Last year it had sales of $4 billion, down 8 percent from the previous year.

It has a plant in Lawrence, where no job cuts are expected.