I was recently consulting with a very large, multinational firm. In their own heart of hearts - and, in their boardroom - they believed that they had a sales problem. And they do. However, the sales problem is merely symptomatic of a number of deeper issues that need to be addressed before any serious improvement can be made in their sales results.
This scenario, however, is not rare. And it makes no difference whether the organization is large (this client sells $2.6 billion in the U.S. alone) or small, a "ma-pop," small business or entrepreneurial environment. These situations exist in all organizations. No matter the size. What is believed to be the problem is merely a symptom of a series of deeper, more endemic challenges.
In this case there were a whole series of problems. Fortunately, the leaders of this organization have now seen them, accepted their existence and now, together, we are addressing them. In this particular case here they are:
Poorly designed structure for field offices in terms of reporting functions and responsibilities.
You see, the problems weren't whether salespeople knew how to ask for the order, sell value or organize accounts. Those areas, of course, can always be improved. The real issues were deeper, more organizational issues related directly to fundamental circumstances like structure, delivery, customer service, personnel and accountability.
Here is the real point. Quite often there are simple, fundamental reasons behind the most obvious things you see. Things like disappearing customers, cancelled orders, customer complaints, a lack of increased sales volume and stagnant salespeople are not always the fault of a salesperson or even an entire sales organization.
Whenever I encounter this type of situation I am often reminded of the human body. It is not unusual for an ache or pain somewhere to be caused by a problem that is far removed from the actual location of the pain. A headache can be caused by a bad back