By Norm Robinson

If you’re an owner or top manager, please read this article. Th is is a story about what you should never let happen in your business. It’s a true story, and I was on the front line watching it. From a consultant’s point of view, it’s very diffi cult to watch what will ultimately be the demise of a company that has been a leader in its industry for more than 30 years. Now the good news is that this is not a Partner or ISV, but it very well could be. Like many of your businesses, the success of this fi rm is based on sales. The company has been around for more than three decades. It manufactures and supplies a big-ticket item through a dealer network in a fi ve-state area. Th e primary goal of the sales force is to maintain business levels through existing dealers and to prospect and secure additional dealers within their territories.

Content Provided By

The Partner Channel is a “go to” advertising and marketing resource that works creative magic for members. As members of The Partner Channel, Partner organizations reach beyond their marketing needs to the building and support of a Partner community where ideas and knowledge run rampant. Learn More

The business climate for this product has become tighter within the past five years. On the other hand, there are several competitors whose businesses have improved in that same timeframe. Sound familiar?

About three years ago, a new sales manager came on board. He had excellent credentials and had risen up through the ranks, having been a successful salesman himself. He presented his strategy and his tactics for his sales force to top management. They ate it up. It sounded great on paper. The problem was he simply couldn’t implement. He talked the talk, but that was it. After a year and a half, ownership gave him his walking papers. His sales force was like a bunch of boats without rudders. Th ey had no direction, no plan, and were completely inefficient. Bottom line, business was steadily going down.

Ownership made the decision to give their most successful salesman the opportunity to be sales manager. Th ey asked him if he wanted the job and, most importantly, could he do it? Of course he said, “yes and yes.”

In our consulting business, we work closely with our clients in all aspects of marketing, advertising, sales training, and management. We work very closely with the new sales manager. From the beginning, we were concerned that he was simply “too nice a guy.” I remember the chairman of the board saying one day that he was worried that the new sales manager couldn’t be tough enough with the salesmen… his former peers. So we talked with the sales manager several times, trying to be diplomatic but, at the same time, making the concerns very clear. He indicated that he heard them loud and clear, and that he would have no problem being tough when it was necessary.

About two months in, we all saw how the sales manager could benefi t from professional training. He went to a week-long seminar and did one-on-one work with a tremendous group on the East Coast. After he returned to his home base, the sales trainers continued mentoring and managing him, supplying him with specific advice about his situations, and challenging him on the things he’d committed to at their original sessions. On paper it couldn’t have been better. But there was one huge problem.

The salesmen controlled the sales manager, plain and simple. They told him how they wanted their sales process to happen. As you can imagine, they had no process, no plan, and they simply stumbled along. Sales continued to go down.

We implemented a CRM program, primarily as a strong tool for the sales manager. He was to use the program to build customer and prospect databases; to help his individual salespeople develop weekly plans; to help him oversee how the salespeople were doing in accomplishing their plans; and to track marketing campaigns and follow-up activities. Th ere was “push back” from the very beginning, and it never changed.

The CRM implementation was a battle from the opening bell. There is no question that the salespeople saw this as a way for management to keep them accountable. They didn’t want that, they refused to participate in the process, and the sales manager didn’t have the courage to put his foot down.

Occasionally, after a heated conversation with the board chairman, the sales manager would press the sales force to use the system, especially for planning their coming week. It was amazing to see the results when the salespeople actually documented their next week’s plan. They were efficient, made many more sales calls and presentations than usual, and brought a lot of positive things to the sales table. But this process was shortlived. At one sales meeting I remember the most headstrong salesman saying, “what do you want me to do, sell or play in this computer program?” The sales manager almost crawled under the table after that comment.

In late 2006, the company president was fired. He couldn’t manage the staff , including the sales manager. Business wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward to March 2007. A new president was named – a young man of 29 and a good friend of the sales manager. At the hiring, the board chair told the new president that his primary charge would be to get the sales process back on track. He was asked if he was up to that task. He responded, “Absolutely. Sales drive business.”

Two weeks later, the salesmen won. They convinced the new president that the CRM program was nothing but a hindrance. The sales manager convinced him that the “salesmen know how to sell, so let’s just let them do their job.” Th e CRM program was erased from the system; all the data was gone. The weekly meeting of all salespeople, via conference call, went away, too. The sales manager convinced the new president that it was a waste of time.

2007 sales are now off budget by more than 60 percent. There is no conceivable way to come close to breakeven this year. The new president is now riding with the sales manager, making cold calls on prospects over a three-state area. Two old friends who think this is the way to build a business. The individual salespeople now have no weekly plans, and the results-to-date are horrifi c. They tell the new president they have, “a lot of irons in the fire,” but we all know what that really means.

The board chairman has exercised his option to sell his shares in the company because he sees how drastically off-course the sales effort has become. It’s sad to talk with him.

So in the short term, the salesmen have won. Their whining worked. They no longer have to “play” with that silly CRM program. And the sales manager isn’t required to “get tough” with the salesmen. Whew! We imagine he’s glad that’s over. It’s not easy telling people what they need to do. It’s much more pleasant when everyone is a pal, a buddy. Of course the sad part is that this story is going to end in tragedy. The company has several hundred employees and with sales off 60 percent to 70 percent of budget, it could likely close its doors in the next year. The owners simply won’t pour money into a rudderless ship.

As we look back over the past two or so years, we ask, whose fault is it? Certainly it’s partially the two sales managers, but, the two presidents are the ones who must shoulder the ultimate responsibility of failure. One is gone already, and the current president simply doesn’t get it. Maybe he believes what many of our fathers used to say, “let’s all get a good night’s rest, and it’ll be fi ne in the morning.”

If this story makes you ill, make sure you take a close look at your own business. Even if you have a small firm and you’re the president, sales manager, sales force, and the janitor all wrapped up in one, this story has value to you. Whoever is responsible for oversight of your sales program needs to take it very, very seriously. Never assume your salespeople can pull rabbits out of hats consistently without a plan. And once you have a plan in place, make sure you communicate to your sales force what you expect. Th en follow-up, follow- up, follow-up to make sure they do what they’ve agreed to do. Th ere is nothing wrong with being a strong sales manager. It doesn’t mean you have to be mean or overbearing; it just means you have to be strong.