Who is on, who is off the road?

What do you believe will happen, when you decide to improve your target list, leveraging the huge possibilities that externally researched lists deliver? Your representatives have decided w

By Hanno Wolfram on Aug 18, 2009

What do you believe will happen, when you decide to improve your target list, leveraging the huge possibilities that externally researched lists deliver?


Your representatives have decided with all their expertise and assumed best practices whom to see, how often delivering the optimum message and  who is the most promising target to achieve their objectives.They have done that with all the background and know they have collected since they are working in their territory. - and they like these people and are well connected with them!


Once you see that improvements are necessary in order to implement your renovated or updated strategic approaches, you will want them  to see different people. The difference might be marginal though. Your target list comes from an external vendor, and carries with all the r and p=0,005 values. Any list will by definition deviate from their individually collected information, it will not match their insight and their understanding.


Do a wild guess: would you believe in the new target list - They won't either and above all they will find at least one name who closed down his office yesterday - "All the list is crap"!


This is what people and your bosses call "a problem to be solved!"


Easy to say, but extremely hard to achieve. The reasons for that are easy:


Field forces consist of a number of people - you are alone


They all have the same job and tend to live their solidarity


They are affected identically and will not allow that their know-how is declared to be no longer valid, especially since they have been successful in the past, which you told them through bonuses and appraisal letters so often.


Besides there is no way to control field forces, no matter what you try - they are working alone!


Leadership hardly can be executed with sales managers spending less than 50% of their time in the field (this assumption might even be kind of optimistic already and notabene: what does "in the field" mean?))


Distances between each other grant the rest of the necessary freedom; and above all:


Have you ever checked how communication looks like today? - Simply look into your in- or outbox.
Would you seriously believe that such communication could make your field force believe that they should


- change their habits, 
- discard their beliefs,
- get off their individual and proven pathway to success (=bonus) and 


 come with you on any new or different road?


Any idea to share with us is most welcome!