The last 10 years of my sales management career were focused on transforming sales team to operate “like a machine”.
We did this by standardizing processes for recruiting, hiring, training, selling, managing and disciplining sales reps and managers.
We calculated how many leads we needed to produce how much revenue. We measured phone calls, customer interactions, sales pitches, wins, losses and everything imaginable.
My teams were largely successful.
We sold a lot. We were profitable. We were rewarded with commissions, bonuses and promotions.
Our prospects and customers may not have liked being on the receiving end of our calls, emails and high-pressure sales tactics. Many of our sales reps didn’t like being micromanaged.
But as long as the sales goals were met, we continued.
Two of the most successful teams I managed imploded a few years after I had left.
There were many reasons for this.
Good employees left for better jobs. Managers focused too much on sales metrics and meeting arbitrary goals. Markets changed. Mediocre employees and managers rose in the ranks. Our “do whatever it takes” startups were acquired by large lumbering corporations.
A significant reason that nobody wants to recognize is that the drive to scale and build a machine was doomed from the start.
If a business gets too big, it will start to decline.
There’s a problem with bureaucracy. If you add enough people to a thriving small business, procedures, rules, policies and manuals will be developed to try to control the business.
They never work well. Instead they introduce complexity and bureaucracy into a business that previously functioned on creativity, teamwork and ingenuity.
The business hires executive, managers and bean counters who are too focused on “the bottom line”. These people don’t interact with customers, create the product or deliver a service. Instead their jobs are managing “the numbers”. If sales are down, they will fire workers to reduce expenses. If returns are up, instead of making the product better they’ll make it harder for customers to to returns. (I’m speaking to you Home Depot Appliances).
Most damaging is as a business get too big, the culture becomes one that is based on covering your ass, protecting your job and taking care of yourself. Serving the customer falls far down the list of priorities.
Here are some examples:
Internet Service Providers. Today, most of us have 1 or 2 choices for Internet service. For me, it has usually been ATT and Comcast. They offer similar priced packages, with similarly packaged services and contracts that with expensive termination fees and stiff penalties. When you need customer service, you can count on it being a nightmare. You are directed to unhelpful websites, long hold queues handled by offshore call center employees and third party onsite contractors who are paid so little that they rush through the job to jump to the next one. Costs have not gone done for consumers. Instead they have risen while choice and service have fallen precipitously.
Big Box Stores. If you want to have a bad experience at a big box store, buy an appliance and have it installed. You may find the appliance you want but you’ll be shunted off to a third party contractor who bidded the lowest price for delivery and installation. That low bid does not result in a lower price to the consumer. It simply translates into a low quality experience for the customer and a higher profit for the big box store.
Hardware Stores. Good luck trying to even find someone to direct you to the right aisle at these big box hardware stores much less find someone who will help you troubleshoot a problem. Occasionally you’ll get lucky and find someone. But 9 out of 10 times, you are on your own.
Amazon. What I like about Amazon is its amazing logistics capability. I can buy nearly anything and get it in two days with free shipping. Here’s the problem – I don’t need to buy nearly anything. I need some things. I want only high quality things. Occasionally I need expert advice. Those are all simply not available from Amazon. Plus, like factory farming, I realize that Amazon is profiting by making other suffer. They increase profits by wringing concessions from sellers, employees and shipping companies. The more this continues, the worse it will become and as customers, we will see a continual decline in service and quality.
Walmart. I won’t even discuss Walmart. I refuse to shop there.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all experienced the problems of scale even more.
Supply chain disruptions (plus panic buying) have resulted in shortages of food, toilet paper, medicines and cleaning supplies.
The largest companies have laid off thousands of employees en masse to immediately cut expenses.
Companies that rely on cheap labor, outsourcing and global supply chains cannot deliver.
My solution is to buy local, buy less and buy quality.
My clothing comes primary from REI. While not local, it is higher quality. I buy as few clothes as possible since living in my truck taught me how little I really need.
My food comes from the local grocery store. However, once the panic buying have settled, I plan to find a local farm to buy as much direct to consumer meat, poultry eggs and vegetables as I can.
In general, I don’t eat at chain restaurants. I try to shop at local small businesses. I buy as little as possible.
It costs more. My choices are limited. But for now, it seems like the right thing to do.