“If performance is to be improved, we need to define clearly what ‘performance’ means.” — Peter Drucker
At a number of the companies I visit, the prevailing wisdom is often to let each sales person sell according to his or her preference. If corporate steps in and puts a sales structure or system in place, the perception is that they are meddling in the local manager’s territory. However, the downside of having sales people using different selling techniques is that it can be difficult to identify the specific reasons for sales problems. If sales is completely unstructured, you can’t fix problems because the company doesn’t know which part of the sales process isn’t working.