"How Right Should the Customer Be?"
Harvard Business Review
July 2006, pp. 59-67
This article contrasts two prototypical cultures for approaches to managing an organization's sales force. Depending on the situation, one may be more effective than the other. Outcome control (OC) systems put the customer first. Behavior Control (BC) systems put the district or regional manager first. The key contrasts are:
- In OC systems, managers focus attention on bottom line results, while in BC systems, mangers focus on the methods and processes used to achieve outcomes
- In OC systems, salesperson performance is evaluated primarily by metrics controlled by the customer (especially sales) while in BC systems management uses more subjective criteria set by management
- In OC systems, managers provide relatively little supervision and salespeople make decisions while in BC systems managers provide heavy supervision and make the decisions
- In OC systems, there is little or no contact between managers and salespeople while in BC systems there is frequent and extensive contact
- In OC systems, sales staff are rarely monitored by management while in BC systems they are constantly monitored
- In OC systems, there is little or no coaching from managers while in BC systems there is a lot of coaching
- In OC systems, compensation is mostly variable, depending on results, while in BC systems compensation is keyed to salary and management evaluations
OC systems are called for when
- Customers need a lot of information
- Sales results are less predictable
- There are many ways to close the deal
- There is an excellent accounting system
BC systems are called for when
- Your salespeople lack experience
- You need to protect your brand
- You have high non-sales priorities such as participating in new product development
- It is difficult to assign credit for who exactly made the sale
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