Challenge:

To make an internal sales structure that helps motivate, reflects the strengths of each employee by  providing a fair platform and a structure that works for the company, employees and our customers.

There are lot of challenges in the current structure of our business. Our business is divided into Agencies  and Direct clients which constitute to 60 % of the business and 40 % respectively. Our team consist of 9  sales managers who are extremely demotivated as the current sales structure is not fair to all team  members. The current structure has 5 people looking after the agency business and 4 people looking  after the direct sales business. The sales managers who are looking after direct clients are demotivated  from the beginning as they have a smaller portfolio to manage. The 5 managers who are looking after  agency business has been assigned agencies according to the seniority and hence 3 out of 5 sales  managers are the only one’s happy with the agency that they are handling and the rest 2 of them are  highly demotivated again as they have not been given the high spending agency!

The current structure thus is a breeding ground of unhealthy competition, demotivation, bureaucracy  and is a platform for sales managers to play by a set of rules within their portfolios which is limiting  them from experimenting and creating new opportunities.

Selection:

I have decided to use the tool of Learning Launch – A prototype, structure that could be used and tried  with all sales managers for at least 1 quarter of the next year. The reason I have selected this tool is  because I have enough data and analytics from my research team regarding spending of my competitors  within the ecosystem of similar businesses, we are in. Additionally, being at the end of the year I have  revenue data for the entire year that I can map to the data given by the research team in order to find  some patterns and brainstorm some mind mapping techniques with my management and propose a  different structure in order for the business to function effectively.

Challenge I may find while using this learning launch tool is that the management would be wanting a  success probability to the new structure I am proposing. They would tell me that 1 whole quarter is too  much of a time to “test” a new prototype/ new structure and if it fails, we will lose significant revenue  from 1 whole quarter which we won’t be able to make it up as the year passes. Additional challenge  would be that nobody has tried this in the market, and we will be the first ones to try this structure.

Application:

In order to apply the tool effectively, here is how I segregated the data. I decided to segment the whole  ecosystem (which consists of customers) into detailed verticals – For eg: Each customer according to the  business/ sector they cater to are divided into verticals like FMCG, Medical & Healthcare, Hospitality,  Events & Entertainment, Malls, Theme Parks, Education..etc..I did this separation of verticals on data  that my research team gave me and also on the data that I have from my spenders/ customers in my  business. The initial rearranging of data is what took me the most amount of time. I believe I was able to  apply the tool effectively as I was already noticing patterns and verticals that I could group together.  This also allowed me to think of sales managers who would be servicing these verticals according to  their interest. I would be able to tap into their emotional needs and not just look at them, merely as  sales professionals but as individuals with varied interests and knowledge in certain verticals. This I  believe would hopefully solve a large part of the demotivation issue in the sales managers as well.

Insight:

The insights were tremendous. Apart from two big verticals that constituted close to 30 % of the  business, all other verticals where contributing similar percentages to the ecosystem and in a small  number approx. around 4 to 5 %. This Insight however made me realize that in order to be fully fair to  everyone in the system, the two big verticals need to be further categorized into segments where the  number of percentages had to be kept to similar patterns that already emerged earlier (4- 5 %). I further  had to dwell into exploration tools and use secondary research in order to further segment the data and  towards the end of the exercise I had around 20 verticals of customers that contributed 4 -5 % of their  spends on our ecosystem. This also meant I could easily give out a workable prototype to the  management with each sales manager servicing 2 verticals that contributed significantly to our business.  Additionally, it was a bonus that the sales manager could service verticals according to their interest. We  could ask the sales manager to choose their own verticals keeping them involved in the whole “cause”  or building this new prototype, so everyone feels involved as it was a very fair platform for everyone to  work on.

Approach:

If I must suggest an alternative to the approach, then I would like to use a different selection tool –  Visualization and Mind Mapping tool.  Considering all the challenges we have addressed before; I would  like to in this new approach, have all sales manager think about their colleagues and would want them  to journal their feedback on what they think about each sales manager in the team by doing a SWOT  analysis. Once I have collected all their feedback, I would have each sales manager’s picture being put  across in a board and for each team member to clip the SWOT analysis on to the board. Once this  process is done, we will start doing Mind Mapping where in collectively we will have an agreed  consensus on each sales manager’s strength and weakness. This way we can all collectively agree as to  what is the portfolio that each sales manager should handle which would make the system transparent  and fair and have less friction between the employees. Having to have involved everyone in the process  would have also meant that nothing is imposed on them. The challenge here would be that we are not  sure how this could efficiently help the company as we need a structure that needs to not only be fair  but also workable in a way that it produces great business results.


Challenge : To make an internal sales structure that helps motivate , reflects the strengths of each employee by providing a fair platform and a structure that works for the company , employees and our customers . There are lot of challenges in the current structure of our business . Our business is divided into Agencies and Direct clients which constitute to 60 % of the business and 40 % respectively . Our team consist of 9 sales managers who are extremely demotivated as the current sales structure is not fair to all team members . The current structure has 5 people looking after the agency business and 4 people looking after the direct sales business . The sales managers who are looking after direct clients are demotivated from the beginning as they have a smaller portfolio to manage . The 5 managers who are looking after agency business has been assigned agencies according to the seniority and hence 3 out of 5 sales managers are the only one ’s happy with the agency that they are handling and the rest 2 of them are highly demotivated again as they have not been given the high spending agency ! The current structure thus is a breeding ground of unhealthy competition , demotivation , bureaucracy and is a platform for sales managers to play by a set of rules within their portfolios which is limiting them from experimenting and creating new opportunities . Selection : I have decided to use the tool of Learning Launch – A prototype , structure that could be used and tried with all sales managers for at least 1 quarter of the next year . The reason I have selected this tool is because I have enough data and analytics from my research team regarding spending of my competitors within the ecosystem of similar businesses , we are in . Additionally , being at the end of the year I have revenue data for the entire year that I can map to the data given by the research team in order to find some patterns and brainstorm some mind mapping techniques with my management and propose a different structure in order for the business to function effectively . Challenge I may find while using this learning launch tool is that the management would be wanting a success probability to the new structure I am proposing . They would tell me that 1 whole quarter is too much of a time to “ test ” a new prototype/ new structure and if it fails , we will lose significant revenue from 1 whole quarter which we wo n’t be able to make it up as the year passes . Additional challenge would be that nobody has tried this in the market , and we will be the first ones to try this structure . Application : In order to apply the tool effectively , here is how I segregated the data . I decided to segment the whole ecosystem ( which consists of customers ) into detailed verticals – For eg : Each customer according to the business/ sector they cater to are divided into verticals like FMCG , Medical & Healthcare , Hospitality , Events & Entertainment , Malls , Theme Parks , Education .. etc .. I did this separation of verticals on data that my research team gave me and also on the data that I have from my spenders/ customers in my business . The initial rearranging of data is what took me the most amount of time . I believe I was able to apply the tool effectively as I was already noticing patterns and verticals that I could group together . This also allowed me to think of sales managers who would be servicing these verticals according to their interest . I would be able to tap into their emotional needs and not just look at them , merely as sales professionals but as individuals with varied interests and knowledge in certain verticals . This I believe would hopefully solve a large part of the demotivation issue in the sales managers as well . Insight : The insights were tremendous . Apart from two big verticals that constituted close to 30 % of the business , all other verticals where contributing similar percentages to the ecosystem and in a small number approx . around 4 to 5 % . This Insight however made me realize that in order to be fully fair to everyone in the system , the two big verticals need to be further categorized into segments where the number of percentages had to be kept to similar patterns that already emerged earlier ( 4- 5 % ) . I further had to dwell into exploration tools and use secondary research in order to further segment the data and towards the end of the exercise I had around 20 verticals of customers that contributed 4 -5 % of their spends on our ecosystem . This also meant I could easily give out a workable prototype to the management with each sales manager servicing 2 verticals that contributed significantly to our business . Additionally , it was a bonus that the sales manager could service verticals according to their interest . We could ask the sales manager to choose their own verticals keeping them involved in the whole “ cause ” or building this new prototype , so everyone feels involved as it was a very fair platform for everyone to work on . Approach : If I must suggest an alternative to the approach , then I would like to use a different selection tool – Visualization and Mind Mapping tool . Considering all the challenges we have addressed before ; I would like to in this new approach , have all sales manager think about their colleagues and would want them to journal their feedback on what they think about each sales manager in the team by doing a SWOT analysis . Once I have collected all their feedback , I would have each sales manager ’s picture being put across in a board and for each team member to clip the SWOT analysis on to the board . Once this process is done , we will start doing Mind Mapping where in collectively we will have an agreed consensus on each sales manager ’s strength and weakness . This way we can all collectively agree as to what is the portfolio that each sales manager should handle which would make the system transparent and fair and have less friction between the employees . Having to have involved everyone in the process would have also meant that nothing is imposed on them . The challenge here would be that we are not sure how this could efficiently help the company as we need a structure that needs to not only be fair but also workable in a way that it produces great business results .