Segmentation III

In many cases it is simply about getting a single individual within your organization to be accountable because your company has made it so difficult to get smooth service or straight answers.  

If you look at the situation from a business perspective, you will usually find that very tangible economic value lies behind the term "relationship."  For example, it may mean that a buyer can trust the sales rep not to slip in a price increase without notice, enabling the buyer to avoid the costly, time-consuming process of checking each line item by hand.  Or the relationship may refer to the project leads or competitive gossip that the reps provide--again, things that offer very real economic value.

In many cases it is simply about getting a single individual within your organization to be accountable because your company has made it so difficult to get smooth service or straight answers.   The entire value of the relationship may be in having "one butt to kick"' when deliveries are late or the invoices don't match the purchase orders.  We have seen many situations in which sales openly blame others in their own organization for causing all the problems.  In such a situation, your focus should clearly be on improving service levels; the last thing you need is to further entrench the mysterious sales rep rapport.

ACTION POINT: The key point is that real segmentation means digging a bit deeper into the economic and business drivers behind behavior.  Don't accept fuzzy words like "relationship," "service," or "quality," without really understanding the specific business or organizational need they fulfill.