Sales Force Structure II

The competitive landscape has changed significantly in most lines of trade...

Your company's organizational structure determines how you allocate your most important asset: human resources.  Organizational structure decisions can frequently determine financial success.  As a simple illustration, consider a company that has a residential division and an industrial division.  Over the past three years, the effect of shifting reps out of the moribund residential market and into the industrial market would have dwarfed any conceivable residential division performance improvements.

No amount of training, measurement, "incentivizing,' or management focus would have been as powerful as simply re balancing resources to fit the market opportunity.

While this may seem obvious at a high level, we have found that a large portion of wholesaler-distributors fail to fully apply the concept of structural alignment.  The competitive landscape has changed significantly in most lines of trade, but many wholesaler-distributors continue to operate under the same sales structure they have had for the past 20 years.  It's easy to fall into the trap of making a series of incremental, tactical changes which, over time, leave yo miles wide of the ideal market position.

ACTION POINT: Recognize that the market landscape has changed, significantly, and look at realigning your sales force structure.