Sometime... Often, when we promote our top Salesperson to Sales Management, we end up shooting ourselves in the foot.

Why?  Two key reasons:  

1. We take one of our best Salespeople off the road... at least for a significant part of their time.  

2. The characteristics and attributes that make a GREAT Salesperson 'SELDOM' create a great Sales Manager.

We see examples of his frequently and we find ourselves feeling disappointed for business owners who felt they were doing a good thing.  While it makes some sense that having direct selling experience should help you to understand the rigors of the sales job and how to coach others, this nice idea seldom converts into results.

How rational is it that a national retailer would actually build poor service into their business plan, in order to minimize staff costs and maximize profits?

Is this a viable strategy or does it eventually backfire? 

I recently experienced this in three locations of the same national retailer and have to believe that poor service is part of their plan.  This is not the first such experience with a retailer as I'm sure most of you can relate.

My first thought had been that they either have a hiring issue or a training issue, both of which we could help with.  This made me curious about the viability of pursuing the idea.

The staff tends to be on the younger side and I assume on the lower end of the wage scale.  If the willingness is there, it is neither very difficult nor expensive to improve hiring / selection processes nor to better train those with who have decent retail attitudes but no training.

I've come to believe that the retailer knows exactly what they are doing and strategically limits service in an effort to keep the level just above the breaking point for the retail audience.  Is this clever or dangerous?

My guess is that the store operators and regional managers have little control.  I suspect they blame Walmart or some other major competitor for poor business results when it is their own issues, within their doors, that kills business advancement.

Too bad.

By the way, I found what I needed at a Home Hardware store in Haney and got just the right kind of service.

What do you think?