Do you jump for joy ……or.…. weep in woe?

Scenario “all too common” …………. It’s time to run your annual customer sat survey. You are looking forward to the results. Last year’s showed an improvement on the key profit drivers compared to previous year’s. One specific result last year prompted you to throw in a new drill down question. When it comes to the customer decision….do I stay or do I go…..you want to understand the balance of power between the value perception of the rep vs the company. You design and calibrate your question carefully……….asking the customer to think of a best-of-class type rep when making the judgement. You want to understand the level of your sales team effectiveness more richly.

Fast forward……….the new results are in. Again another year of overall improved customer perception in terms of the key profit drivers. But…….the new question outcome is unambiguous. The customers value the rep more than company. Do you jump for joy…….or……..weep in woe?

Well, like many either/or questions in life, the answer depends.

Primarily, it depends on whether the reasons for weighted value perception apportioned to the rep are idiosyncratic or more a characteristic of your sales system. If the reasons that the customer judged the way they did are readily transferred from an outgoing top level rep, to the replacement rep (assuming your recruit another high flyer and allow a modicum of time to come up the curve), then you can assume that the customer judgement of the rep over the customer is a defacto vote of confidence in your sales team effectiveness and system. Jump for joy!

Alternatively, if the reasons are due to the idiosyncracies of the given rep, which are not readily part of the sales system and overall sales team effectiveness, then weep in woe. But just for a short moment. The get on with the job at hand……..raising your sales team effectiveness to The Next Level.