Marketing Organisation

Abstract

Reorganisation has the familiarity of a bad joke in computer marketing. Classic quotations on the falseness of reorganisation as a solution to problems adorn the walls of marketing and sales people. When they come to be managers, they seem unable to resist the temptation. Frequent reorganisation is counter-productive. It devalues experience, and often breaks continuity between customer and salesperson, reducing selling effectiveness. In computer markets, the pace of change may seem to force reorganisation, yet this is just the kind of market where continuity pays. Suppliers who are victims of this syndrome should calculate the average continuity of sales interface with the customer: what proportion of customers are dealt with by the same salesman as they were a year ago? When all the reasons for change are added up (attrition, promotion, branch reorganisation, new ground plan, restructuring of the sales force to change specialisms), the figure may be very low.