CASE STUDIES      

A mid-sized software company in the Midwest had a problem with its European sales force.  By any measure of performance, sales were significantly lower than plan and than US based sales teams.  

The issue, according to the client, was that Europeans are not motivated the same way that US Americans are to get the job done to the best of their abilities. For some reason, they don't "get it" when it comes to getting the score on the board. In addition, they ask all sorts of silly questions of no one in particular and then don't follow though.  Clearly they lack motivation.

When we probed a little further we found that the European sales force sends emails addressed to many different people and as a result no one actually replied to them.   They lack focus and are not success oriented.

Does any of this sound all too familiar?  It would be far too easy to criticize others for not working the way that we do.  An even more fundamental consulting mistake would be to simply analyze the process and come up with recommende new way of doing things. 

Next we investigated the other side of the situation to clarify what was happening.  The European situation was that they frequently came across situations during the sales process, where a lead would have other operating or financial software and inquired if their product offering was compatible.  Not being as conversant with the product and not knowing what the software would and not be compatible with, they did the only sensible thing.  They asked their colleagues back in the US.

Since the European sales staff were all relatively new to the company and its products, they were never quite sure who to send the email too, so they typically included two or three people who they though may be able to provide some clarity and guidance.   The Europeans were astounded that no one from Corporate ever bothered to reply.  There they were trying to sell the product and no one back in the US cared about making the sale. Clearly Americans are all talk and not interested in doing what is right for the company. maybe they care about their own sales but not about the greater good of the corporation. Isn't it obvious that they would all achieve more if they worked together?

OK, so what is going on here?  Is it just a procedural and communication issue or is there more to it than that?  

The answer, is Yes and No.  

Clearly there are communications channels that are clogged and misdirected, but underlying that is a basic question of why do they need to communicate at all?  What was missed here was that in the US, the sales people were more familiar with the product, but they were also able to stroll down the corridor and ask the techies if and when they had a question.  Company culture is very informal and encourages informal interchanges of information rather than sending emails around. 

Even more relevant in this case was the culture within the sales force centered around the many US cultural values including Self Reliance, Hard Work and Individualism.  In the US, we value individual contributions rather than team work.  We encourage Competition and we reward individuals for their individual contribution.  Like many US companies, this client talked about Team Spirit, but actually operated on the basis of high contribution individuals. 

There was a noticeable dichotomy between The Story they told told about themselves and the discernable reality. That, by the way, is true for most of us.

OK, so we understood the US organizational culture, but what about the Europeans?  Not surprisingly, many Europeans come form cultures where consensus is valued and where people believe that they work together as a team to achieve the best possible results for the team as a whole.  Europeans tend to be more collective in their actions where US Americans tend to be more individualistic.  When a European sent an email to his colleagues in the US they had an expectation that that colleague would try to get the answer or would pass it on to the person who could best answer it.

Expectations of both groups were based on their own behaviors and experiences and the expectation that others would naturally behave the same way.  The key to unlocking this problem was to explore those expectations to make sure that both sides understood where the other was coming from.  The next step was to put in place a simple and effective means of making sure that the questions were answered in a timely fashion.

The result was vastly improved communication, significantly improved revenues and a greater appreciation of each others cultures and achievements. 

EMD has a wealth of experience in international problem solving and profitability improvement. 

Contact EMD to find out how we can leverage our expertise against your knowledge to make a significant contribution to your bottom line.

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