Two control philosophies

The president of a well-known consulting firm does not believe in quantitative objectives for salespeople. He claims that instead of focusing on quantitative objectives by asking a salesperson to meet a given sales volume target, it is better to provide qualitative objectives, such as prospecting a target segment of customers. According to this company president, sales managers should not limit themselves to assigning individual objectives because, although individual objectives induce salespeople to remain committed, only collective action makes the difference.

The president of another major corporation holds quite a different view and asserts that qualitative objectives do not work with salespeople. According to him, only two objectives matter: sales volumes and gross margins. He was reported to say in an executive meeting: “One should stop talking nonsense with those qualitative objectives, number of calls, and so on that lead to evaluate salespeople according to subjective criteria. In addition, selling is an individual sport. Consequently, except for the year end party when the total objective is met, I cannot see what can be done in common.”

How can such dramatically opposed points of view be reconciled? Which of these two executives speaks the truth?

In fact, there is some truth in both arguments. They are only limited by the fact that each executive gives his own vision of the sales force dynamic management process. However, these are far from being incompatible.