These results have strong implications
regarding the guidance that should be given to the
salesforce. Recall that the sales reps were unhappy
with the lack of guidance in new business prospecting,
and a great deal of valuable selling time had been
wasted attempting to find new accounts in an
unfocused way. There was a good deal of confusion
and resentment on the part of the sales reps. But once
the data were collected and analyzed and the results
were presented to the company’s CEO and the
Marketing and Sales Director, the most productive
segments immediately became apparent. Within a
period of minutes after the presentation of the results of
the research, the marketing strategy began to take
shape. During the next week, each member of the
salesforce was given a manageable set of high-quality
leads in the form of computer-generated sheets that
contained the name, location, and other critical
information for the prospects that they should visit.
The “wheel spinning” by the salesforce was now
replaced with a productive way to pursue new business.
The CEO and the Marketing Director were pleased that
they now had what seemed to be a viable marketing
strategy.