After a short while, it became apparent that
this new strategy was not producing the desired sales
increases. Only a few accounts were opened, and these were small at best. The salesforce struggled with its
new assignment, and the sales representatives
complained of a lack of leadership and guidance from
top management. Not surprisingly, confusion and
frustration increased rapidly. The second marketing
strategy, like the first one, seemed to be headed
towards failure. Management’s task at this point was
to assist the sales representatives in their efforts to
identify high-quality prospects and turn them into new
accounts.