Tweet

Resolving A Conflict Between Two Sales Staffs

Written by: Michael Shays

Article Overview: How do you get two competing groups to work together as a team? Here is a case study of salespeople on the road and a telemarketing group within the same company that just discovered they were both talking to the same customers. How did anger and recrimination turn into cooperation and partnership?

Resolving A Conflict Between Two Sales Staffs

RESOLVING A CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO SALES STAFFS
E. Michael Shays

A distributor of library books for young children merged two companies into one, but kept the sales staffs separate for a year. One staff consisted mainly of men who carried heavy cases of books and drove throughout their territories to show the books and take orders from the librarians. The other staff consisted mostly of women who sold books to some of these same libraries over the phone. Neither staff knew about the other. However, the traveling salesmen were puzzled to see that their customers already had the books they were showing.

A consultant was asked to facilitate the bringing of these two groups together without being told that the revelation of the other sales force would be a huge surprise to each group. The result was explosive acrimony. Each group was severely threatened by the other and emotions, harsh words and tears ran high. The consultant had to abandon the plan he had worked out and instead caucused separately with each group.

Conflict may be expressed as anger, but its roots are fear. In this case it was fear of losing carefully and sometimes painstakingly developed customers, relationships and commissions to a competing group. So the facilitator asked each group separately these same questions:

What would you need from the other group to earn your trust? What would they have to commit to and do to be your partner in sales?

Once he had their answers to these questions, he then asked each group what they would be willing to give up to establish trust with the other group. What would they have to do to be their partner in sales?

Not surprisingly the answers to the second round of question were quite similar to the answers to the first round, and heated emotions cooled. By the first round of questions the facilitator allowed each group to express their concerns by defining what it would take to remove the threat (and thereby eliminate their fears). In the second round of questions the facilitator challenged each group to step into the other group’s shoes and view the conflict from the other side.

The facilitator brought both groups back together and asked each one to report on what they considered constituted trust in working together. In a very short time individuals who had been exchanging angry words the evening before were voluntarily pairing up with their counterparts in the other group and working out ways to share or redistribute their territories.

* * *

E. MICHAEL SHAYS CMC (ems@emsnetwork.com) is President of EMS Network, International, an association of senior consultants helping clients faced with conflict, transition, stagnation, and management dilemmas.

Related Articles
  The Conflict Transformation of a Leader
  Successful People Think Win-Win In Conflict Situations
  Get Rid of Conflict in Your Organization
  Addressing Difficult situations at Work
  The Secret to Resolving Workplace Conflicts

Article Tags: facilitator, group Conflict, Michael Shays, sales force



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Hello From Marietta GA! - Hello All! My name is Tim Naylor and I am in Direct Sales! I am glad I have found EC's sites and I hope to learn and share a lot!
taxes in canada - Well in Canada we only have a few provinces and the Sales tax is slightly different. Here in Ontario the Goods & Services tax has reduced to 5% from 7% in the last year due to the promises made by the government in place.
Re: Watch What you Read - I agree. i believe more video's should be like Jeffery Gitomers video's under his Sales rant. They are typically not more than 3 minutes. His model seems to be; 1. Main Message (or Point) 2. Example 3. Next steps to put it into Action take away the extra "blabber" and you've got viewers that will come back.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

A New Year in the Pharmaceutical Industry

How to choose your executive coach -1

Why Marketing Outsourcing is Growing So Quickly

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.