CONSULTING CASE STUDY:

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 salesmen were puzzled to see that their customers already had the books they were showing.

I was asked to bring 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. I had to abandon the plan I had worked out and instead caucused separately with each group.

The process was to determine what each participant would need from the other group to earn its trust, and then to ask these same participants what they would be willing to give up to establish trust with the other group. After two rounds we put the groups together and in a short while individuals were voluntarily pairing up with their counterparts in the other group and working out ways to share or redistribute their territories. The result was a much more effective and cooperative sales force.

E. Michael Shays
The Focus Leader
EMS@EMSnetwork.com