Where Operating focused companies fail

In the beginning of every companies' life there is Sales it's hard to say which comes first, a product or a salesperson and from company to company this differs I'm sure.  But there is always sales.  The need for sales becomes the priority and focus of any small company starting out, and after a time if the product supports it the sales begin to build momentum and generate more revenue than the company needs.  That spurs on more incentives and expenditures to promote more sales and the Sales team gets out of control spending money like crazy and generating revenue in all sorts of crazy ways.   But there comes a time in every companies' life where they need to get a handle on expenses and processes and get the sales engine under control.  I am not discounting those times, I am only meaning to offer some strategic tell tale signs of when it's time to change back.

 

Here is a perfect example of our company loosing control of their operations.  Now the operational managers are running amuck through the fields of their own prosperity not acknowledging the long term effects of their decisions.  All cemeteries sell merchandise along with products, most companies do also, the intrinsic add ons or upgrades are an important part of a companies bottom line, that said it's important for companies to offer options that will accommodate most people from very extravagant to simple so that affordability and service may be honored.  Over the course of the last few years this has changed at our location and through our company in general but nothing more important than the changes made in our vault selections recently.

 

Vaults are cement and steel reinforced concrete containers they vary in type by the amount of protection they provide the casket area, the material used to make them and their overall appearance.  If you give a line of products to a sales organization from the bottom line least expensive vault to the most expensive they will sell the best one they can every time.  What they did to us is simply delete all the vaults below the minimum average they wanted to maintain.  They cut out a significant sector of the market simply because they didn't want to offer anything that inexpensive. 

 

This operational mentality of forcing consumers to purchase a higher quality item because they simply don't understand the sales process is the dirtiest trick in the book, there may be a lot of negative press about salespeople upgrading or adding on things that people don't need.  But at least it's out there, it's offered and people CHOOSE to accept it or not.  This change removes the purchaser from the scenario and requires them to make a purchase above what they need or want.