Dell: Get all transactions online
Sales: Sure. But that will impact stuff you probably haven’t considered
Dell: Get it done.
Months later…
Dell: Quote stats are down. You guys su-k. Get it fixed
Sales: 100% online means diminished engagement, hence fewer quotes. Are you stupid?
Dell: Lets have focus days. Pizza for everyone…
Sales: This is impacting my mental health…
Customers can’t even add their own standard configurations anymore. The website is a giant, giant piece of sh-t.
"It was to offload the easy stuff so you could focus on hitting greenfield accounts and cross selling more profitable and strategoc LOBs. What the RTO mandate was based on was borderline non existent quote activity on Mondays and Fridays which shows a lot of people are just sitting on their tails and watching their kids at home."
The people "sitting home on their tails watching their kids" are probably unraveling all the problems associated with the "easy stuff", explaining to customers why the level of service took a nose dive here at Dell.
Had this exact conversation with my manager about why my quote numbers are down… Um hello?!
When 10-40+ year veterans are running the show the reality of front line selling gets lost in selective memory and nostalgia. It's a shame so much business is being lost due to these types. Influencing macro selling shifts and strategies should at minimum include customer and seller input. But it almost never happens. The ego of the VP suite has destroyed trillions over the last few decades.
+1 Tech support departments in EMEA being forced into it as well and providing contradictory to new sales process info to customers for months and after review now new version of online sale that still does not work well with 0 training and communication to other departments :)
Obviously customers do not buy repairs as much - cause we prohibit it for them by canceling years established processes and further offshoring of customer service.