8
Oversized sales organiza ons and undersized investments in customers
With the influx of venture capital and private equity funding, companies are increasingly building large
sales organiza ons to drive revenue for rela vely quick and profitable exits by investors. The result is
short-term strategies to drive unsustainable growth and li le or no investment in long-term growth
strategies nor innova on. It's a trend extending beyond the venture-capital-backed and equity-funded
companies and driving businesses, regardless of their financial structure, to build oversized sales teams
at the expense of customer-facing investment.
Sales and Marke ng Technology Solu ons or More Problems?
The explosion of technology in the 1990s meant organiza ons could scale exponen ally, enabling
thousands of customer transac ons regardless of the size of their sales or support teams. The ques on
then became, what else could technology similarly scale and mul ply? Banner ads, search adver sing,
email marke ng, segmenta on for hyper-targe ng? And thousands of technology solu ons rose to the
challenge.
But have these so-called technology solu ons solved or created problems? We have thousands of
technologies, o en working in isola on, overlapping the func ons of other technologies purchased
by siloed departments. And at the end of the line are your customers. Your customers don't know—
or care—about the turnover in customer success, the cultural issues in engineering, or the brick wall
between your head of marke ng and head of sales. All they want is a be er customer experience. But
instead, they are wondering if a Tweet will get them help from customer support that they couldn't get
on the phone. Will a strongly worded email get someone in management to help with an unresolved
product issue?
If your focus—beginning with your most senior leadership—isn't on how to successfully shi and adapt
now that technology is your customers' most important touchpoint, you'll forever pay consultants to
try to "align" the things you refuse to change. This brought us and our leadership team at Tegrita to a
singular focus: Revenue.
Our Current Reality:
Disconnected, Well-Intentioned,
but Dysfunctional
