One of the struggles our industry is having is adapting to the onslaught of new products and services. I’ve come to believe that success is found in how we manage our core competencies. Fundamental business theory suggests that the further you move from your core competencies the more difficult it is to maintain efficiency, quality and profit.
I think document management has been a frustrating example of our pushing the core to its limits. The first conflict is obvious; our core is to sell printing— document management strives to reduce printing. (Reduce not eliminate : Read My Post "Is Printing Dead"). Second, for successful employees, what motivation do they have to alter their time and effort. Do we really expect someone to jeopardize success selling a product that puts money in their pocket to focus on an abstract product, with questionable compensation, and a chance to ruin customer relationships? (See the Motivational Matrix post.)
“There is a big difference between someone selling a product and someone being qualified to sell that product.”
Recently, I was a witness to an inner-store controversy over why no one responded to a document management related email. The suggestion made was that since many people received the email, surely someone should have responded. This is a classic example of core competency avoidance. It won't matter how many people you "involve" in the process, if you don't establish a "core" person with direct accountability— and ability— then you will live in eternal frustration.
In this story, every individual employee involved was very good at their core job. They focused on what they were assigned and good at. When the email crossed their inbox, human nature kicked in. I'm not telling this story to criticize the parties involved, I'm merely providing an example I have seen repeatedly in multiple organizations. All new products need us to establish a new core.
As we push our core, we have moved to a 1:5:30:+ sales methodology. This allows us to define roles, train effectively and provide our customers better customer service. There are too many distractions to our outstanding "core" employees to expect them to keep up with the another core. We must either find some to specifically fill that role, or recalibrate the job descriptions and expections of our current employees to accommodate accountability and ability.