"Circuit City, which has had only one profitable quarter in the past year, has faced significant declines in traffic and heightened competition from rival Best Buy Co. and others. The company laid off about 3,400 retail employees last year and replaced them with lower-paid workers, a move analysts said could backfire, hurting morale and driving away customers."
When they laid off their experienced sales force last year, analysts weren't the only people to question the decision. Anyone with any experience is commission sales management knew that was probably a mistake. But they were already doing so poorly with their sales people, so they figured there wouldn't be much of a drop off. And they would save all that labor cost.
I'll be getting in touch with them (now that they have that John Kotter "sense of urgency"), but it's unlikely they'll take me seriously. The same ignorance that prevented them from knowing how to create, motivate, lead, and retain high-performance teams sales teams will prevent them from have the awareness required to build a company focused on being among the "Best of the Best."
This is a perfect example of the type of company I'd love to help. They need "Best of the Best" purpose, pride, passion, and productivity. They need (see above) team (company, store) achievement motivation, mind-sets, methods, meetings, missions, and a movement.
"Circuit City is a well-known brand and could re-emerge from bankruptcy, Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst David Schick said in a note to investors. "We believe the marketplace has a slot for a higher-end chain with a commissioned sales force," he said."
Not without a leadership system that educates, motivates, and appreciates daily.
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