Distressed Reality

I wanted to respond to a comment our GM made in a recent Solutions at Hand meeting regarding a statement one of our sales guys made (paraphrased)… ”it’s just another way to make money…” His response was, “Yeah, well… that is what we do here… (paralanguage) duh…” Although this “make money” assertion on the surface may have seemed somewhat naïve, I wanted to dig beneath the surface a bit and attempt to derive some meaning that may not be readily apparent to managers / management.

As we bring about this migration from a Yellow Pages company to a multi platform / media company, a general perception exists that instead of focusing on core competencies, we are grabbing at straws motivated solely by profitability and “appearances” for Wall Street. The adage pump and dump, with speculation that the end-game is to sell off different units of the business – with the Queen Bee and her Drones getting rewarded generously… as we worker bees, impotent, can do nothing but sit and stare and wonder what happened to the company we had worked for. True or not, this is the buzz around the hive.

In the process of the pump… before the dump, we run a couple of risks. The first is the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none syndrome. Beg the question; salespeople carry too many products - in the time that we have to talk to clients about them. Second, (as we break out of yellow-page-guy-only mode) we give the appearance of what was alluded to in the first place… just another way to extract dollars from an existing, warm client - which they can smell from a mile away.

Add to this the fact that we do no positioning of what we offer relative to a total marketing mix - fulfilling a role that would be truly consultative. We have no idea of the pricing of newspaper, radio, direct mail or other magazine advertising to effectively position any NEW product, let alone the ones we currently have.

Similarly, with the “multiple ads under the same heading” initiative we are being asked to push, the perception here too, is an attempt to extract dollars from the customer, juxtaposed to enhancing the bottom line sales of the customer. For some it may have merit. For most, it is ludicrous folly.

Combine all of this with the fact that the company is now in the mode of wanting to pay us less to drive these initiatives, and a managerial conundrum becomes readily apparent. Therefore, to frame our GM’s discussion a bit more succinctly, “It is just another way for the company to make money as salespeople see less of the earnings pie – demonstrably stating the intent to pay us less while asking us to make the company more.” And managers don’t seem to “get” the palpable resentment for what we are being asked to sell?

Saran Wrap is both plastic and transparent. My concern is that it is an apt metaphor that will become a fitting corporate moniker for the new Idearc. Plastic values, transparent motives and cling sealed to keep out the truth. We will continue to show up daily and hold on to our collective security – all the while neither trusting nor respecting those for whom we work.

It is a distressing reality.