The Shopping Maul.

Any broad directive launched at an unsegmented market mainly misses the mark.

Eighty-seven percent of front-line employees at large banks feel pressured to sell 'beyond customer need.'

-- Preliminary findings from BAI/ActionSystems Research, "Survival at the Front Lines: Best

Direct-mail marketers remain comfortable with returns far below those of almost any desirable human endeavor. Whether it's sports, medicine or manufacturing, failure rates of 98 percent, 95 percent or even 90 percent are subpar, dangerous or flat out bankrupting.

One reason direct marketers remain undisturbed: They are safely removed from the rejections occurring at the other end of the mail. When the customer tosses a failed mailing in the wastebasket, no failure is experienced, no words are exchanged, no face is lost.

But as a model for interactive channels-not just face-to-face, but also telephone or online interactions-direct mail's low-percentage approach fares even worse.

Asking is not proof of interest

Any directive to make one sales proposition to all customers ("Need a loan today?") carries the same relationship-enhancing potential of "Want fries with that?" Any broad directive launched at an unsegmented market mainly misses the mark.

In the interactive channels, a useless sales entreaty can't be silently consigned to the wastebasket. It must be answered. The first time the customer says "no," only a mild distancing has occurred. The employee has failed to come up with a value proposition, and the customer has noticed and been obliged to respond accordingly.

But what happens the second or tenth time an employee delivers the same tired mantra to the same customer? Where is the hope of a relationship in rote rhetoric? Relationship assumes some measure of "get to know me." At some juncture, it should no longer be necessary to ask, "cream or sugar?" Asking is not proof of interest, but the best evidence of its absence.

But it is not just the customer who is put off by untargeted failures. Our research tells us it is a "maul" for the employees, too.

It doesn't take very many "noes" from customers before employees realize they are adding no value with their spoken or online version of direct mail. Here, the employee becomes the wastebasket for untargeted, no-value junk offers. They continue making the offer, but more perfunctorily. They expect little from it, and it shows.

No wonder sales culture has been slow to catch on. Some people blame the problem on employees resisting change. But are employees resisting change-or actions they don't believe in?

A hank that does it right

They recognize this at Standard Bank of South Africa. There, once employees have learned to use our process for developing targets, tactics and the right value propositions, the directive to "ask another question" has a special meaning-rigorous but not rigid. More daunting in its openness but more engaging for bath parties, it ensures that the employee looks to the customer. The bank doesn't presume it knows The Right Question. Instead, it informs, trains and then trusts the employee.

When it comes to sales culture, there is a continuum that goes from no sales culture at all to pressing the same thing on everybody. Some companies take the extra step of using technology to target, but still miss the mark with most, as in direct mail. Finally, some companies get it right by taking customer analytics and tailoring them to individual customers based on the customer interaction.

Too many companies remain stuck in the second or third stage. Imagine trying to get an army to march if 87 percent felt they were going the wrong way. Like any of these groups, employees need to be able to act with authenticity. An effective sales culture-a relationship culture-finds ways to draw out their authenticity, not restrict or undermine it.

ActionSystems Inc., the market competence company in Dallas. He can be reached at (972) 385-0680 or streetcorner@actsys.com.