In case you haven't been tuning in recently, the whole question of sales ineffectiveness was brilliantly raised by Dave Stein. It's not just a great question for sales professionals; it's frankly the ONLY question.

Dave rightly asks "The root causes of sales ineffectiveness are clear. There is plenty of sound advice about how to fix the problem. There is a proven path. The answers are there for everyone to see. There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence.

So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?"

In three follow up posts, Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture of the Future of the Profession, parts one, two and three; Dave Brock does an excellent job in teasing out the issues.

In Part One, he talks about why "for too long, we have treated sales as a "black art", that now "Customers can be more informed and less knowledgeable" and how "Consultative selling is difficult-it is disciplined, process based, and requires commitment and follow through on a sustained basis".

In two, he observes that this is not just a sales problem" "Some of it is "business culture"-in general, some of it is "regional culture"-that is North American, European, Asian, and so forth. Some of it is "industry culture."

Finally in part three, He resolves that these same difficulties also provide for "people who are or who are committed to becoming the highest levels of performance" - "opportunity for real progress and growth for sales professionals".

He asks "how can we improve" "what can we do". Dave believes that "each of us can take ownership in driving change"

"Whether you are a leader or individual contributor, becoming disciplined and process focused, committing to follow through on these, exploiting the tools produce results. Leverage these processes and tools, not because your management tells you to, but because they help you become more effective"

Collectively, these four posts are a MUST read, if you don't have the time, MAKE the time - the reasons WHY are in the TEXT.

Now it's not often, I take anything remotely resembled an issue with what Dave Brock says.

"To be honest-at least from an organizational point of view, I am tempted to point the finger at management-not just sales management, but corporate management"

Perhaps, it's inexperience, or my youthful exuberance, but I am inclined to not just point my finger at senior management, but my entire hand, in fact right down to the tips of my toes. My entire being points in that general vicinity. Here why:

For too long, salespeople have been getting in the neck from management.

Yes, we may have a bad reputation and yes some of it may be deserved, buy ultimately the system is set up so that we always end up taking the heat. If the results don't happen, who invariably gets the blame?

For years and years, salespeople get cast aside, replaced and cast aside again by companies. Rarely if ever, is it asked did this person get the right training? Did this person get the right support? And why did we hire this person again? Oh and by the way "who hired this person?

Dave says "I don't believe change only comes from the top. I believe change comes from committed, passionate people at all levels of the organization" If a collective ownership of the result existed within organisations, I think Dave would be very right.

If some of the people entrusted with the sales leadership function in many organisations didn't do their best to dodge and pass the buck, I think he would be right.

If salespeople weren't forced to knock out huge numbers of calls and put in vast amounts of meaningless activities by ill-advised and badly trained sales mangers, I think he would be right.

If the wider business community and business leaders respected sales and salespeople, I think he would be right.

The point is this; the problem is in the way that the system is set up particularly with regards to responsibility. It makes it extremely difficult for salespeople to change the "science of selling" from within.

In my opinion, the buck stops and it STOPS squarely at the feet of some of our so called sales leaders.

In case, you missed my point - take a little inspiration from this recent article about HP