Throw out your current Organization Chart! Not because the people are the wrong ones or because it is too steep (layers of management) or too flat (barely concealed chaos). But, because it has built into it a mindset that works against your company’s best long-term interest.

I believe this is applicable to every sales organization we work with and that it is more broadly true for all types of businesses. Instead of the “Great Pyramid” model of an organization where there is a descending order of “do this for me!” -- the better model is a funnel with the tube snipped off. Or, a top - while spinning; not laying on its side. (OK so I haven’t worked out the picture for it yet, but you know what it looks like.)

Here the mantra is: “What can I do for you?” The “top” (now “foundational”) executives see their job as supporting and, yes, serving the group of people in the next level “up” throughout the organization.

So how does this better serve the company’s interests? Think about where your customers and clients are in the traditional org chart. Who in your organization has the most interaction with them? It is the salespeople, customer service, technical support, service providers, delivery, etc. If these people are at the bottom of an organization, your clients and customers can’t help but feel like the “trod upon.”

But in the funnel/spinning top model where each layer of management supports and serves the next, there is no disconnect in asking people to treat clients and customers not as an interruption from what they are doing for their “superiors” but as the very reason for the business’s being.

Is your company a “top down” organization? Do your customers/clients feel like they are at the top or the bottom in your organization?