When 400 Became 164
New Branch Manager. First strategy download at HQ. Handed a “benchmark database” showing 400+ retail outlets in Chandigarh. Target: cover 160 of them. My distributors looked at the list and said two words: “It’s wrong.”
The Situation:
New Branch Manager. First strategy download at HQ. Handed a “benchmark database” showing 400+ retail outlets in Chandigarh. Target: cover 160 of them. My distributors looked at the list and said two words: “It’s wrong.”
What I Did:
Stopped all sales activity for 10 days. Made my entire team map every single address on that list. Physically. With photos.
The Discovery:
Chandigarh had 164 outlets. Not 400. Someone had inflated numbers to look good in reviews.
The Lesson: Ten days of mapping reality saves six months of executing against fiction. Never trust inherited data.
The full story — including how I presented this to HQ without getting fired — is in the book.
