What if Sales Forces Were Outsourced to China?

The December 10 issue of Fortune Magazine lists the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business.  On page 148, the article details some of the Chinese disasters of this past year, including Matell recalling 20 million items because of lead paint and deadly small magnets; 844,000 Barbie accessories were recalled because of lead paint;  toys with the Sesame Street brand were recalled too.  60 million cans of dog food were recalled. An underground network of steroid and human growth hormone distribution was traced to 37 Chinese companies.  Lunch boxes contained lead and were recalled. 235,000 Nike football helmuts had problems that caused severe injuries, and there were problems with Chinese-made toothpaste.

Can you imagine if our sales forces were outsourced to China too?  Geez!

We’d be reading that an entire sales force quit because they thought they were being paid in US Dollars but they were really being paid in yuan RMB.  They were promised 700,000 yuan RMB but they thought they were getting $700,000 USD.

We’d be reading that the salespeople themselves were recalled because they failed to work the way they were supposed to.  It seems that they only worked half the time.

We’d be reading that prospects who were called on by the salespeople from the outsourced sales force were exposed to serious illnesses.  It seems their bad breath was contaminated with lead from the pencils they chewed when they weren’t on their sales calls.

There have been so many horrible outcomes from outsourcing manufacturing, customer service, IT, IS and more to the other side of the world.  We’re reading about all the failures.  Have there been any true successes where the benefits extended beyond the cost reduction?

I’d be anxious to hear about any…