Change or Die: 10 Keys to a Successful Sales Transformation April 28, 2008
By Carol Henriques
Any company about to embark on a major reorganization takes great risks, chiefly losing good people and the risk of supply chain interruptions, as well as a multitude of potential catastrophes related to a lack of planning.
Perhaps the riskiest reorganization of all is one that encompasses sales, because the potential negative impact on customers is huge—and always immediate—with little time for recovery if glitches occur and you can't deliver to your client. Unless your company gets a sales reorganization process right the first time around, customer relationships can be irreparably damaged, leaving you to fix expensive mistakes in the aftermath.
Given the pace at which markets change, many organizations have few options other than to face a "do or die" (or perhaps more accurately, "change or die") scenario. For example, consider the changes that e-commerce has imposed on sales organizations around the globe. Many have been faced with the need to quickly and radically change how they sell. Even traditional, business-to-business organizations have had to modify how they pursue sales in order to remain competitive.
If your organization is contemplating an overhaul of your sales function, the best advice is do your homework and learn from those who have gone before you. Here are 10 principles to follow to help you minimize your risks when transforming the sales function.
1. Design the new organization based on the critical strategies and capabilities you need to achieve. Decide what the new sales organization and all the functions within it need to be really good at doing.
2. Set forth clearly defined objectives for the transformation. Clearly articulate a future state and a timeframe to achieve it.
3. Remember that you can't change people. But you can change the work and people will follow. Design roles and sales support processes based on the organizational design. Outline not simply what the roles entail, but the capabilities and competencies required by individuals for success in those new roles.
4. Effective organizational change is all about "activity alignment." Make a vision come to life with clear strategies, initiatives and well-defined work activities. From a practical standpoint, this means grouping work activities into refined or redefined jobs and then putting the right people into those jobs and giving them direction.
5. Design for the future state, but consider phased transition. Because the risk of lost productivity or lost talent in a sales organization is so significant, transitioning to an interim state initially may provide a pragmatic alternative while moving the organization in the right direction.
6. Understand and analyze all the barriers to change. Consider both external and internal hurdles. Internally, differentiate between organizational and behavioral obstacles, recognizing that changing behaviors is often next to impossible.
7. Assess and then select employees for the new roles. Use a structured and disciplined approach to assessing talent. Past performance data and tools that identify potential in the new organization can help keep the process objective and be predictive of success in the future organization. If the new strategy requires a different skill set, this may require either selecting new talent or creating clear expectations and development plans. Such a process will help you get the right people in place. In addition, it sends a signal that it's a "new day" with new expectations.
8. Design a new sales compensation structure and incentives plan aligned with the new strategic direction. Reward the people that form the sales team for the right things.
9. Develop and execute a comprehensive implementation strategy. Bring key stakeholders and those who will be impacted along throughout the process. Communicate early and often and be as transparent as possible in what you share.
10. Constantly evaluate your progress towards your future state. Examine the changes you are making from an outside-looking-in perspective, as your clients might perceive them. Change course if you need to.
Carol Henriques is part of Capital H Group, Chicago
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
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