Case for Change

A $1B company was not meeting expectations for growth and had extremely high turnover in their salesforce. The CHRO and SVP of Sales created a vision for transforming their salesforce and sales operations model.  The Sale Managers played a critical role as ambassadors of the change initiative.  The SVP of Sales presented the business case and the vision to the Sales Managers for improving key metrics such as retention, market share, sales and profits.  The vision for the future included a three pronged strategy:

1. A new hunter sales model with a strong focus on building referral networks
2. Recruiting Sellers based on sales potential instead of sales or industry experience and training them on a new sales model
3. A new compensation plan aligned to the sales performance model.

Engagement - Enrolling Stakeholders in Defining the Future

To build commitment, the Sales Managers and their Sellers all had an active part in defining the future state of the ideal Seller.  The Sales Managers and some high potential Sellers participated in qualitative interviews and completed job analysis questionnaires to provide advice on what would define the Sellers of the future. 

This job analysis participation moved them into the role of change agents. The SVP of Sales communicated that all current Sellers would be invited to complete a sales behaviors questionnaire (sales personality and motivational questionnaire) to help define which sales characteristics and competencies would drive sales performance in the new sales model. Sales Managers also completed short sales competency rating forms (derived from the job analyses results) for each of their Sellers.  

Using Measurement to Communicate and Drive Change

The SVP of Sales sent a formal email to all current Sellers explaining the vision for the future and inviting all 300 to complete an online sales questionnaire to help identify what sales characteristics would predict sales success in the new sales model. 

Existing sales metrics were collected on each Seller. The sales dimensions predictive of Sellers’ performance (sales metrics and supervisors’ ratings) were used to build a sales profile.  The SVP of Sales, HR team, and Sales Managers presented the Sales Profile to show the ROI of selecting Sellers based on the new sales profile.

Communication - Roll Out

Once the Sales Managers were bought into the value of the Sales Profile, the aligned competency model and sales assessment was implemented.  A new selection process with competency-based interview guides was developed and used to recruit Sellers.  Lastly, the new sales training tailored to teach the newly defined sales competency model was rolled out.

Demonstrating the Impact of the Sales Transformation

A follow up study four months later demonstrated the greater than projected improvement in sales, profits and tenure of Sellers hired since the launch. The tenure of those who fit the new Sales Profile was twice as long as others and they were most likely to achieve their sales targets. 

A key take-away is that measurement in the form of questionnaires, competency assessments, and interviews was an effective tool for communicating desired changes.  Moreover, metrics for sales behaviors and sales performance, clearly aligned with the tools, helped drive overall company sales and profit results.  Vision achieved.

This post was contributed by Craig Haas, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Professional Services for Cut-e Group.  He provides talent management consulting and high volume assessment solutions for talent acquisition and development. More information about Craig and Cut-e can be found at www.cut-e.com.

No matter how hard we try, change always seems to stress organizations and the people living through the transitions.  Communications can play a major role in overcoming resistance and accelerating progress, especially two-way communications based on the principles of inclusion, co-design and transparency.

"If It’s For Us, It Needs to be By Us.” 

When the Girl Scouts of the USA launched its transformation efforts a few years ago, we built an extensive communications campaign around this principle.  It began with the creation of a website. It was our way to connect everyone in our distributed Movement and offer anytime, anywhere access to the most up-to-date and accurate information.  The site quickly became more than just access.  It became a center for Q & A discussions, rumor busting, peer-to-peer connections, idea sharing, timelines and testimonials.  Since learning has become so personal, it became our showcase for a variety of formats including podcasts, videos, photos and selfies.  It also allowed us to measure our own effectiveness.  We could see from the peaks and valleys in activity what was resonating and what was not.

Graphics was another key communications tool, and in line with the principles of inclusion, we used them in unique ways to expand the sense of "being in the room when it happened.”    Let me give you an example.  We held a retreat to collect organization design ideas to align with our new strategy.  The 100 participants represented a cross section of voices, but there were still too man y who felt left out.  To invite more voices into the process, we took the graphics from the retreat and displayed them as a storyboard for several weeks.  We trained retreat participants to serve as docents who guided their colleagues through gallery walks.  We also digitized these graphics and recorded a docent tour for use by our members across the country.  After a few weeks, we hosted several live chats to collect reactions and more ideas.

A For Us-By Us commitment requires involvement, and lots of it.  When we introduced four new competencies for fit with our new ways of work, we knew we could not dictate their meaning.  That would need to be built collaboratively by all of us.  To drive this involvement we introduced a peer recognition program that was simple and open to all.   When you encountered someone behaving in a way that brought the intention of the competency to life, you could recognize them in a simple online process.  In 400 characters or less, you tell the story of what they did and why it was so meaningful.  All stories were saved in a digital library to build common meaning.  A committee of peers selected a few examples to be shared at monthly staff meetings.  In no time at all, our new competencies were guiding our behaviors toward success.

Inclusion is a meaningful and often overlooked communications tool.  It does not focus on the difficult task of changing people.  Instead, it offers the organization benefit of the knowledge already in its system and invites each of us to help build the organization that we want to be a part of.  That is a powerful change accelerator.

This post was contributed by Diane Oettinger-Myracle. Formerly Strategic Change and Innovation Architect with the Girl Scouts of America, Diane is now Managing Partner and Leadership Coach at TMT Associates, Inc.  Diane participated recently as a panel member for a presentation on Communicating Change.  Her blog shares some of the highlights of her experience with the Girl Scouts of America.  More information about Diane can be found by visiting www.tmtassociates.com.