SALES Organizations EVOLVE or DIE - Part Three


AXIOM:  To grow and succeed, sales organizations must evolve. 

First… A Sales Transformation Definition
Sales transformation is a business strategy that focuses on reshaping a sales organization to boost revenue revenue generation. It is a form of change management—realigning how assets and people are used to restructure an organization.

Easy? Many businesses seem to think so.  Buy a few sales training books and videos, give them to the sales team with instructions to read view and apply what they learn in the field with prospects and clients.  Let’s be honest for a moment: regardless of how much you hear otherwise, people don’t like change.  Sales teams can be very resistant to change, down right belligerent and uncooperative.  Understandable.  They perceive change to the way they do things as threatening to their positions and their compensation.

Don’t believe me? Tell your sales team you’re restructuring their territories effective in two weeks. And the change will come with new compensation plans for everyone. Wouldn’t go over so well, would it?

Why would senior management, sales management expect such a declaration to be easily embraced? Change is hard. Change suggests failure, although that’s not true, but that’s the accepted perspective by most sales teams.  And for the business, change means downtime.  Change involving the revenue generation process threatens the top and bottom lines.  

Many executives will simply ignore the prospect of such upheaval to the organization and continue doing the sales thing, the same ways, and expecting better results.  

However,  change can and should be viewed as the first step to turning your business around or giving it a big push towards greater success.  But, everyone stakeholder has to be on board and supportive of the changes.

Don’t tell your marketing or finance team, but when it comes to transforming a business, your sales organization matters more than any other department. You know this. A business lives, dies, or thrives on its revenue performance.

And if you’ve ended up here, you’re likely facing at least one of many businesses challenges: strategy misalignment, below average sales performance or elusive revenue goals. No matter the problem, the first and hardest step is why you are reading this content… you’ve recognized the need for change in your sales organization. 

Ultimately, a sales transformation initiative is meant to create meaningful change to gain meaningful results. You also know that “insiders” are the least likely to pull off a sustainable transformation.  Where do you start?

Sales Transformation Starts with the End..?

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”  Winston Churchill

The best place to begin formulating your sales transformation initiative is at the end. Even Winston Churchill saw the “end” as the beginning! He inspired a nation, a world at war, to visualize the desired outcome, a victory over tyranny!  

See the end… visual your desired outcome.  Focus on what can be, prepare to achieve the desired outcome and it will be the desired outcome, the end of a successful transformation.

Start where you want your organization to end up, meaning consider the results or the “end” you’d like to see or achieve.  

Start where? The Budget — Revenue, Expenses, Profit forecast.  

Develop a Revenue Forecast for next year, next quarter, etc., Once you have the dream forecast in an Excel spreadsheet,  then begin working backward identifying in the resources necessary to achieve the dream plan.  

Working from the end to the beginning with revenue goals of where you want to end up a fiscal period, typically a year,  will help pinpoint what you should focus on during the sales transformation process.

Some worthwhile objectives to focus on are increasing revenue, producing revenue, and boosting revenue. All joking aside, while the driving motivator for a sales transformation initiative is to produce earnings, there are other benefits that will accrue from this type of change. What could be as great as generating income, you ask? 

How about these IDEAS for consideration:
  • Improving customer relationships through improved customer experience
  • Driving sales performance - each rep selling more
  • Interdepartmental alignment (e.g. align sales and marketing)
  • Acquiring new clients-new business - need a “Hunter”
  • Reducing churn & turnover - customer retention
  • Optimizing sales operations - remove the junk and clunk
  • Entering new markets - products or conquest
  • Aligning operations and overall business strategy
Okay, maybe some of those aren’t as exhilarating as increasing top-line revenue, but a good argument can be made that excelling in any of the areas listed above will result in sustaining bottom line profit margins for your business.  Long term profitability is what you want

NEXT TIME:  With your dream revenue goals on paper, we can move on to the how-to.

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