I have taken part in many business turnarounds in my career,
and time and again noticed the same problems, regardless of whether the reason
for the turnaround was a relatively minor situation or a reorganization after
bankruptcy. Here are the five steps that need to happen during any major
business adjustment and some of the pitfalls to avoid along the way. While this
article will focus on sales teams, these steps are of a universal nature and
will apply to most departments within a company.
1. Assessing the Situation
Before a successful business turnaround can be implemented,
it is crucial to understand what got the company where it is now. When
businesses fail, it is most often due to ineffective management. Since
management is usually the problem, it is difficult to use current management
insight to determine what change is needed. As outside consultants, we often
hear from ineffective management teams that they need greater funding to
correct the sagging business, but we know that throwing money at a problem does
not work. The people who created the problem in the first place will not know
how to fix it. Providing them greater resources is a mistake: it wastes money
and degrades employee morale. Also, failing businesses most often do not have
good metrics in use to manage and guide the business. Metrics should not only
tell company leaders where they have been but should also be used to gauge
future performance. Management should be able to clearly describe how the
metrics it uses will predict future results.
Providing that the company’s products or services are
competitive, the issues affecting the performance of a sales team can range
from an ineffective sales process to low morale, which is caused by any number
of factors.
