Situation: A founder of a company also heads business development. This person had no prior experience in business development, and no other skills to offer the business. Over the last two years he has generated only a fraction of his salary in new or additional business. The CEO has concluded that it is time to hire a business development professional; however, the Board is reluctant to act. What are the steps that you would take to let a founder go?
Advice from the CEOs:
- Because the individual in question is an owner, the situation is delicate. Staff relationships are involved as well as morale. Therefore, it is essential that you create a convincing case for replacing the individual and show that this is the best for the business. Don’t rush the process. However, once you’ve built a solid case for what needs to be done, act expeditiously.
- Start by evaluating and documenting what the individual is doing to develop new business.
- Count customer connects per day. Set a baseline expectation and measure against this.
- Look at the pipeline. Historically what does your new business funnel look like – contacts, presentations, evaluations, closes. How does this individual’s pipeline stack up?
- What are his business advancement and close ratios? How do these compare with industry standards?
- For the individual: Demonstrate that his performance is penalizing his own return as an owner. Create a spreadsheet that shows:
- The current situation, and his return as a shareholder from current results, versus
- Hiring two effective business development people, and how this could change his return.
- Show the individual a graceful way out – one that works for him.
- For the Board: if the current direction is negative, create a model that shows your current direction and the break even implications. Present this analysis to the Board to show that the company needs a change.
Key Words: Business Development, Founder, Principal, Experience, Performance, Replace, Document, Pipeline, Return, Model, Trend
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