Situation: The Company has a geographical sales and service organization. Much of the sales effort comes from the consulting reputation of the managing director of each geographical unit, but he directors’ core values usually favor consulting over meeting sales plans. How do we get these directors to meet sales goals?
Advice from the CEOs:
- Experience turning around a consulting organization with no sales culture:
- Ours was a 5-year process. It starts with a leader who sells successfully and teaches by example.
- As we made the transition, we selected new hires for sales skills to compliment their consulting skills. This facilitated our transition to a strong sales culture.
- You need to commit to build a sales culture.
- Moving to an account manager team versus an engineering/professional team was a big shift. It takes time and patience.
- Hire effective sales people to jump-start the process. Most of the successful seller/doers will be new hires.
- Revise your reward and recognition structure around your objectives.
- Make rainmakers your best paid people. This will bring others out of the woodwork.
- Bias sales compensation for doer/sellers toward variable compensation. Allow successful individuals to make over $200K per year.
- Consider a 3-year phase-in by not increasing base pay through raises. More than make up the difference in available variable pay. Directors will now have more incentive to hit their sales numbers.
- This is a difficult change in both sales leadership and culture. You may have to make significant leadership changes.
Key Words: Sales, Compensation, Core Values, Consulting, Goals, Reward, Incentive, Transition, Hiring, Culture [like]
