In this economy we often hear something like the following:

“Don’t hold back, Hit me hard, what EXACTLY should we do to plug up the holes and grow?”

When clients give us the floor like that, we speak very candidly by replying….

“If you want to see major changes in your top line, YOU HAVE TO MAKE MAJOR CHANGES”

So many companies and sales reps want to make “ADJUSTMENTS” when times get tough.  When recessions hit, when competition moves in next door, when you ABSOLUTELY have to sell something soon, you don’t make adjustments, YOU MAKE CHANGES.  Change is usually very simple to see, but difficult to implement.

I’d like to give 2 examples of real life case studies that show the difference between making “adjustments” or “tweaking” what you currently do and making “changes”.  Again, let’s review these next 2 case studies with the angle of…..
……If you want to see major changes, YOU NEED TO MAJORLY CHANGE SOMETHING.
The first example is of a “Change” of PROCESS in a sales organization, the second, is a complete change of INDUSTRY for a large company.

Case Study #1

The year is 1999.  I was asked to come in and take over a sales office in Chicago for one of the fastest growing publicly traded companies.
When I got there the office was in 33rd place, out of 33 offices.  Not so good.  91 days later, we were the #1 office in the country.
I started as a spy.  I was a sales rep for 3 days.  I found out which reps were cancer and which were serious.  We let 4 reps go, hired 4 reps that had no industry experience ( reps that would listen ) and instituted an accomplishment model that followed Dr. Covey’s motto–

“What one thing, if done consistently, and superbly well, would allow you to accomplish all your goals”?

This famous statement bares repeating….

“What one thing, if done consistently, and superbly well, would allow you to accomplish all your goals”?

I knew if I could get EACH REP on this team to “consistently, and superbly well” set 8 appointments per week that our office would dominate very quickly.
I knew by my third day that the previous 4 managers tried managing people instead of managing a process.  The previous managers allowed a very lazy-fair attitude around the office.  A couple reps wrote some business, most were just there for the base pay check.

The first Monday I managed we began setting appointments at 9:15 and didn’t get off the phones until 5:01.  For those reps that had not set 8 appointments, they were back dialing the next morning at 9:15.  They knew that they were dialing until they had confirmed 8 appointments for the week.  All reps figured out real quick that I managed a “Process”, not “People”.  Reps realized very quickly that they were dialing at the beginning of the week UNTIL they set their 8th appointment.

I started managing at 9am on a Monday.  At 9:05, after the reps shock wore off that I wasn’t really just a sales rep, I asked them if they would all be open to trying something very different.  I asked them if they’d be open to “CHANGING” everything they knew about setting appointments if I could guarantee them they would triple how much they were currently making.  They all agreed to give my new system a chance.  The process was simple.  They were not allowed to run an appointment until they set 8 new appointments for the week.  If Monday finished and they didn’t have their 8, they dialed all day Tuesday, until they did.  We repeated that simple process for 12 weeks and became the number 1 office in the country, measured by gross sales.

The first “CHANGE” was in the “Process” of setting appointments UNTIL a pre-set number was hit ( hint ).  The second change was in the education I gave on the concept of “Attitude”.  “Attitude” is a very misunderstood principle.  Many managers, coaches and teachers have read a couple books and assume they understand how to use the emotion and principle of “Attitude”.  I was taught 20 years ago that if a rep makes more money than his bills, his attitude will be fine.  I have never forgotten that.  We don’t coach reps and businesses so they like us.  We coach reps and business so they succeed.  When they succeed, they Love us.  By the end of the second week, the office I was brought on to “Re-Invent” was electrified.

Everyone was dialing hard on Mondays because the results were immediately seen and felt.  Everyone was everyone’s friend and the “attitude” in the office was one of professionalism, respect, success and excitement.  There is still a 2′ tall crystal goblet from corporate sitting on a shelf somewhere with that office’s name on it.

Change a “Process” with a proven method and you just may change the history and direction of your business or your sales career.

Case Study #2

This is a very well documented study of Corning cookware.  For decades Corning dominated the glass cookware industry until one day in the early 70′s they found themselves going out of business.  Within a very short time Corning had competition all across the globe producing similar cookware at half the price.

Corning had no time to make “adjustments” they needed to make “changes”, AND FAST.  They decided to hire consultants to help them figure out what to do.  The consultants suggested they ask the top 100 employees to come up with 1 idea each, of a new product, that they could begin manufacturing on nights and weekends.  After a few weeks, 100 ideas came forward.  They carved the ideas to ten, then finally settled on one new product line.  Corning cookware is now one of the largest manufacturers of “Fiber Optic Cable” in the world.

They learned from this near disaster and asked, “what else can we make”?  They are now the 3rd largest manufacturer of screens for LCD t.v.’s.

Corning still makes cookware, but that is just a small portion of what they evolved into.

As the baby boomers enter their peak saving years and downsize, as we become a global society, as 1 out of 8 people married in 2008 met on a social-network, as our real-estate market continues to decline, what “adjustments” are you now considering that should probably get re-scheduled and re-tabled as “CHANGES”.

Ask yourself,  “What major changes would I like to see”?

Now ask yourself,
“WHAT MAJOR CHANGES WOULD  I / WE  NEED TO MAKE, SO I / WE CAN BEGIN EXPECTING MAJOR CHANGES”?

Once you think you have found the Major Change you should make,
benchmark it against Dr. Covey’s great question….

“What one thing, if done consistently, and superbly well, would allow you to accomplish all your goals”?

Hope this helps.
Growth Consulting for Today
-Ken