When a business is started, it is in growth mode. It needs to increase its revenue, requiring sales initiatives, and capturing new customers becomes paramount. As the revenue reaches a certain point, it is easy for an organization to get caught up in the day-to-day, reactionary process of doing business, such as filling orders, addressing customer concerns, correcting a mis-shipment, or adjusting quotes, which allows the sales team to take their eye off the ball (in this case, “growth”).

Yes, the age-old adage of “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” tells us that we need to serve the customers we have before chasing new customers. Though, the fundamentals that it took to build the business have been superseded by the daily tasks of operating the business.

This unintended shift in moving from a growth-based business to steady-state operation may leave the leaders to look back on the business to ask, “Why aren’t we growing…?” Either through internal review of the business or the (less-than) eloquent insertion of a consultant, it is deemed that the business needs to “adopt a new process” for increasing revenue to start growing again. 

Changing the sales trajectory of a business really isn’t all that difficult. Often it is as simple as taking the business back to the basics of calling on new customers, understanding their needs, and helping them see how your business’s “solution” can make their situation better. Voilà, with the wave of a magic wand, we have cured the ills of the business, and we have started to grow again. Problem solved, disaster averted; you can stop reading now…

“Changing the sales trajectory of a business really isn’t all that difficult. Often it is as simple as taking the business back to the basics of calling on new customers, understanding their needs, and helping them see how your business’s “solution” can make their situation better.”

In all reality, a new set of expectations must be set and adopted by the team to drive the required change in the organization. Anytime this type of change needs to happen in the business, whether it’s a function of sales, operations, customer service, etc., it will require both immediate adoption as well as long-term staying power.

I am sure there are plenty of “Ted Talks” out there that discuss how one of the most efficient ways to drive organizational change is to involve the team in “developing and implementing the new process.” This ensures their voices are heard, they are a part of the solution, and, in turn, they have a vested equity or ownership in the outcomes. This is great, so long as this particular group of team members stays with the business in their current roles and the conditions around the business don’t change. Unfortunately, that isn’t reality.

As our country and economy have evolved over the last several decades, we have seen the “generational shift” in business, where the

• First generation: Identified a need and started a business.

• Second generation: Took the business from the first generation, saw ways to improve it, and grew the business.

• Third generation: Lived off the work of the prior two generations, didn’t appreciate what it took to run things, and killed the business.

The generational shift listed above is summarized and generalized but also relatable, as it has been a recognized pattern across many businesses for years. This “generational shift” doesn’t just play out in business ownership; it happens on a smaller scale within the business as well.

Anytime a new initiative, process, or concept is created, implemented, and adopted, it carries a similar lifecycle risk and faces the risk of certain death. Your business may make a standard practice of involving the various stakeholders to develop a new program, but as the program becomes a part of the daily cadence of business operations, the reason the program was created starts to lose meaning, and it veers into the dangerous realm of “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” Those words can quickly drop what was a valuable new initiative to the level of a “meaningless task;” the team stops utilizing it, and you are back to where you started.

To help avoid this, each department in the business should adopt some lean or “lean-like” principles or a continuous improvement approach where the team sets aside time to intentionally review common business practices. They should evaluate each task on its effectiveness and alignment/support of the company’s broader initiatives and desired direction. 

Based on the outcome of their evaluation, each task can be

• Renewed—resulting in the team maintaining equity in completing the task

• Adjusted—resulting in the team owning an improved process

• Retired—resulting in the team feeling freed up to achieve other core initiatives

This will help eliminate procedures that are no longer relevant (for efficiency) and drive improvement to other key areas (for effectiveness) and will keep everyone actively engaged in the success of each process (for equity and delivery). Thus, removing the “set it and forget it” culture that causes successful and growing businesses to slowly drift into mediocrity and alleviating the negative generational shift of the business.  

Want more insights on how help your customers recognize your value? Or take your company’s performance to the next gear? Tom Zimmerman, principal of SHIFT Sales Training & Consulting, has helped many companies better position themselves as valued-added partners for their customers, which has resulted in increased revenues and customer loyalty. Tom can be reached via email at tzimmerman@shift-stc.com. To learn more about SHIFT Sales Training and Consulting, visit www.shift-stc.com.