How Long Does it Take to Fix a Sales Team?

“How long does it take to fix a sales team?” The answer to this question is far from straightforward. Turning a sales organization around depends on a lot of factors. There are usually a number of fundamental issues that vary in severity and the time it takes to resolve these issues can also vary.

It’s impossible to rewire sales performance overnight. Even if you find and fix issues in your sales process, my experience has shown me that many additional factors are likely contributing to revenue growth problems.

Every organization is built a little differently and works a little differently. Performing a proper analysis and developing a corrective action plan requires an experienced eye. Also, building a healthy sales funnel takes time. While it’s likely not to see immediate results in terms of revenue, a Fractional Sales Leader clients can see tangible results in every step of the process within the first few weeks.

My key to success in fixing sales teams is the methodical process I follow to achieve the ultimate result of increased revenue growth.

First, I conduct a deep dive analysis of the company during a Discovery & Assessment phase.

Second, I build best practice tools and systems that are customized to fit varying business needs in the Design & Implementation phase.

Finally, the hard work begins to pay off during the Operationalize & Adoption phase. You can start to measure the key performance indicators we created and genuinely understand how your sales team is performing.

Making these changes to your business today has long-term impacts on your company. Let’s examine the phases further.

Phase 1: Discovery & Assessment

During the beginning of our partnership, I conduct an in-depth analysis to identify high-impact gaps that are holding your company back. This helps us by identifying key areas for improvement and focusing on what’s most important right now instead of spreading ourselves too thin with little results or successes along the way. I meet with various organization members to understand all the moving parts that impact how much revenue you are generating.

By understanding your people, process, and systems gaps that are hindering revenue production you can work towards creating actionable recommendations to correct them. I do this by tying proposed solutions into root cause issues so there is clarity through a corrective action roadmap which will lead to increased productivity fairly quickly.

I have found that after I show this plan to business leaders, they experience new hope and excitement. They finally see the root issues causing their late-night headaches. Sometimes they have been dealing with the symptoms of these sales problems for decades and it feels like a huge weight is finally being lifted off their shoulders.

The length of this phase varies depending on the scope of what is being assessed. If the Owner or Sales Leader has visible access to metrics in a particular sales area that needs to be addressed, then discovery could be as short as 1-2 weeks. However, typically 1-2 months is more realistic.

Phase 2: Design & Implement

This is the build phase, where I work with the client to design processes, tools, and systems that meet the unique needs of their business. From there I use my best practice experience to build and implement the agreed sales infrastructure.

We know that the best way to get your team excited about a project is by breaking it down into digestible tasks. When you have an actionable list of things for each gap, they tend to feel like their contribution was valuable and will remain hopeful even though there’s still more work left to do.

As various issues are corrected, you also begin to see the impact of these changes.

A few examples of things we might address are:

The business leaders I partner with usually get excited during this phase because they feel a new sense of being in control of their sales department by being better equipped to hold their sellers accountable. This is the point where the Owner or President sees with clarity how sustainable sales growth can be achieved through a more formalized sales approach.

The length of this phase is mainly dependent on the scope of what’s being developed. While this phase may take several weeks or even a few months, there is an agreed-upon project plan with achievement milestones built in. It is ideal for these high-impact structural changes to be fully implemented before we begin the next phase, to ensure all gaps are addressed.

Phase 3: Operationalize with Adoption

The best thing about this stage is that it allows you to see your hard work pay off. By building accountability into newly customized processes, we have made fundamental changes to how the sales organization operates and gained buy-in from our team through appropriate training during the design phase.

Achieving success with any new project requires commitment on behalf of everyone involved – which means they need good communication skills as well.

The energy in the room starts to grow as people see their goals being reached. A sense of celebration begins with more sales opportunities being closed and accountability taking on new levels for everyone involved.

There are no more questions about what sellers are doing. Sales Leaders are no longer scrambling to get a pulse on their activity. Instead of being weighed down with fixing every little thing, the Sales Leader can focus on high-level breakdown areas because the fundamentals are in place.

The entire sales organization is clear on what needs to be done to meet their goals and on board with the key performance indicators (KPIs) that guide their success.

When an organization has worked through the process of transforming into a high-performing, growth-oriented enterprise it can often be observed that there is more consistency and repeatability in its processes. This newfound confidence inspires leaders to achieve long-term success for themselves as well as others within this company.

This phase is ongoing and noway really stops, so it’s hard to put a timeline on its completion. Still, I’m confident to say that within the first quarter of planting the new completed deals structure, you’ll see notable exemplifications of success like the exemplifications I stated over.

With the proper Sales Leader’s focus and skill set, your new sales structure should be fully embraced and functioning smoothly within six months.

After 12 months, the new approach will have become natural and sustainable. Your pipeline will be healthy and more predictable. Issues can be identified and corrected quickly, without letting the problems balloon up and throw your entire revenue plan off.

How do I determine the success of our partnership?

For me, the final step is making sure you have the right leadership in place to carry forward the newly structured sales organization. My role is to help you zero in on the things holding your business back, work with you to correct them, and take the lead on getting the new infrastructure functioning. I achieve success when we both feel confident that the timing is right for me to hand off the baton to the right sales leader who is capable of driving success long-term.

Key Takeaways

Deep-dive early in the process identifies high-impact actions which bring immediate improvements.
Build a sense of accomplishment by breaking down the business gaps into small actionable steps.
Key Performance Indicators bring consistency, repeatability, and confidence in the company’s ability to achieve growth objectives.
The right leadership is needed to sustain the newly structured sales organization.

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If you’d like to discuss what’s going on in your business, I would be happy to shed light on options to fix the breakdown areas. contact me at (404) 271-6767, via email at dmahony@salesxceleration.com, or reserve a time to speak through my Scheduling Tool.

I also invite you to follow me on LinkedIn to gain exposure to future article posts that will offer more valuable selling insights.

Another helpful resource I offer is a custom report you will receive after investing 2-minutes taking my SALES AGILITY ASSESSMENT. It’s filled with tips on how to optimize your sales environment based on your unique responses, making the report individualized and insightful!

Dan Mahony

President

I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.

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How Long Does it Take to Fix a Sales Team?