Smart Lemming Diary: Resistance to the Organization Changes
May 24, 2006
Sales Organizational Changes
I now have the Sales operations role, in addition to my marketing and channel management responsibilities. The CEO, Controller and I have been working on the new Sales Compensation Plan most of the month and completed on early Monday morning. I worked on the new Sales Operations Plan over the weekend.
My CEO worked on the Executive Summary and organizational changes documents. The Controller and I worked on the new agreements each sales director would have to sign.
Important Sales Documentation and Structure Complete
We rolled out these documents and Sales organizational changes on Monday with mixed reception. One of the Sales directors believes they shouldn’t have their performance measured. Understandably, this director also questioned my ability to manage Sales, which our CEO quickly said that I was managing Sales Operations and had all his support and confidence in me.
My CEO remains SVP of Sales, but the Sales team reports into me. For now, my CEO is trying to ease the transition by working with the team’s fears, anger, and doubts in the new operations plan, but most importantly the compensation plan. All of these feelings are valid. If I were in their shoes, I would be feeling fear and some anger. It’s always cooler to report into a CEO or VP. As companies grow or as managers have too much to do, reorganizations occur to spread the management responsibilities. We eventually move lower down the ladder, losing our access to our favorite executive. Change is hard for everyone.
Not-so Enthused Team
The challenge for the Sale team? There are four issues one of the directors will have to overcome:
- Adjusting to reporting into me and not the CEO
- Buying into the new compensation plan that affects their wage
- Feeling undervalued as a closer
- Resisting Sales performance being measured
How will this Director get over this? I have been conflicted about this change in reporting structure all month to the point of having a management counseling session with trusted mentors. One of my mentors expressed that she’s worried about my emotional investment in this issue, but knows that I have a lot on the line. I’m now accountable for Sales Performance.
Change Management is Limited
My CEO’s trying to walk on a fine line because he knows this is a do or die situation for us. The challenge in a very small company is that we don’t have as much time as we’d like for change management that should occur. We’re in a “have to hit our sales” and “need more funding” situation or else we run out of cash by the end of August.
Lessons Learned? Resistance is Futile in Sales.
While your management team may be shielding you from budget issues, you must try to understand and buy into to any changes like performance measures that directly affect your company’s revenue. It’s always a red flag when you don’t want your performance to be measured. Managers may assume that you’re trying to hide your performance.
Sales are especially vital to measure because budgets are built on sales forecasts that reflect the value of the projected sales and the time it will take to close. Frankly, in Sales you must be measured, if you’re uncomfortable with that, then you’re in the wrong job. With CRM tools like Salesforce.com, the more you buy-in and use this tool, the better the data, and the more accurate the sales pipeline.
Performance measurement can be used for used for good. It’s not an evil tool used by managers. As a worker, how will you know when you’ve been successful if you don’t have the data to back you up? Especially when you need to justify a raise or promotion.
The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.
