Financial Services

Hire the right team to transform a business model

When the CEO of a family-owned financial services business approached us to ask if we could help him rev up his company’s growth engine, we jumped at the opportunity.

Our client was stuck at $10M and shrinking; the company needed to regain its growth momentum. The 200% Company was hired to rebuild a legacy sales team into a high-performance sales organization. Weeks into the engagement, the client's business was virtually destroyed by the financial industry aftershocks of 9/11. We suddenly faced a second challenge: we had to reengineer the sales organization while guiding the Company on an existential pivot to innovate new products and pursue new markets.

The 200% Company launched an intensive improvement initiative, with our 200% Company consultant leading the turnaround process, and monitoring progress, every step of the way. We conducted a Job Function/Skills Analysis, to understand the root causes of stagnant sales performance. Based on our analysis, we reassigned sales roles based on fit, need, and skills. Our interventions included:

• Establishing a true Sales Leadership role. We eliminated the VP of Sales Player/Coach position to address under-performance in both sales production and management effectiveness. We reassigned the VP of Sales to an individual contributor role, in which she excelled, and eventually hired a new Head of Sales to lead the team forward.
• Reorganizing the sales organization into separate New Business and Account Management teams, to accelerate new business growth and improve client retention.
• Implementing SMART sales goals and metrics to foster greater accountability and performance management. We introduced sales dashboard reporting, a performance feedback process, along with coaching and sales training.
• We assigned clear territories to reduce inefficiency and infighting.
• We introduced a new compensation model to support the configuration of new business and account management. To encourage higher new business production, we offered a more lucrative sales incentive and eliminated residuals. Residuals enabled low-performing salespeople to earn comfortable commissions even when they weren't selling. To encourage more strategic account management and cross-selling, we introduced a retention target and a growth incentive for Account Managers.

We also guided the company's pivot to expand their prospect base and revitalize their market opportunity. Our analysis identified the need for fresh talent and management depth. We also helped the company recognize that its aging product was reaching extinction as access to internet databases eliminated the need for their service. We hired a new executive team with strategy and operational talent to develop new product lines and catapult the Company's sales trajectory.

A reinvigorated sales team and new leadership achieved impressive growth in new markets. Our client achieved his exit strategy in only a few years after our sales transformation initiative, selling the company for $40M.