If you walk the halls of Sales Performance International (SPI)
in Charlotte, North Carolina, you won’t find Keith
Eades pacing the floors. You also won’t see a furrow
in his brow. But you will hear him talking about “rigor.” Business
Rigor™, that is. As the CEO of an established leader
in sales performance, consulting and training, he found
his organization challenged to answer the eternal question:
What do we have to do to grow this business? GAJ Services,
and its Business Rigor series of offerings, helped Keith
and SPI answer that question. This is their story.
SPI’S
BACKGROUND
SPI defined the process for selling. Since 1988, SPI and its
business partners have supported the sales efforts of more
than 500,000 sales and management professionals in more than
50 countries. SPI owns Solution Selling®, a suite of offerings
designed to bring the highest levels of increased productivity
and return on investment to its clients.
THE CHALLENGE
SPI’s track record was successful.
Over the previous four years, the company averaged a 50% annual
growth rate. However, planning for the future fell by the wayside
while SPI was busy executing. SPI’s executive team was
certain of two things – market dynamics had changed dramatically
and, despite tough times, it wanted to accelerate growth. While
attempting to act on this, SPI faced major pitfalls such as
false starts and wasted professional resources. GAJ Services
knew that SPI was missing a strategic growth roadmap.
In summary, SPI had three major needs. First, it needed a
long-term strategic roadmap to provide a view of how the
company could grow. Because the organization was not disciplined
in its business planning process, it would immediately benefit
from clearly defining financials, milestones and metrics.
Second, it needed to develop the long-term view into a detailed,
calendar year operating plan. The operating plan would determine
exactly how, and what, it needed to execute to realize annual
revenue goals. Finally, like so many organizations today,
it needed execution coaching during the difficult transition
from “planning” to “executing.”
“Defining our challenge was easy. After an intense period of riding the
market, we found ourselves struggling to define a plan to take the company to
the next level,” said Keith Eades, CEO, Sales Performance International. “We
needed to pinpoint what decisions were necessary to continue to grow our business.
My executive team also knew that, if we were going to be successful, we needed
to deploy a planning process designed to move effectively and quickly – one
that would enable us to focus and start executing to grow immediately.”
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
SPI chose to work with GAJ Services, and its proprietary Business Rigor series
of offerings, to address SPI’s three major needs. Practical by nature,
Business Rigor provides a systematic process for market assessment, business
planning and execution transitioning. It combines a proven methodology with
tools and the coaching needed to move these processes along effectively and
quickly – enabling a company to understand critical decision points,
to focus, and to immediately begin executing for growth. In addition, Business
Rigor provides the organization with the knowledge needed to evaluate future
market changes and investment opportunities.
The Business Rigor series combines four integrated, but stand-alone,
offerings:
- Roadmap
Building enables an organization to build a 36-month
strategic growth roadmap, including financials and metrics.
- Operations
Planning helps Functional Owners assume responsibility
for the strategic roadmap by defining their tasks, major
milestones and metrics needed for the company to meet its
financial goals over the next 12 months.
- Execution
Support enables an organization to transition from
planning to action through ongoing support activities and
quarterly reviews.
- Market
Entry includes a menu of support services
that helps an organization reposition itself in the marketplace,
including a focused, fast-paced company launch program.
THE
PROCESS
SPI began the process with the Business Rigor Roadmap Building
offering. The first challenge included identifying which
market dynamics were impacting the organization’s
ability to grow. SPI decided to focus on product development,
promotion and channel strategy. GAJ Services provided a
proven methodology to facilitate the growth planning process,
the tools to accelerate the process and the coaching to
keep the process on track. Roadmap Building helped the
executive team develop a growth strategy centered on channels,
offerings, promotion, partnerships and resources. Breaking
the market assessment and business planning processes into
bite-sized tasks enabled SPI’s project leader and
executive team to easily develop criteria for future investments.
They also developed realistic financials, measurable metrics,
well-defined milestones and clear market positioning.
After it finished Roadmap Building, SPI’s next challenge
included transitioning the 36-month growth strategy into
an executable plan. The company’s Functional Owners
still needed to “own” their individual operating
plans and take responsibility for company growth – a
major hurdle for most organizations working through the business
planning process. Working with the GAJ Services coach, Functional
Owners proceeded through Business Rigor Operations Planning.
They translated the company’s long-term strategy into
the tasks, major milestones and operating metrics needed
for the company to meet its financial goals over the next
12 months. SPI’s Functional Owners presented their
results to the CEO at the conclusion of Operations Planning,
which lasted approximately 90 days.
SPI still faced its greatest challenge – keeping the
plan alive. GAJ Services’ third deliverable was to enable
the organization to execute according to the plan. Throughout
the transition from “plan” to “action,” GAJ
Services facilitated execution by coaching SPI’s Functional
Owners as they struggled with this difficult step.
An essential part of the project’s success was resource
commitment. SPI’s CEO strongly supported Business Rigor
from beginning to end. He dedicated an internal project leader
to guide the organization through the process. Other resources
that were available as needed included executive management
and the sales, finance and product teams. Most importantly,
access to customers and potential customers was integral to
all stages of the process.
THE RESULTS
Business Rigor’s practical marketing focus was ideal for SPI. It provided
a strong complement to SPI’s sales-centric culture and helped SPI’s
executive team understand the decisions they need to make to ensure future
business growth.
SPI has noticed powerful results just a few weeks into executing
its 12-month operating plan:
- SPI developed a comprehensive and executable strategic
business plan
- SPI’s entire executive team is on the
same page and understands what needs to be accomplished for
SPI’s long-term success
- Each SPI Functional Owner assumed responsibility
for a target area and feels like he or she is part of a new
organization
- SPI achieved its first quarter revenue targets
- SPI initiated a customer satisfaction program
to improve the organization’s focus
- SPI identified skill gaps and brought new
talent on board to fill those gaps
Eades commented, “Business Rigor was an
invaluable process for the company to go through, and it has
become a way of life for us. My management team now has realistic
expectations for where we can take the company and a clear
plan for how we need to get it there. Additionally, we have
milestones and metrics, so we can assess our progress at regular
intervals. Having GAJ Services coach us through Business Rigor
has already made a significant difference in our company’s
potential.”
LESSONS LEARNED
What SPI learned strongly reinforced an obvious, but widely ignored, reality – a
CEO needs to understand his company’s strategic growth plan. He also
needs to execute according to that plan. Applying the “rigor” necessary
to build and execute a market-based plan requires focus and commitment. A practical,
analytical process for market assessment, business planning and execution facilitation
is key. SPI also learned that developing internal competencies gave it the
knowledge to manage future investment decisions and business planning efforts
in-house. SPI now knows when it needs to apply rigor and, most importantly,
why.
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