Any business which has enjoyed monopoly status cannot TRULY enjoy a competitive sales force! Even the spectre of emerging competition does not materially change the practices being managed across the business. It is inevitable that an entitlement mentality will exist and that customers will be treated like prisoners, even when they have choices!

Add to this mix, an engineering led belief that the superior infrastructure, of being an incumbent provider of network services, will keep the business safe from competition and you find a business which is not motivated to change or recognize responsibility for customer losses.

Overlay a worldwide acceptance of convergence of network services, fixed and mobile convergence and a new non-traditional voice over IP providers and even an archaic regulatory model was unable to reduce the decline, year over year, for four years of recurring revenues.

Appointed to transform this incumbent sales organization, to create a customer orientated multi-functional team jointly focused on bringing unique value to customers.

At the beginning of the transformation the performance picture looked bleak; significant customer dissatisfaction, converging technologies destroying existing revenues, aggressive competitive activity and a sales force still holding on to traditional and outdated practices.  The leadership was isolated from their teams and appeared to be working for different organizations.

On the positive side there were many great employees across the business, many of whom were motivated to make a difference if they could only be set free to do so. Even customers who, once they got past their irritation wanted the business to be better!    

The key accomplishments include:

  Transformed 9% reduction in revenue into a 16% growth year
    over year. This included winning unprecedented new non-traditional
    business from existing customers.

  Created and implemented monthly account development reviews and a 
    process that galvanized all functions’ behaviours behind the needs of
    the customers.

  Drove executive relationships with all customers in the C-Suite. All
    customer dissatisfaction was aggressively addressed, all accounts moved
    to productive status.

  Created a recruitment brand, which attracted high performing new hires.
    Assessed every existing employee for capability and built tailored learning
    plans. 

  Created an open communication plan to ensure that every employee was
    made aware of the changes in the business, including bi-weekly updates
    with question and answer sessions.