CHAPTER 
Resilience Rx: Sluggish Sales and Competitive Crush
Competitive crush is a term we use when a new (or sometimes existing) competitor has surged powerfully into the marketplace. For the business under threat, it feels like the competitor swooped out of left field. It sees the competitor raiding its top performers and key customers like an unstoppable force of nature.
In this instance, our client hadn’t anticipated the potential threat, and it crushed their confidence. Salespeople were disheartened and discouraged, and market share eroded overnight. It was a total threat to survival, and everyone was in Critter State.
ASSESS: WHAT WE FOUND
Competitive crush was showing up for this specific organization in three key ways:
1. Sales eroding: Within two quarters, 15 percent of one product line and 37 percent of the other had been taken by the competitor. The competitor was eating our client’s proverbial lunch.
2. Staff exodus: By the time we were called in, our client had lost three of its top salespeople—who had historically brought in 67 percent of its top-line revenue—to its competitor, who had offered compelling salary and commission structures that our client simply could not match.
3. PR problems: Even though it wasn’t true, the competitor’s PR bluntly stated that our client’s products were outdated and risky to use. The negative perception was so powerful that even our client’s employees started to question our client’s products, further increasing staff attrition.
This situation was a basic psych out. But we knew we could turn it around. We needed intense and immediate efforts to shift perception via powerful messaging both inside the organization to the team and outside the organization to the clients, prospects, and the marketplace overall. We had to first stop the sales losses, start an upswing, and keep staff in place.
The CEO was already on board. We met with the executive team. They were ready to make new meaning, but they didn’t know how yet. But once that was done, we would establish an updated identity, enroll and engage the client-facing team members first and then the organization overall, and continue to expand the identity of tribe members and increase agility over time (see Figure 11.1).
Figure 11.1 The Resilience Cycle
ACT: WHAT WE DID
First, we held a two-day offsite where we taught the most essential tools from our Neuroscience of Optimal Teams and Neuroscience of Navigating Change trainings. For this client situation, we focused on the Emotion Wheel (Chapter 3), Maneuvers of Consciousness (Chapter 3), Reframing (Chapter 5), Distorted Thinking Decoder (Chapter 5), Neuro Storytelling (Chapter 5), SBM Index (Chapter 7), SBM Communication (Chapter 7), and Meta Programs (Chapter 7) tools.
Then we created three sprint teams of three to five cross-functional leaders per team. The first team would stop the eroding sales and start gaining back market share, the second would stop salesperson attrition and ensure that we retained the team, and the third team would work on the perception challenge.
Team 1. Securing Sales
We held a one-day Sales and Marketing Intensive to map out our plan first to secure sales and then to develop programs to boost sales once the bleeding had stopped. To prepare for this, we asked the following questions:
• What percentage of your salespeople are performing at quota?
• How many stages are in the sales process? Can you please tell us what happens at each stage? At which stages do sales get stuck and/or slow down?
• What’s your current sales cycle? What would you like it to be, and by when?
• What percentage of your pipeline do you close? What percentage would you like, and by when?
• What percentage of sales do you lose to competitors? What are the most common reasons? What percentage would you be willing to tolerate, and by when?
• What are your customers’ and prospects’ five greatest pain points?
• What’s your current client retention rate? What would you like it to be, and by when?
• What are your current margins? What would you like them to be, and by when?
• How many qualified leads are generated each month? Through what channels? How many would you like, and by when?
• What marketing channels are you currently using (for example, trade shows, social media, webinars, infographics, blogs, and ads)? Which are the most effective?
We then sketched out the Safety, Belonging, and Mattering (SBM) Triggers and Meta Program (MP) Profiles (see Chapter 7) of the most at-risk customer categories. Later we’d get to all of them, as well as complete Customer Journeys. After this, we listed all the top influencers we’d need to get on board (or back on board). Finally, we launched our counterattack.
Team 2. Retaining Talent
Sometimes people will quit before they ask for what they want or tell you what is wrong. That’s why knowing what to look for is so powerful.
The organization needed to rapidly ramp up engagement, communication, and trust. So we did an SBM Index as described in Chapter 7, and then we created and launched the key cultural programs: stronger and more compelling mission, vision, and values statements, Individual Development Plans, Leadership Lunches, Weekly Wins, Accountability Structures, Rock Star of the Month, Performance Self-Evaluations, Feedback Frames, and Impact Descriptions. We did a six-month culture coaching engagement to create and launch these programs, using our SmartTribes Playbook templates to expedite the results (see www.SmartTribesInstitute.com/STP).
Team 2 immediately assessed all key players by working with the Talent Team to identify the following “exit indicators”:
1. Productivity and accountability drop. These team members are missing deadlines, are not achieving needle movers, and aren’t keeping normal hours, or if they are in the office, they aren’t fully present. They have stopped making commitments to long-term projects, and they aren’t offering forward-thinking ideas. They don’t seem to care or want to step up, grow, stretch, or course-correct. These once top producers are now not producing.
2. Communication stops. They aren’t proactively contributing in meetings, aren’t responding to e-mails or phone calls in a timely manner, or sometimes don’t respond at all. They are isolating themselves, and they are doing only the minimum in keeping the lines of communication open and constructive. When asked if everything is OK, they get defensive or fake it.
3. Negative attitudes and behaviors appear. They are expressing negative opinions about work, aren’t satisfied, and have nothing positive to say, and they aren’t optimistic, outcome focused, or proactive. They play the blame game, and they may even display bullying behavior.
4. Changes in appearance become evident. Drastic changes in appearance, combined with changes in behavior, can indicate that team members aren’t interested in how they are perceived at work or that they don’t feel they are “seen” at work, so how they dress or appear doesn’t really matter.
5. Team members are concerned. When team members express their concerns, it’s a sign something is serious. Since team members work closely together, they will be the first to notice subtle changes. It’s important to ensure that these concerns don’t become office gossip, so at this point, take a moment to check in with the top producer.
Once our clients saw these behaviors, they acted to turn the experience around and reengage the team member. To help them do this, we used our brain-based executive coaching techniques.
For example, our Seven-Step Feedback Frame (Chapter 9) was a helpful process in bringing the disengaged or challenging employee back on board. Our client also found it powerful to check in with a “flight-risk employee” before that team member checked out.
If you are working in a situation like this, you’ll want to use our brain-based techniques to help all involved get to a shared positive understanding. It’s OK to start with your concerns that a team member is drifting away based on whichever of the exit indicator behaviors are relevant. And it’s essential to come from a caring, listening place, first finding out if the person wants to stay and then forging a go-forward plan together. Remember, it’s about creating more safety, belonging, and mattering.
In our work with this client in the midst of a competitive crush, we invited all team members to be in a Leadership Lunch group (see www.PowerYourTribe.com). In addition, the potential flight risks as well as the highest potential associates were offered an opportunity to apply to participate in a Leadership Development Program.
Team 3. Perception Turnaround
Here we used a three-pronged approach: calls from key executives to all clients, a potent content strategy to raise the organization’s profile and position it more powerfully as a thought leader, and an influencer campaign to ensure that those who influenced the clients and prospects most powerfully were on board.
The tools we used in all three strategies were Neuro Storytelling, Meta Programs, and SBM Communication.
ROI: HOW THE ORGANIZATION BENEFITED
The Sales, Talent, and Perception Teams all did exceptional jobs. Here are the fruits of their labors:
• Recovered and strengthened sales: Our client won back the market share that had been lost, recovering 100 percent of the lost customers on the first product line and 89 percent on the second product line. The entire process took almost two years because, frankly, product changes had to occur and not all the perceptions the competitor had created were false. The great news was that thanks to product enhancements, our client created new products that started crushing those of the competitor. Game on!
• Increased staff retention: Our client retained 97 percent of the salespeople, all the marketing people, all the high potentials, and key staff. A few associates left due to retirement or relocation for a spouse’s career.
• Boosted employee engagement: The SBM Index showed us engagement was at 65 percent when we started. Over the next 12 months, the Talent Team moved engagement by an impressive 13 points to 78 percent.
The best part was the new spring in everyone’s step, the heads held high, the improved camaraderie, and the shouts of enthusiasm in the sales and marketing area when the horn was blown as each customer was won back.
1. Change is power for your tribe. When our client came to us, the organization’s entire existence was threatened. After working with the resilience tools, the organization recovered sales, retained key staff, dramatically improved one product line, and boosted employee engagement.
2. The SBM Index gives us a clear picture of where more safety, belonging, and mattering are needed in the organization. The cultural programs help fill the gaps so that teams can move from Critter State to Smart State.
3. Customers want more safety, belonging, and mattering too. When we combine this understanding with Meta Programs, we can launch campaigns to attain new clients and retain key client accounts.
4. Regular use of Feedback Frames is great for crisis response, course-correcting, and staff retention. It enables us to celebrate what team members are doing well, identify what they can do better, and identify what support is available to bring more safety, belonging, and mattering to their role.
5. Effective communication is key to altering people’s perceptions, especially when it comes to PR. The main tools that help us achieve this include Neuro Storytelling, SBM Communication, and Meta Programs.
• Competitive crush is a term we use when a new (or sometimes existing) competitor has surged powerfully into the marketplace, threatening an organization’s success.
• Sometimes people will quit before they ask for what they want or tell you what is wrong. That’s why knowing what to look for is so powerful.
• What percentage of your pipeline do you close? What percentage would you like, and by when?
• Check in with a flight-risk team member before that team member checks out.
• When you are bringing a disengaged employee back on board, it’s all about creating more safety, belonging, and mattering.
See this chapter’s section on www.PowerYourTribe.com for the following:
• Leadership Lunch Process: Peer-Based Coaching via a Book Club Format
• See www.SmartTribesInstitute.com for info on our workshops, Sales and Marketing Intensive, Leadership Development Program, and more referenced in this chapter.
• SmartTribes Playbook: www.SmartTribesInstitute.com/STP