Accelerating Commercial Transformation to incorporate new capabilities into our teams has proven to be of vital importance - and even survival in some cases - to continue being competitive in this new world full of VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.
The economic, social, and even emotional effects of the crisis of recent years have caused a tremendous impact on brand loyalty, consumption, and purchasing habits and behaviors.
Additionally, the magnitude of these impacts has forced companies to generate profound changes in their business models. And those who decided not to change, or who delayed the start of the change for a long time, are unfortunately already closed today.
As we said in our first article in the Business Transformation series. The true Power of Successful Companies, we often direct our commercial efforts to achieve or maintain leadership, to reach sales goals that are sometimes unattainable, to be the most efficient in our route to market model, or to make important investments. in digital transformation. We can make the biggest and best effort possible. However, if we are not able to have our sales teams adopt the new behaviors and skills required in a continuous, agile, and complete manner, competitors may pass us by.
The new reality only reinforces this approach urgently! Today more than ever we will need commercial teams enabled to analyze and understand the changes and new needs and expectations of clients, consumers, and shoppers, and formulate actions and initiatives that address new threats and opportunities in the market, as soon as possible.
This is fundamentally based on a Commercial Transformation: it is the ability to continuously modify and update commercial skills to sustain growth greater than the market in the long term.
Consistently beating the market over time requires a high-performance sales team supported by a new wave of digital, analytical, and leadership capabilities, and also - we will not tire of saying it - the very serious commitment of the company's management.
Do you feel stocked in your Transformation Process?
Assuming that the organization has already made significant progress in the three initial (and shorter) phases of Transformation:
Where are we and why change?
Transformation Plan and
Organization Design, we must accelerate Organization Activation.
As we mentioned in the second article in the series How to carry out a successful Commercial Transformation?, enabling Commercial Teams with the new critical competencies, practices, and desired behaviors requires exhaustive planning and again, a lot of commitment from the leadership team and influencers. key to each discipline.
We have seen many organizations progressing very well in the early phases of the model, but stalling abruptly in Organization Activation.
Why do organizations fail in the early stages of Transformation?
Disconnection from senior management in what they consider to be more operational phases. Big mistake.
Slowness, delays and interruptions due to internal bureaucracies to carry out the different activation initiatives.
Cultural characteristics of the company combined with ineffective change management plans.
Training and development methodologies that are anachronistic and poorly aligned with new realities and technologies.
And perhaps the most common: change in corporate and/or commercial priorities for economic, competitive, or any other reasons (example: Covid-19 Crisis).
However,
What can we do to accelerate and realign the organization towards established or new objectives based on the new reality?
At TMC we help companies carry out objective and comprehensive diagnostic processes in order to have a better start to accelerate the Transformation. The main tips we can give you to regain the rhythm of your change implementation process are:
Evaluate the level of progress
If the objectives are not being met or progress is slower than required, we should review the original plan and identify factors or barriers that may be hindering progress.
Here bureaucratic issues may appear, functions misaligned with objectives, insufficient resources (human, economic, etc.), inefficient change management or simply program leaders without the required leadership or capabilities.
Although we have mentioned some possible factors that are affecting your Transformation process, each organization has a life of its own and you must continually evaluate and understand which ones are affecting or slowing down said process.
Adjust the Plan
In some cases we need to make adjustments to the plan to accelerate the process, but in most cases what is required are new actions to move or break down the barriers that are limiting change management. Reviewing the plan and established metrics allows us to look for actions that help us accelerate the process.
There is no doubt that these last few years have created the need in many companies to review their strategic plan, which has generated a series of adjustments in their short, medium and long-term agendas. However, this should not necessarily mean a change in the vision and strategic transformation objectives initially proposed.
Despite the changes and different market situations, companies considered winners and world leaders in their sector or category do not cut their Transformation budgets for each “crisis” that arises. On the contrary, they understand that by strengthening the team they will be in a more solid position compared to what cuts do and stop their transformation processes.
Recover Vision
As we have said previously, any significant Business Transformation begins with a solid corporate strategic objective and continues with a detailed plan with a clear statement of intent with a realistic vision, specific and measurable objectives, resources, people responsible and timelines.
Companies that achieve robust organizational development, which ensures and maintains top performance in the industries where they compete, are consistently focused on that vision. It is not just an idea or initiative that is reviewed from time to time. It is not a “check” of the courses and programs provided. Recovering the Vision means re-engaging the Top Team in the objective and in its active participation and drive in the different initiatives of the established plan. Make capacity building a Strategic Priority.
Eliminate bureaucracy and apply Agile methodologies
One of the main barriers to transformation are the old bureaucratic structures and processes that have been created in the company over the years as “coordination and control” mechanisms. Additionally, we see HR support and/or training structures that do not fully understand the necessary changes or the technical commercial aspects required by the different functions. Rather than helping, they become obstacles that slow down results.
If you want to accelerate the Transformation process, we recommend the creation of teams enabled with Agile methodologies. These teams must be focused on the established vision and objectives and work with a great deal of management autonomy to be able to move forward quickly and assertively.
These teams must be integrated with personnel from both business operations and support. In some organizations, we have seen independent transformation teams created (only with support functions) and the results tend to be inferior. They end up being very far from the business and its results. On the other hand, operations find it difficult to accept the recommendations of independent transformation teams, since they do not feel that they understand their situation.
Speed up to survive
As we have also said, a deep and lasting Commercial Transformation can be a great challenge that will require a lot of leadership and courage from the management of the company, but it could be the only way not only to generate business growth in the future, but also simple survival. in some of the cases.
With new crises abruptly breaking into our lives, we have no choice but to accelerate the process of change to be stronger.
At TMC we have accompanied the Commercial Transformation process of a large number of companies in Latin America. We have a portfolio of success stories that we are also very proud of.
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