CASE STUDY
ment. “We would be introducing the sales team to many new and unfa- miliar measures,” says Gary Braun. “They would go from having trans- actional conversations – following up on helping customers buy single parts or prototypes – to focusing on earning customers’ ongoing busi- ness. It was a fundamental switch to expand penetration and improve customer retention.” Protolabs is a technology-driven company with a lot of systems and reports. “We wanted everyone on the executive team through the salespeo- ple to look at the same metrics,” adds Hoeft. “To understand the complex, we had to get simple. We began having Quality Discovery Calls (QDC) to start measuring business with new leading metrics in place.” Revising the incentive system. New quotas and goal expectations – more aligned with the company’s expecta- tions – would need to be enacted mid-year. Sales leadership had to re-plan the year and re-assign quotas with very different numbers. As you can imagine, it felt to the sales team like a mid-year switch to new numbers and they didn’t have all the informa- tion needed to truly understand it. On top of that, the incentive system had to change to pay for customer growth in addition to new engineer acquisi- tion. The board was very concerned about how this would affect morale for both the sales teams and the sales leaders. One member asked, “How are you going to change their quotas and their pay and keep them focused on positively representing the com- pany? Are we biting off more than we can chew?”
This was definitely a lot of change, all at once, and the executive man- agement team also had concerns. Would they be able to teach their salespeople new skills fast enough to turn around their numbers? Could they afford to bring on the new managers? Would they lose good employees or break some customer relationships? Would these changes slow or stop new engineer acquisi-
tions – which, up to that point, had been a successful formula? “We were making a big bet by mak- ing this change,” acknowledges Pro- tolabs CEO Vicki Holt. “If we do it, we have to be all in and make it work!”
THE ISSUES Change can be difficult, and some is- sues kept popping up. “Some people didn’t understand the ‘why’ and felt it was unfair to change the pay and incentives,” recalls Hoeft. “However, the vast majority – after modeling outcomes and thorough explanations from Rob Bodor – were on board.” And, while a few people chose to leave because they weren’t comfort- able with the changes, the vast major- ity of this sales staff quickly embraced the change.
Another concern was finding strong sales managers quickly enough to implement all these changes. Proto- labs has a culture of promoting from within. There was too big of a delta at the time from salespeople to sales manager. So Pivotal Advisors put in two of its own consultants as interim sales managers to work side by side with the current sales leaders, while the search continued for permanent replacements.
THE EXECUTION The new, combined sales manage- ment team went to work deep in the trenches – developing new plans, creating and training on the new sales playbook, re-assigning quotas, and helping individual sellers create steps for achieving their numbers. Pivotal Advisors worked closely with Proto- labs’ training department to develop training modules to improve product knowledge as well as selling skills. “There were important customer skills that needed to be enhanced, and it took an “all in” effort to get it done,” observes Mike Braun.
“Then we implemented a tightly managed sales operating system of ‘do/review/coach/do it again,’” says Steve Hoeft. “Giving managers new measures they could watch every
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day – or several times a day – helped everyone rapidly adapt to the new processes and metrics.” To create enthusiasm among front- line employees, a “5 in 5” program was implemented. Each salesperson was asked to send their manager an email with the five most important things they had accomplished that week, which would be compiled and shared with the entire management team. When Holt and many other executives began recognizing certain people for their achievements, the program snowballed into a source of pride. Many high performers rose to the top and began driving a positive trend. “It’s the highlight of my week to read the 5 in 5s every Saturday morn- ing, and see the great work the sales team is doing and the progress we’re making,” says Holt.
Pivotal Advisors simultaneously worked with Protolabs’ human re- sources team to define and identify good salespeople and sales manager candidates and participated in the interviews. “By partnering and en- hancing this process, we were able to find and hire really good candidates,” comments Hoeft.
Mike Braun adds, “In the middle of all this change, Rob, Steve, and I would meet every Friday afternoon to ensure we were on track and that we were addressing any open questions. We were constantly tied at the hip.” Most of the implementation took place in the first four to six months. “Putting the systems and processes in place was relatively straightforward. The hard part is typically getting everyone to adopt the changes,” observes Gary Braun. “Under Steve’s direction, the managers worked hard to get people to buy into it and stay focused on the plan.”
IMPACT/RESULTS Pivotal Advisors helped Protolabs establish top-down/bottom-up sales plans and goals. Since Protolabs has historically been a transactional business with relatively short sales cycles, results were seen quickly.
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