High Gain Meeting - Changing Behaviors Transforms Salesforce

As major retail grocery chains consolidated into a handful of very large players, the CEO of one of the world’s leading marketers of branded foods realized that the stakes were rising in every customer relationship. This CEO knew it was time for his company to become significantly more customer focused. That strategic transformation would begin with sales – the function closest to the customer.

The company’s four separate sales forces merged into a corporate sales company that would represent all of its North American business operations. The newly appointed president of this company wanted the new sales organization to move away from outmoded concepts that identified sales as “pushing products” toward bringing “exciting, differentiated ideas and big, powerful brands to today’s more sophisticated retailers.” He engaged CLG to help him design and run a high-gain meeting to launch the corporate sales company, with a goal of driving sustained change in how the company sells.

The president was very clear about what he wanted to accomplish, and quick to grasp CLG’s approach for driving new behaviors. CLG began the engagement with a discussion, not about the meeting, but about the business itself and the CEO’s idea of what was needed from the new sales company that they were not currently getting. CLG then mapped out a plan for achieving the goals that were outlined in the discussion. The high-gain meeting was viewed as a vital means for changing selling behaviors, never as an end unto itself.

As a rule, CLG steers clients away from the ‘talking heads’ approach to major meetings, especially if the goal is to move people toward significant changes in work behavior. To meet the client’s objectives, the meeting design allotted relatively little time for speeches. The lion’s share of time was scheduled for breakout sessions in which small groups of meeting participants would tackle key challenges that faced the new sales division. These breakouts were facilitated by company professionals using parameters suggested by CLG.

CLG helped the facilitators prepare for the meeting, detailed the desired deliverables, explored the roles and responsibilities of the facilitators, oriented them to the Facilitator’s Resource Guide prepared by CLG, and modeled each of the specified steps required to lead the breakouts. The facilitators were coached to prompt provocative thinking, hit nerves, and bring out underlying issues, yet not let the breakouts get bogged down in any one issue.

This high-gain launch meeting was the kick off to a sustained effort in which CLG stayed actively involved, including participation in the very next meeting of the newly formed sales council, which was dedicated to carrying the momentum from the launch meeting into the ongoing operations of the new sales company.

CLG translated the meeting’s outcomes into deep streams of work that could be carried out over the following six months. Shortly after the meeting, the president addressed a follow-up letter to each participant, accompanied by a summary document detailing the sustaining actions to which the sales council had committed and outlining the progress already being achieved at that level.

Longer term, CLG supported the new sales company by working with its president to develop a clear vision of an optimal combined sales force and chart the course for launching the sales company’s new initiatives. CLG also coached other leaders who helped the company’s sales council set targets and develop accurate metrics for the combined sales force.

Further, CLG implemented their Change Leadership process to design a comprehensive transition strategy, and worked closely with the company’s HR department to update job descriptions, develop and implement behavioral interviewing processes, and enhance training, selection succession planning, and performance management processes.

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