There are several ways to avoid getting this kind of letter; one way is to not start a project until you are capable of doing the hard work of changing your company. This is a difficult process and not everyone is up to the challenge despite what they might think at the outset.

Just like a fitness instructor can't exercise for you we can't improve your business without your 100% participation and buy-in to the process. Getting up at 6AM to go running or do calisthenics is seldom fun for people who are out of shape, but you are not going to make an improvement if you stick to your old routines and eating habits. Enough of the introduction here is the letter:

Dear John,

Unfortunately changing a business is not a "comfortable" process especially when it entails abandoning ways of doing things that at one time served you well. In order for this to be a successful engagement we need your buy-in and commitment to the changes we are proposing and for whatever reason that has not been there.

Our focus has been on the "results" you wanted to achieve but it appears the process and documentation are of greater importance to you. We would not be doing our job as independent consultants if we compromised our strategy in order to better connect with a client. It is our belief that you can turn this company around, but only if you follow a strategy like we have outlined and put roles in place that are accountable for results and eliminate the need for ownership to micro manage them.

Given your desire to get different results while continuing to do things that make you comfortable we don't believe that this is a project that can be successfully. We wish you well with whichever path you choose to take.

Gilmore Lewis, LLC

The measurable part of this needs to be thought out ahead of time. Too often this is an after thought causing an inordinate amount of work to figure out who sold what.

Quotas need to be set so your compensation plan can reward those who meet and exceed quota while letting those who under perform see how their lack of performance negatively affects their commissions.

In his book “Good to Great” Jim Collins said it was important to get “…the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats and the wrong people off the bus”. The last part is usually the hardest for so many reasons, especially the precedent set by their boss for not firing them for egregious offences, that now when responsible for taking the company to the next level they are incapable of letting them go.

While this may sound cold to some, the real victims of keeping someone like this employed are the good employees who choose not to rock the boat. Your covering for the bad employee is like second hand smoke slowly killing off the good employees or at least their will power to be a better employee. After all, if so and so comes in late every day, is not qualified to perform the basic duties of their job why should the other employees feel inclined to put in the extra effort.

In a similar way we do this with prospective clients as part of our qualification process. In our case the red pill will answer the question “what is the state of my company?” (by showing you what it looks like from an outside perspective) and the blue pill will allow you to carry on as before.

If you are sincere about changing your company for the better and willing to make the tough decisions that come with this then take the red pill. If you think you can handle things on your own and don’t want to know all the issues that need to be addressed then take the blue pill.

Sales revenues down? Change the Comp Plans!

The competition is taking us to the cleaners? Change the Comp Plans!

I see this in many cases turns out to be a symptom of other things that need attention. The comp plans may still need fixing as well, but they are not always the root cause of the problems.