Change management

What is change management?

Change management is leading people through a change in how the organization works so the new way of working sticks. It deals with the human side of a change, including why people should care and whether the new habits hold once attention moves on. A new system or policy can be switched on in a day. Getting people to work differently takes much longer.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

Revenue leaders run change all the time, from a new comp plan to folding an acquired company's sellers into the team. In a PE-backed services platform, the value creation plan can depend on sellers adopting new habits, such as pricing to a common standard or working every opportunity in one CRM. The risk sits in the months after the announcement, when old habits creep back unless managers keep reinforcing the new ones. John Kotter, in a 1995 HBR article and in his book Leading Change, argued that large changes take a long time and that skipping stages to move faster tends to undo the effort.

A PE-backed environmental services company buys a smaller competitor and moves its sellers onto the platform's CRM and pricing approval. The CRO explains the reason in terms the acquired sellers care about, faster quotes and fewer lost bids, and asks their most respected seller to help lead the switch. Managers keep checking CRM use in one-on-ones for months after go-live, well past the launch announcement.