When Departures Make You Better
In the first 6 months of 2023, we lost two key team members. We’re stronger for it. Here’s why.
2023 is shaping up to be the most challenging in my 13 years as a business owner.
Why? Well, a confluence of factors, really.
Indeed, economic headwinds are strong (it’s tough when your government’s fiscal policy is centered around reducing your revenue), and starting a new business makes it easy to lose focus on the existing companies.
But in addition, the loss of two key team members put stress on our overall organization. Add to this another two key team members fighting through significant personal challenges (none of it their fault), and the teams at kitchen & bath CRATE and Trinity Builder Solutions (TBS) enter the fall having withstood a tidal wave.
As I reflected on these challenges recently, it occurred to me that we’re actually much stronger today than we were at this time last year. Both departing team members were replaced with a far superior team member.
I’d like to walk through each of these. The reason? It’s so easy in business to get demoralized by departures. I’ve found that believing the departure will eventually improve your organization is a superpower. It lets you absorb the blow, put your head down on a solution, and reach the other end in a much better spot.
Here’s proof:
Departure 1 - One of Two Lead Salespeople
Reason for Departure:
Well, our salesperson stopped selling somewhere around Q4 2022. We’d issue a lead, and an extraordinary number of these leads would be deemed unqualified. And those who were qualified would receive a partial, informal proposal specifically intended not to be tracked in our system. I was, and am still, perplexed about this because this individual’s compensation was highly contingent on commission. Baffling.
What We Learned:
Our sales tracking metrics were lacking. We’ve since rolled out a new weekly metric: NSLI (Net Sales per Lead Issued). NSLI calculates how much sales revenue a salesperson generates for each lead they are given. It’s an all-encompassing number, as it rolls together three metrics into a single number:
The percentage of leads they offer a proposal to
The “close rate” of these proposals
The dollar amount of the proposal
Should any of these fall, the NSLI falls. This will cause us to investigate and solve the issue leading to the erosion of the metric.
Result:
Our VP of Operations and I quickly jumped in to cover sales for 4-6 months. While not ideal, this had retrospective positive effects.
First, our VP of Operations learned our sales system (he rose up through the construction ranks, so he did not have sales experience in our system) and is now much more able to lead our sales team. He also proved to be a stunningly gifted salesperson, and we all now respect him even more!
Second, it was good for me to dip back into sales for a few months. It’s easy as an EOS Visionary to lose connection with your customers and people as you dream about and build the future.
Once we stabilized sales temporarily, we conducted a successful search, leading to two strong final candidates and one outstanding new team member. This individual has an extensive history of success in a similar industry and has been a culture fit from day 1. This new individual will likely become a more effective sales team member than the person who departed.
Departure 2 - Project Manager with TBS
Reason for Departure:
This team member resigned after realizing they were not a good fit for the role. Specifically, they fell short on the “W” and “C” of the GWC.
Get it - They were good here. They understood the role and how it played into this new business unit.
Want it - Huge issues here. Starting a new business is challenging. It takes a daily grind, and this individual had reached a stage in their career and compensation where the drive was lacking.
Capacity - This was also an issue. The job description required deeply diving into plans and specifications, working with spreadsheets, and sitting in an office 80% of the day. This individual needed much more social interaction and needed to “wander around” more on job sites and in the fabrication shop than the role allowed.
The beautiful thing about running EOS is it’s like a massive spotlight on the team, myself included. The weekly IDS and quarterly check-ins expose issues quickly, and there’s no hiding.
This person realized this role wasn’t a fit and moved on.
What We Learned:
First, I’m convinced now more than ever of the importance of hiring/promoting/moving people into roles only if they’ve done it successfully before. This person had never actually done commercial estimating, and while they were sure they could do it, it turned out to be a terrible fit for their personality.
Second, nomads are nomads. What I mean is this person had never been in a role for more than a year or two. This was the case with us, too. They worked on the kitchen & bath CRATE side for two years, then lasted less than a year with TBS. In the ultimate show of irony, they announced on their final day that they’d “likely not be at the next company for more than a few months” because they already had heard about “an amazing opportunity” at yet another company.
Result:
I filled in for a few months as we extensively searched for a replacement. And this time, we tried to be more intelligent, honing in on candidates with commercial estimating experience. Once again, two phenomenal final candidates emerged, and one is now in their 6th week and doing amazingly well.
It’s clear from week one that the new team member is a better fit for the role. They ask thoughtful questions that clearly show they “get it.” Their work ethic and pursuit of accuracy is that of someone who truly “wants it.” And the fact that they are estimating jobs on their own within a month is an excellent sign that they have “the capacity.”
Conclusion
If I reflect on how I felt upon these two departures, I’d be lying to say I thought we would be so much better off after such a short time.
My hope is these two examples embolden you should you face situations like this in your own business or organization.
Books of Note: A friend on Linkedin recommended Bill Perkins’ Die with Zero, and it’s been fantastic. I’ll be honest: I never considered that we should (or could) intentionally structure our personal finances so that we’ll spend and give it all away before we die. I’ve never been a fan of inheritance, but I thought that’s how it worked: you build it up, then leave it when you die!
I’d love a follow over on X (Twitter) and Linkedin, as I post things there that are either too brief for the newsletter or are just entertaining things I come up with over a responsibly-sized serving of Blanton’s.