12/01/2023
How a building materials manufacturer struggling to grow hired a VP of Sales that increased sales from $100m to $300m in 2 years.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
A building materials manufacturer was backed by a private equity company and run by financially minded executives with a sales blind spot. With no growth in 2 years and declining gross margin, they needed to hire a VP of Sales to build the sales team and capture more business from the LBM dealer channel.
Misura Group worked with the CEO to restructure the organizational chart, identify the traits needed in a sales leader, and hire a new VP of Sales.
The result:
Within 2 years, the new VP built a team of 5 territory representatives and grew sales from $100m to $300m.
THE CHALLENGE:
FINANCIAL FOCUS
A $100m building materials manufacturer, backed by a private equity company, was run by 2 financially minded executives with MBAs from Dartmouth and Notre Dame who stepped out of the private equity to become operators. The CEO and VP of Sales & Operations were struggling as sales had not grown and gross margin declined. They failed at building the sales team, having fired 3 sales managers in the first 2 years.
SALES BLIND SPOT
The goal was to capture more business from independent LBM dealers. The current leaders could not conceptualize assessing the market, repositioning the product offering, or developing a strategic and tactical sales plan. Hiring sales leadership was a blind spot, and they turned to Misura Group to identify the scorecard for this position and find the right candidate.
OUR SOLUTION:
ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING
Misura Group worked directly with the CEO to restructure the organizational chart and create the right positions to accomplish their goals. The VP of Sales & Operations was promoted to Senior VP, making room for a new VP of Sales.
THE SCORECARD
The scorecard for the new VP of Sales focused on tactical sales skills, leadership, teaching, and mentoring expertise, and a proven history of success selling to LBM dealer owners, converting them to new concepts.
The right candidate had a deep understanding of the LBM channel and their DIY retail customers and the challenges that general contractors and subcontractors bring to the dealer to solve.
THE RESULTS:
The new VP of Sales adapted the CEO’s vision and developed the value proposition and sales messaging to reach the LBM dealer channel. They created a needs analysis and ranked the targeted accounts by need and probability of closing. Developing the sales team was a critical step, which started by terminating 3 reps who were not a good fit for the role and growing the team to 5 new territory professionals who are excellent at business development and converting new accounts.
Within the first 2 years, sales increased from $100m to $300m.
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