How to Disrupt Yourself Before the Market Does

Everyone knows the old saw: “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” Today, that adage needs an update. The world is shifting faster than anyone can predict, markets are disrupted daily, and what worked yesterday may not work today.

Companies, especially those in complex B2B sales environments, need to do more than grow. They need to adapt, recalibrate, and get ahead of market disruption.

Ideal Warehouse Innovations Inc. decided to address disruption by disrupting their own business model. For years, they had enjoyed steady growth, fueled by relationships and intuition. Their innovative solutions protect people and assets in some of North America’s busiest material handling environments. But in 2023, according to the company’s president, Sandro Verrelli, they had hit a growth ceiling.

They realized that if they wanted to grow, they needed to take a radically different approach to sales. They hired PRIMA Ressource, a B2B sales growth consulting firm to help them make the leap, and set a goal not just to keep growing–but to triple their growth.

Here’s what they did–and what you can do, too.

1. Diagnose with Data
   Before you make the leap, it’s important to fully understand your position, and not by guesswork. You need accurate data and tools to help you diagnose.

   Ideal Warehouse Innovations Inc, with PRIMA’s guidance, partnered with OMG assessments and Membrain Elevate to understand their sales organization’s strengths and weaknesses. Data from OMG assessments uncovered skill gaps and operational limitations that were affecting the sales team, and pointed to why those problems were occurring.

   The diagnosis made it possible for them to uncover opportunities, and strategically fill gaps.

2. Build The Right Team
   With gaps and obstacles correctly identified, Ideal Warehouse Innovations could see clearly where their existing team needed upskilling, as well as who they needed to hire to create the team to execute on the new sales strategy.

   “Hiring salespeople is difficult,” explains Benjamin Tagoe, CEO of OMG. “Salespeople are fantastic at selling themselves into a job. But with data, you shift from interviews based on vibes to interviews based on competencies.”

   Hiring this way enabled Ideal Warehouse Innovations to build a team that was mission-ready to execute on a new Way of Selling.

3. Systematize and Reinforce
   With the right people in place, and the right data and analysis available, Ideal Warehouse Innovations was positioned to redefine and systematize their Way of Selling, including a sales process based on best practices, and a methodology targeted for their environment.

   They embedded their Way of Selling into the salespeople’s workflow within the Membrain platform, creating both ease and accountability for the sales team.

   “Salespeople and their managers now have a direct line of sight into the activities and the feedback mechanisms that indicate they’re moving in the right direction,” says Verrelli. “If I had to choose one word, it’d be confidence.”

4. Measure Results
   Two years into their transformation, Ideal Warehouse Innovations Inc has demonstrated that their self-disruption worked.

   “Everybody knows precisely their number now,” says Verrelli. “They know exactly how to create value for the organization and for their customers, and how they provide for themselves in the most optimal ways.”

   With the global economy and tariffs shaking up the industry, Ideal Warehouse has been positioned throughout to continue to grow and adapt, finding ways to “create value and differentiate,” according to Verrelli. And because everything is measured in the data, they can see clearly where they are excelling and where they can continue to improve and adapt.

Conclusion

Very few companies can afford to ride the coattails of what used to work anymore. And even fewer can afford to trust their sales growth to “intuition and relationships.” If you want to win in the midst of disruption, you’ve got to disrupt too. Not on gut feeling, but on data, effective team building, systems, and reinforcement.

Has your organization disrupted its own operations recently? I’d love to hear the changes you’re making and the results you’re seeing.