Toward the end of 2023, Chris Hawkins and I were on one of many conference road trips and were trying to figure out how to make Sales easier. We needed to hire, to motivate and elevate, while figuring out how to increase revenue. Meeting with school districts and serving their needs came fairly easy to us because of our unique position and experience within the company - we listened while they talked. Most of the time we could help. Sometimes we couldn’t. It all felt “easy” because we were there to consult - listen, evaluate, and help where/if/when we could. We never had to ask for a sale. Sales came in naturally when the timing was right. What could we do to get every member of our team to the “easy” of serving districts?

Very quickly our new vision and structure was born. We would drastically reduce the concept of “sales” from our vocabulary, our titles and our mindset. We would remove metrics tied to particular products, lines and solutions and eliminate commission from compensation. Our KPIs would be reduced to a single goal, simplified and measurable. We’d transition from a Sales Team to a Solutions Team -  better representing what we’ve always felt truly made us different in this industry and empowering our entire team to embrace a consultative approach to working with our K-12 District partners. We would make sure that each member of our team was not only the right fit for Secured Tech, including the multiple new individuals we were hiring, but also that they were in the right seat on the boat. We needed everyone rowing in the same direction for this concept to work.

We started with role evaluation - where did we see gaps? Where did we see untapped potential in our current team? Where did team members show strengths that were not being fully highlighted in their current responsibilities? Titles were edited, job descriptions were re-written, and, in a few select cases, roles were changed; all with input and approval from the team because we needed to ensure that they understood the vision and felt ownership over their responsibilities.