What does a solution provider do if a run of rapid growth slows down and threatens the company’s future?

MNJ Technologies, a solution provider based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., asked this question. Sales grew from zero to more than $100 million over the first 13 years. But, they stopped growing in 2015 and 2016, when the company was unable to adapt fast enough to keep up with changing customer needs.

MNJ hired a former realty executive and Canon sales executive. He applied the lessons from other turnaround success stories along with some help from a comedian to transform the way the solution provider approached business and help to restart growth.

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In 2017, Ben Niernberg ran a Chicago-based real estate firm. He set up a 30-minute meeting to meet a potential new accountant. CRN reported that Niernberg was actually the one who ended up being the recipient of a 90-minute interview. The accountant happened to be Susan Kozak’s brother, the president, and owner of MNJ.

This meeting resulted in MNJ hiring Niernberg as a consultant to help with the company’s growth.

MNJ had been through a difficult couple of years at that time. Niernberg stated that the company’s revenues peaked at just under $100 million. They then stagnated in 2015 and 2016. The company had previously been focused on selling commodity hardware, but it acquired Equivoice in 2013.

He said, “The Equivoice business now is phenomenal.” It was initially focused on Cisco-managed infrastructure and telephone telephony. They merged to create a company that sold commodities and value-added services. Neither side could understand the culture of the other, nor the needs of the other, or how their offerings would fit together. The other side didn’t get it. There were many clashes.”

Niernberg stated that there are two options when a company’s growth slows down. The first option is to keep one’s feet on the ground and hope that the problem will go away.

He said, “The second is to look for ways to get momentum back.” It’s about focusing on the customer’s needs and finding ways to satisfy them.

CRN reminded Niernberg that there was a third option — getting acquired. He said that it wasn’t a consideration. He said that Sue and Paul [Kozak] had an entrepreneurial approach to the business. They took pride in the company they built.

Niernberg stated that understanding why growth has stalled is the first step in recovering it. MNJ identified the main reason for the slowdown in growth as changes in the marketplace and customer base that occurred faster than the solution provider could respond.

The company’s internal culture and climate clashed as it moved away from its entrepreneurial mindset. This led to the usual problems that companies that have grown rapidly in a short period of time face. He said, “At a certain scale, processes and skillets can change.” “The skillsets required for a $100 million company are different from those needed for a $50 million company.”

Niernberg stated that customers have become more educated over the years and are less concerned about being able to quickly send the right products than they are about matching IT to their business needs.

MNJ was having trouble coping with these issues in 2015 and 2016. The Kozaks realized that they needed someone outside of the company to allow them to relax a little and bring in a new voice.

He said that they found Niernberg a person with experience in revitalizing companies or divisions of companies. They didn’t require someone who could understand technology. But they needed someone who could understand P&L (profit & loss), sales, marketing, operations, and how to grow a company.

MNJ’s Niernberg set out some key priorities when he joined the organization.

The first was to learn about the customers’ needs and to adapt to them. The second was to establish a company culture that would allow the company and its employees to fulfill those needs. He said, “It’s more than something you say. You need to make it happen at every level of the company.”

Niernberg was inspired by a variety of companies, such as Southwest Airlines, Subaru, and Lego. He said, “Look at Lego.” They’re still selling the same dumb blocks that they have always sold. Their message is about creativity.

He also remembered Warren Bennis’ words from “Managing the Dream”, who stated that the pace of change was just as important as the change itself.

He said, “Even though you know that you need to change and are headed in the right direction, you cannot just send an email to the business and expect it will work.” You must be able to move at the right pace.

Niernberg stated that MNJ’s transformation began with the re-education of its salesforce, not from a technological perspective but from a business perspective. He said that sales reps require business acumen. “We retrained our sales team to understand both the financial and business implications of customers’ purchases.

Niernberg stated that this was a slow process.

“Remember the Bennis quote?” He said. “I have learned over the years that speed is the key. We didn’t want any salespeople to go. We didn’t want to push too hard. If we did, we would lose people and lose sales. We wanted them to understand the customer’s needs. We invited customer panels to discuss our customers’ needs. We did cases studies. We also did business acumen training. We convinced the salespeople to accept the changes.”

The second step was the implementation of a Niernberg-designed program called Being the Difference.

He said, “Being the Different became an internal and exterior mantra.” We could sell products and services but we wanted to highlight how these sales make a difference for each other as well as our clients. We wanted to stress how we can help our clients and each other solve complex problems.

MNJ was a part of Being the Difference and knew that it had to improve the communication skills of its employees with clients. He said, “Sometimes people hide behind email.” They forget how to communicate.

ImprovTalk, a Chicago-based company, brought in Ellen Schnur, who was part of Second City’s improvisation comedy group, as well as Jim Mercir, an ex-pitcher for the Oakland A’s. This allowed them to teach communications.

He said, “They divided us into four groups, each with an overview of the company.” They focused on communication skills and building one another up. It was amazing.”

It worked. MNJ’s commodity sales grew 7 percent, and its services grew by more than 20 percent in 2018, after two years of stagnant growth. Niernberg stated that the company anticipates a 10-percent increase in commodity product sales in 2019 and a 30-percent increase in services in 2019.

He said that the company was able, during the transition, to maintain its sales force, with the exception of the normal turnover seen in the channel.

Niernberg will not be looking elsewhere anytime soon after the MNJ transformation was a success.

He said, “We still have a lot to do.” “I’m here for a while. This industry is my passion. Because the industry is constantly changing, we retrain salespeople every three to 5 years. It is never easy to stay current. There are no limits to what we can accomplish. “I love the people of this place.”

Read the original article here.