The first 90 days in a new sales director role is crucial – but understanding the business is much more important than making your mark, writes John D Moulton, author of The Instant Sales Director – Ready from Day One …
One of the biggest mistakes new sales directors make is believing they’ve been hired to fix everything fast.
It’s understandable. Most arrive with a track record and a natural urge to prove their appointment justified.
But the first 90 days should be less about proving yourself, and more about understanding what you have inherited. Early actions often shape success or failure. Observation and diagnosis in your early months is critical.
I once observed at close quarters a newly appointed furniture trade sales director who had been instructed by the group’s hierarchy to ‘hit the ground running’. They wanted big improvements fast as the division was losing market share. The company had a magnificent plant, manufacturing dining room tables and chairs.
The new appointee went to work immediately. His plan – to introduce a range of cabinet furniture to complement the company’s current offer. Within his first three months he spent a great deal of money opening a dedicated manufacturing facility and buying new equipment.
He looked busy. His bosses were impressed. 90 days done, a new pilot plant and equipment installed – and a sales director, well connected with the trade, ready to fire on all cylinders. What could possibly go wrong?
And so to the truth of it.
Despite a wonderful manufacturing facility, the company habitually cut corners on raw materials. Blocks of wood, probably still growing branches a few weeks before, were being put through lathes to create table legs and pedestals. The result – regularly thrashed timbers and blunted blades. The company’s answer? More cheap blades and the dumpster for those piece parts that would not sand down.
This was just one example of quality leaving much to be desired. One manager of a national group retail chain told me with a smile, “These days we bring a fresh returns book to the loading bay when a delivery arrives!”
The new sales director’s answer to a poor trade reputation? Change the company name. That very thought is worthy of a column of its own.
The end result? The trade didn’t buy it. The whole business was shut down, and the new sales director – and 100-plus operatives – out of work.
Lesson learned – the structure of the sales organisation itself deserves careful attention during the early months of leadership. Quality assurances, territory design, incentive structures, reporting practices and communication between teams often reveal more about organisational health than falling revenue numbers alone.
It’s critical to get close to everyone that influences the customer’s perception of the company. They are watching you too. When approached, many will be keen to offer their thoughts.
Credibility is built less through authority and more through considered judgment. They want to know that the person guiding the sales organisation understands the strengths and weaknesses of the environment in which they operate. Only then does the authority to guide change become earned.
The role of the sales director is not simply to maintain or tinker with existing structures. It is to ensure that the organisation evolves meaningfully in response to market realities. It’s rarely a revolution, more often a series of thoughtful adjustments that gradually align quality, strategy, structure and market opportunity. Stability and momentum must coexist.
The judgment to recognise that balance is one of the defining characteristics of effective sales leadership. Speed may create the appearance of leadership. Clarity builds the authority that allows leadership to endure.
