Sales Management: Report on Change Management Theories and Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of change management within a sales context, focusing on the fictional "XYZ Company." It begins by examining key change management theories, including Lewin's three-stage model (Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze) and David Garvin's model, detailing their application and impact on organizational adaptation. The report further explores the change-performance curve and analyzes the forces driving sales-related change, such as competition and technological advancements. It addresses how individuals resist and accept change, identifying common reasons for resistance and the impact of change on sales objectives. The report then evaluates various change management models, distinguishing between emergent and planned approaches, as well as hard and soft models. It also assesses the impact of sales-related change on stakeholders and provides a detailed change plan, including a realistic timetable, communication strategies, and methods for influencing stakeholders. Finally, it addresses barriers to change and evaluates techniques for securing support from senior management, consumers, and the sales team, offering strategies for managing change and supporting people through the process.

Sales Management

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Task 1: A short report on the theories and principles of successful
change management
Change is said to be one of the most integral and basic part of the working life at the strategic
level, both in terms of dealing with and making most of the alterations in the company’s
operating environment with regards to an individual’s own decisions for making changes in
the firm for bringing closer to the aspirations and goals. Fictitious company has been selected
for carrying out this task namely “XYZ Company”
Main theories for managing change in the companies
Lewin’s change theory- Kurt Lewin the social scientist developed a well-known model for
the organizational change. It mainly consists of the 3 steps: Unfreeze, change and refreeze
that must be followed by the companies (W. Warner Burke, 2011).
Stage 1 unfreeze: companies like people more or less are quite resistant towards the change.
However, it is vital for them to realize that change is required for functioning in an excellent
way. For warming up the idea regarding change it is quite vital for explaining why the status
quo is failing the company or why it will fail in the future. It mainly involves challenging the
behaviours as well as beliefs of a company (Linda Ackerman Anderson & Dean Anderson,
2010).
Stage 2 changes: Once the companies understand that change is approaching some way or the
other, then they are more motivated for searching out and adapting to the changes that will be
benefitting to them.

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Stage 3 refreeze: Once a company has embraced the change along with the new policies,
behaviour and attitudes have begun to take hold it is ready for refreezing. This is the stage
when the company tends to know that changes have taken place and it is for good.
Another well-known theory for helping out a company for managing change is David
Garvin’s model for change.
Stage one: Preparing the company for the change- It is quite same to the unfreezing stage of
Lewin’s. However, it is recommended by Garvin that 5 particular steps managers must take
in order to prepare a company: Giving the company a sense of direction, creating
dissatisfaction quo should be the first step, a coalition must be built for leading change in the
company, creating a brand new vision and planning to lead the firm there, and conveying the
vision of the future in a way that is compelling as well as quite believable (Bernard Burnes,
1996).
Stage 2: changing how a company does its business- It is the second stage and it will be
involving the worker’s behaviour along with making changes to business systems, structure,
processes and strategies. The individual in the company must be encouraged for suggesting
alterations in their own processes that will be enhancing the productivity (Ad Esse
Consulting, 2008).
Stage 3: making sure that the changes stick to the firm- The manager of the firm must
monitor new controls, structure, incentives and systems of the company for making sure that
the workers do not revert to their old attitudes and behaviours.
The theory and impact on the sales of performance/change curve
It can be said that like a lot of models mapping the emotional-psychological journey via the
acceptance of change. The model of Bryson has its roots in the work of Kubler-Ross with

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regards to the grieving process. An individual might see a lot of variations on the diagram in
terms of the literature of change management where it is known as the change-performance
curve or even a change curve as the various authorities tends to stress various features as per
to their own experience, context and insight (R.J. Bullock and Donde Batten, 1985).
Analysing the forces for the sales-related change
It is believed by Drucker that it is fundamental in terms of anticipating the change.
Furthermore, he also stated that a modern company needs the following: policies for making
the future, policies for balancing the continuity as well as change, and the right methods for
looking for and also to anticipate the change. It can be said that the change forces can be
over-powering or even constant. There are some of the firms that experience a lot of
turbulence and are also impacted by a lot of change drivers that is needed by them proactively
and constantly reinventing themselves. However, the main forces for the sales-related sales
are: Aggressive and new competitors, new and faster technological advancements, enhanced
legislative demands, as well as economic decline or growth (H. Igor Ansoff, 1975).
Considering how individuals resist and accept changes
Some people accept changes simply by planning. Furthermore, they also feel that change not
always means loss. If the organizational culture is positive then also people accept the
changes without even questioning it for once. Furthermore, some of the people also accept
that change is a part of their normal life so makes it easier for them to accept it. However,
sometimes they need to see the evidence in terms of accepting the change.
On the contrary, there are people who knows that change might be for best still it is hard for
them to accept it as they are comfortable working as per the previous rules and regulations.
There are a lot of reasons why people resist changes but some of the common reasons for it
are as follows: It is a political strategy for some people for proving that other’s decision is

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wrong, loss of status of their job or job security in the company, poorly aligned reward
system, fear and surprise of the unknown things, extreme peer pressure, organizational
politics, climate of mistrust, faulty implementation approach and fear of failure (David
Buchanan and Andrzej, 2010).
The impact of the sales-related change on the sales-related objectives
The managers of the sales are mainly in charge of implementing alterations at the level of the
individual sales person. There are two factors that must be considered that are team cohesion
as well as the inter-personal relationships and these effects might be negative or even positive
affecting the sales team. On the other hand, the effects of the sales people to the change
programs are mainly their conditions for alterations as well as they come under enhanced
scrutiny (Bernard Burnes, 2009).
Evaluating the models for achievement of sales-related change
There are a lot of models with regards to the change process and its management.
Emergent and planned change- The models of the change can be divided into the emergent
and planned approach. The planned approach consists of a lot of models.
Hard and soft models for change- This is the model that is established for dealing with
change into two groups. The soft model is quite aligned to the organizational development
thinking.
Change models sympathetic towards the environment of sales in a company- It is quite
possible for aggregating the behaviours, consumers, markets and competition changes at an
alarming rate and it hits directly to the sales function (David Boddy and Robert Paton, 1998).

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Evaluating the impact of sales-related change with the stakeholders
The stakeholders are mainly classified as per their functions and the level of relationship they
have with the company. The company must classify the stakeholders as per the change. Egan
relationships must be established with the stakeholders as it will be further guiding the
company in terms of how to interact with different stakeholder groups.
Task 2: A full and comprehensive change plan for a forthcoming sales-
related (or sales impacting) change
Indication of the change
It can be said that the change can impact directly on the sales of a company to a great extent.
The change might have positive or even negative impact on the entire sales process to a great
extent. If the change is positive then the sales team will be able to achieve their targets and if
it is negative then sales team will not be able to achieve their targets (William Bridges, 2003).
Timetable that is realistic for the change
A realistic timetable must be set for managing the change that took place in the company.
This timetable with regards to the change will contain the following elements in it: purpose-
the reason behind the change that took place and what is expected by the change for
achieving. Vision- a sense of direction in terms of what is intended by the change for
achieving in future. Objectives- the objective of the change will be more than just the goal.
Policies- It will be supporting how the change will be helping the company so that they can
operate properly. Each of the above-mentioned elements of the timetable will lead a company
towards adopting the change over the time in a successful manner.

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Methods of assessing and monitoring the success of the change at the main
milestones
In terms of understanding if the change was successful or not the company needs to
understand the issues involved rather than developing their detailed plan that will be moving
aimlessly throughout the entire milestone.
Communication strategy for the change
There can be some of the communication strategy in order to manage that took place in an
effective manner. The communication strategy will be able to facilitate change in an easier
manner in a company. It can be said that one of the main communication strategies must be
letting the employees in the company know the fact that change is unenviable. Secondly, then
communicating other people that changes can be dealt in an easier manner if an individual
remembers that it usually does not takes place at once. Thirdly, the team must be reminded
that change is not a choice and they can only decide how they will be preparing themselves in
order to deal/react for the changes that are going to happen. Lastly, the manager of the
organization must make it a point for articulating what success looks like if change takes
place in the company (Jo Bryson, 2006).
Strategies for managing the change
There are some of the strategies that can be used for managing changes. Firstly, it is the duty
of the management to start having conversation about the change management early in their
project. Secondly, from the beginning itself a firm must make it a point to maintain as week
as creating a culture that will be embracing change in a distinct manner. However, it must be
noted that the culture cannot be established at any level other than within the executive ranks.
Thirdly, leveraging technology for enhancing the education is another strategy for managing
the change effectively.

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Recommended methods for influencing the stakeholders
The companies want to engage with the stakeholders as the potential benefits are quite
significant. There are some of the ways by which the stakeholders can be influenced. For
influencing them the company needs to ask the following questions: By what the stakeholders
are motivated the most? Who influences their opinion? And what is their present opinion
about the company and the team. The main strategies for influencing them are: understanding
them, building trust over the time and engaging the stakeholders
Barriers of the change
It can be said that the first thing towards overcoming the change is identifying the barriers
towards change. The main barriers towards change is poor communication and lack of
transparency from the leadership, not at all inviting the employee input, lack of employee
involvement, lack of clear scope, insufficient active change leadership, as well as resistance
towards change (David A. Buchanan and Richard, 2008).
Evaluating the methods chosen for securing
There are mainly four elements for securing support from the senior management, consumers
and sales team and these are as follows: playing to the audience, presenting the case in an
excellent manner, capturing the imagination and making rational case. The senior
management’s imagination can be engaged by the following ways: selling the change, stating
them as the hero of the entire change programme and involving them from the starting point.
Selected techniques for supporting people
The techniques are as follows: Communicating the sales team the importance of the change,
awareness of the need of change, encouraging them to participate in the sales-related change,

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as well as supporting the entire sales team for applying the knowledge, tools and processes
effectively in the new sales related change (David Buchanan and et al., 2005).

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References
Ad Esse Consulting (2008). Engaging Senior Managers in Change. Ad Esse Consulting.
Bernard Burnes (1996). Managing Change, 2nd edition. FT Prentice Hall.
Bernard Burnes (2009). Managing Change, 5th edition. FT Prentice Hall.
David A. Buchanan and Andrzej A. Huczynski (2010). Organizational Behaviour, 7th
edition. FT Prentice Hall.
David A. Buchanan and Richard J. Badham (2008). Power, Politics, and Organizational
Change: Winning the turf game, 2nd edition. Sage.
David Boddy and Robert Paton (1998). Management. FT Prentice Hall.
David Buchanan, Louise Fitzgerald, Diane Ketley, Rose Gollop, Jane Louise Jones, Sharon
Saint Lamont, Annette Neath and Elaine Whitby (2005). No going back: A review of
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Karl Albrecht (2003). The Power of Minds at Work: Organizational intelligence in action.
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Linda Ackerman Anderson and Dean Anderson (2010). Stakeholder Engagement:
Opportunities, types, and vehicles. Being First.

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R.J. Bullock and Donde Batten (1985). It’s just a phase we’re going through: A review and
synthesis of OD phase analysis. Group & Organization Management, 10 (4), Dec, pp.
383–412.
W. Warner Burke (2011). Organization Change: Theory and practice, 3rd edition. Sage.
William Bridges (2003). Managing Transitions: Making the most of change. Nicholas
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