Accountability Structure takes Company to the Next Level

Jim Cope, CEO, Cornerstone Office Supplies

Since 1993, Cornerstone has been providing office supplies and furniture to business and government throughout the Washington Metropolitan area. The Fairfax, Virgina firm has earned a reputation for outstanding value and world-class customer service. Although Cornerstone experienced double-digit growth annually since it was founded, CEO Jim Cope wanted to take his successful company to the next level. He engaged Danita Bye of Sales Growth Specialists to help him and discusses the results she helped him create.

“Before I began working with Danita, I didn’t have a system that would help me grow the company. I knew we couldn’t continue to rely on our current methods, but I wasn’t sure about what changes were necessary. I knew we could improve our sales effort, but I needed Danita’s focused expertise in sales management processes to collaborate with me in developing tools. In building Cornerstone’s system together, we defined and sharpened sales processes to enhance our sales peoples’ effectiveness.

“In helping me define the course for taking the company to the next level and empowering me with the information, skills and tools to get there, Danita gave me confidence to accomplish my goals. Working with her on a quarterly basis to define our objectives and create a plan for me to accomplish them allowed me to leverage Danita’s expertise extremely cost effectively. She challenges me, holding me accountable for action items that will accomplish our objectives. This is the very accountability structure that Cornerstone adopted in working with our sales people.

“With Danita’s help, we improved our recruiting process. Our processes consistently allow us to minimize costly ineffective hires, and our early detection system weeds out marginal hires. We have a much sharper measurement system to identify whether our sales people are meeting expectations. Plus, we have tools to recognize and correct problems, as well as to identify problems that are not correctable.

“By involving our sales people in setting their goals, which are tied to their compensation, they have an ownership stake that creates pain when they don’t meet their targets.”