CRM Services Culture & Leadership Rebuild
Executive summary
A CRM implementation services firm was struggling with stalled execution, rising turnover, and increasing board pressure. The leadership team was misaligned, departments blamed each other, and execution slowed to a crawl. Within ninety days, our rapid diagnostic and advisory reset leadership cadence, clarified decision rights, and rebuilt trust across the team. The company regained execution speed, cut churn risk, and stabilized morale, laying the groundwork for long term growth.
Client snapshot
CRM consulting and services provider. Two hundred employees across three offices. Revenues of thirty million. Private equity backed. High client demand but missing growth and retention targets.
The challenge
The firm had strong market demand but was missing quarterly numbers. Leaders were siloed. Sales blamed delivery. Delivery blamed product. Finance and operations were stuck in firefighting mode. The board was frustrated by repeated misses and warned of leadership changes if results did not improve. The CEO was under strain, unsure how to realign the team and prove progress within the quarter.
Our approach in ninety days
Week one to two. Rapid diagnostic.
We met with each member of the leadership team and frontline managers. We reviewed meeting cadences, reporting, decision rights, and escalation paths. We mapped sources of friction and compared them against effective operating models for similar firms. We delivered a clear readout for the board and CEO showing root causes: lack of clarity in roles, meetings without outcomes, and no system for setting and tracking priorities.
Week three to six. Resetting the cadence.
We stayed on to work with the team each week. Together we rebuilt the leadership operating rhythm. We introduced a simple ninety day priority system, tracked weekly with clear owners. We restructured the executive meeting to focus on decisions, not updates. We coached leaders to own fewer but more impactful priorities.
Week seven to twelve. Building alignment and accountability.
We ran workshops to clarify decision rights and cross team accountability. We built a leadership scorecard with five simple metrics tied to revenue, margin, and delivery outcomes. We mediated conflicts that had festered across sales and delivery. Where gaps remained, we brought in trusted network resources: a leadership coach for one on one support with two executives, and a culture facilitator to help the team reset norms of trust and collaboration.
Results after ninety days
> Decision making speed improved by 20 percent, measured by resolution of escalated issues.
> Execution against top three priorities improved from 40 percent on time to 85 percent on time.
> Revenue forecast accuracy rose from 68 percent to 82 percent.
> Voluntary turnover among high performers dropped from 10 percent per quarter to 4 percent.
> Board confidence improved, with leadership risk downgraded in quarterly review.
Why it worked
The rapid diagnostic created clarity. Leaders could see their problems were not about talent or effort but structure and alignment. The advisory period turned that clarity into habit. Weekly coaching and the use of trusted experts from our network gave the team tools they could sustain. Results showed up in the numbers quickly, which restored trust and reduced conflict.
Client voice
“Everyone felt like they were rowing in different directions. In two weeks we had clarity on why. In one quarter, we had a rhythm that worked. The board stopped asking if we had the right people. They saw us finally acting like one team.”
What happened next
The firm extended our advisory role. Together we embedded the new cadence across the next level of managers, creating a repeatable system for setting and tracking priorities. Leadership turnover risk fell further, and the company is now preparing for expansion into two new verticals with confidence in their ability to execute.
