How to Fix a Broken Team...Without Firing Anyone

A client called me last month... frustrated out of his mind.

His sales team had missed their targets for the third quarter in a row, and he was ready to fire everyone and start over fresh.

And I get it… I’ve been there.

But I’ve also been doing this long enough to know that “All my people SUCK!” is often code for a deeper issue.

So I asked this client (let’s call him Captain Grumpy-Pants)…

What I showed ol’ Grumpy-Pants is the same three-step system I'm going to walk you through right now. Because when a team that used to work just stops working…

…it's almost never a “people problem.”

The first question I always ask is, “Do you actually have playbooks?”

Not…

“We kind of have a process." Or…

"Everyone knows what to do."

…I’m talking documented, trainable, repeatable checklists and SOPs.

Most don't.

We worked with an HVAC company that was struggling to keep up with demand. Sales hadn't changed and the team hadn't shrunk, but jobs were taking longer, quality was inconsistent, and customers were starting to complain.

They told us they had “systems.” They didn't.

Their “system” was to have new techs shadow older techs for a week, and then they were on their own.

The newbies did the best they could to learn on the job, but because nobody was running the same playbook, some succeeded and while most failed.

That's not a people problem…that’s a PLAYBOOK problem!

But to his credit, this client…Captain Grumpy-Pants…actually had playbooks.

And when I reviewed his sales scripts... they were solid. Well-structured. Clear. The kind of playbook that should work.

And his training was solid, too.

So the playbook wasn't the issue, which is when we moved onto Step 2…

If playbooks are in place and the team still isn’t getting results, the next step is to find out if they’re actually using the playbooks…

So I asked Captain Grumpy-Pants to send me five recordings of calls that closed and five that didn't. I uploaded the transcripts and the original script into ChatGPT and asked one question:

"Which of these calls actually followed the playbook?"

Out of four reps, only one was following the script (and she was the newest hire).

The other three reps had each developed their own "proven method" that they were convinced worked better. It didn't. But because the change was gradual... one shortcut at a time...

…nobody noticed until performance fell off a cliff.

The playbook was fine.
The problem? No one was using it.

Fortunately, the fix is simple…

What do you do when your phone or printer stops working?

Answer: You turn it off and then turn it back on again.

Same solution.

Before we rewrote a single word of the script, I convinced the owner to retrain the team on the original playbook. Just go back to what was already working.

The result: Three of four reps were hitting quota within 30 days.

…just a reset and rollback to what actually works.

This is the step most owners skip. They see underperformance and jump straight to, "Who do I fire?" or "What do I change?"

But you can't evaluate people on a system they're not actually running.

Reset first…then measure.

But if that still doesn’t work, we move onto Step 3…

After the reset, Captain Grumpy-Pants had three reps crushing it again, which made him even grumpier at the one rep who refused to get with the program.

Because it's not that she was unable to use the old playbook… she was simply unwilling to use it. She still believed “her method” was better.

And that's a problem.

I'm all for innovation and new ideas, but my rule is simple…

She refused, so she was let go.

When a new rep was brought in, she was trained on the original script from day one and was closing sales within weeks.

And that’s when Captain Grumpy-Pants started to be called by his real name again, because he wasn't so grumpy. 😄

So, that's how you handle "unwilling" employees.

But sometimes you have people who try to follow the system... who try hard... who care deeply... but they’re just unable to get the job done. Their skills just aren't aligned with the role.

This happened to me just last year…

One of our Account Managers was a truly great guy. Hard worker. Great attitude. But he just couldn’t do the job. We got him additional training and support, and even tried to find him another role in the company.

But at the end of the day, it just wasn’t a fit.

He was the “right” person in the wrong role, so we had to let him go.

A few months later, he emailed to thank me. He'd partnered with a friend, started a golf simulator business, and was making far more than we could have ever paid him.

When you leave somebody in a role where they can't succeed, it's not just bad for the business… it's bad for them, too.

So, give your people the systems, support, and accountability they need to succeed. And then and only then… if they still can’t make the cut (either because they’re unwilling or unable)…

…release them to the marketplace.

⚡️ Action Step: Pick one underperforming system in your business this week: a sales script, an onboarding process, a fulfillment workflow. Pull 5-10 real examples of how it's actually being executed (call recordings, completed checklists, customer tickets). Upload them to ChatGPT alongside the documented process and ask: "How closely did these follow the playbook?"

Remember, good people don’t fix broken systems…broken systems break good people. Fix the systems, then fix the people.

-Ryan

Ryan Deiss
Co-Founder and CEO, The Scalable Company

P.S. I’m looking for 5 business owners who want to work 1-on-1 with my team and me to install a custom “operating system” in the next 6 weeks, so your business can scale and so you can exit the day-to-day. Click here for the details.