The First 90 Days in a Commercial Turnaround
Updated: Aug 27
The first 90 days in a commercial turnaround are not about charisma.
They are about control.
When revenue is underperforming, margin is compressed and confidence is fragile, the instinct is to launch initiatives, restructure teams and demand urgency.
That is usually the wrong order.
Turnarounds fail because leaders accelerate before they stabilise.
The first 90 days determine whether the business regains control of its commercial engine or continues reacting to it.
The objective of the first 90 days
Not growth.
Not transformation.
Control, clarity and commercial discipline.
If you get those right, growth follows.
If you skip them, activity replaces progress.
Phase 1: Days 1 to 30
Diagnosis and Stabilisation
The first month is about understanding reality, not defending the past.
1. Understand where revenue truly comes from
You need absolute clarity on:
Top 20 customers by revenue
Top 20 customers by gross margin
Products driving volume versus products driving profit
Revenue concentration risk
Discount patterns by salesperson and by segment
Turnarounds often reveal that a large portion of reported revenue is low quality.
2. Identify margin leakage
Look for:
Inconsistent pricing
Bespoke deals without commercial justification
Rework and service recovery
Cost-to-serve variations
Uncontrolled promotional activity
Margin rarely disappears in one place. It erodes through small decisions repeated daily.
3. Assess commercial alignment
Ask:
Does sales understand what a profitable deal looks like?
Does operations push back on poor deals?
Does finance challenge optimistic forecasts?
If these functions are not aligned, no initiative will stick.
4. Stabilise the core
Before chasing new growth:
Protect key customers
Fix service reliability
Stop unnecessary discounting
Freeze complexity
Reduce noise
Month one is about restoring predictability.
Phase 2: Days 30 to 60
Reset Commercial Discipline
Once stability is established, structure follows.
1. Re-qualify the pipeline
Most pipelines in underperforming businesses are inflated.
Challenge:
Probability assumptions
Deal size realism
Timeframes
Competitive position
Better a smaller, believable pipeline than a large fictional one.
2. Tighten pricing governance
Introduce clarity around:
Minimum margin thresholds
Discount approval levels
Value articulation expectations
Clear consequences for deviation
Discipline restores confidence.
3. Clarify what a “good deal” means
Define:
Target customer profile
Ideal margin range
Acceptable complexity
Strategic fit
When everyone knows what good looks like, decision-making accelerates.
4. Simplify the offer
Turnarounds expose product bloat.
Remove:
Low-margin SKUs
Operationally complex variations
Offers that distract from core value
Simplicity improves execution speed.
Phase 3: Days 60 to 90
Build Forward Momentum
Only once discipline exists should acceleration begin.
1. Realign incentives
Ensure bonus structures reward:
Margin quality
Customer retention
Predictable forecasting
Strategic growth segments
Incentives drive behaviour faster than speeches.
2. Focus on profitable growth pockets
Identify:
High-margin segments
Underserved customers
Adjacent opportunities aligned to core strength
Do not attempt to grow everywhere at once.
3. Upgrade sales effectiveness
Before adding headcount:
Improve qualification
Improve pricing confidence
Improve deal review cadence
Improve coaching
Effectiveness beats expansion.
4. Establish rhythm and accountability
By day 90, there should be:
A single version of the forecast
Clear commercial KPIs
Defined ownership
Transparent reporting
Calm replaces chaos.
CEO 90-Day Commercial Turnaround Checklist
Commercial Reality
Do we know which customers actually create profit?
Where does margin leak most often?
Is pricing disciplined or reactive?
Financial Signals
Is revenue concentration acceptable?
Are we converting EBITDA into cash?
Is working capital stable or deteriorating?
Pipeline Integrity
Is the pipeline realistic?
Are probability assumptions challenged?
Are we forecasting based on evidence?
Organisational Alignment
Do sales, operations and finance share one definition of success?
Are incentives aligned to margin and value?
Is accountability clear?
Customer Stability
Have we protected key accounts?
Are service levels predictable?
Are we losing customers quietly?
Leadership Discipline
What decisions have we delayed?
What revenue should we walk away from?
What complexity should we remove?
If these answers are unclear by day 30, the turnaround is already at risk.
What the First 90 Days Are Not
They are not:
a branding exercise
a motivational roadshow
a headcount reduction plan
a digital transformation announcement
They are about fixing the system that produces the number.
What Success Looks Like by Day 90
You should see:
A smaller but stronger pipeline
Fewer bad deals
Improved margin confidence
Clearer accountability
Calmer meetings
Leadership aligned around one narrative
Revenue recovery begins with commercial control.
Final Thought
Commercial turnarounds do not fail because markets are difficult.
They fail because leaders chase activity before establishing discipline.
The first 90 days determine whether the business regains control or continues reacting to its own symptoms.
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FAQs
What is a commercial turnaround?
A commercial turnaround is a structured effort to restore revenue quality, margin, customer performance and commercial discipline in an underperforming business. It focuses on correcting the commercial system producing poor results rather than simply demanding higher sales.
What should a leader do in the first 90 days of a business turnaround?
The first 90 days should typically progress through three stages: diagnose and stabilise, reset commercial discipline, then build forward momentum. The priority is to establish control before attempting to accelerate growth.
What should happen in the first 30 days of a commercial turnaround?
The first 30 days should focus on understanding commercial reality. Analyse customer and product profitability, pricing, margin leakage, revenue concentration, service performance and alignment between sales, operations and finance. Protect key customers and stabilise areas creating immediate risk.
What should happen between days 30 and 60 of a turnaround?
Once the business is more stable, reset commercial discipline. This can include re-qualifying the pipeline, tightening pricing governance, defining what constitutes a good deal and simplifying unnecessary product or commercial complexity.
What should happen between days 60 and 90 of a commercial turnaround?
The final phase should begin creating forward momentum. Focus on profitable growth opportunities, sales effectiveness, incentives, forecasting, accountability and management cadence. By this stage, the organisation should be moving from reacting to problems towards deliberately improving performance.
What should be the first priority in a business turnaround?
The first priority should usually be control and clarity rather than growth. Leaders need to understand what is actually happening, stabilise critical customers and operations and stop unnecessary commercial leakage before accelerating.
Why should leaders stabilise before trying to grow?
Growth amplifies the system already in place. If pricing, service, qualification or operational execution is weak, increasing sales activity can create more low-quality revenue, greater complexity and additional margin leakage. Stabilisation creates a stronger platform for growth.
How do you diagnose commercial underperformance?
Start by understanding where revenue and gross margin actually come from. Analyse customers, products, pricing, discounts, pipeline, service performance and cost-to-serve. Then identify which parts of the commercial system are producing the performance gap.
What financial information should a turnaround leader review first?
Useful early analysis includes revenue and gross margin by customer and product, pricing and discount patterns, revenue concentration, working capital and cash conversion. Headline revenue alone rarely provides enough information to understand commercial performance.
Why should leaders analyse customers by gross margin as well as revenue?
A company's largest customers by revenue are not necessarily its most economically valuable. Discounts, service requirements, rebates, complexity and cost-to-serve can significantly change profitability. Turnaround leaders need to understand revenue quality, not simply revenue quantity.
How do you identify margin leakage?
Look for repeated sources of value loss such as uncontrolled discounting, bespoke commercial terms, rework, service recovery, excessive complexity, poor product mix and cost-to-serve variations. Margin often disappears through many small decisions rather than one major problem.
How do you fix an unreliable sales pipeline?
Re-qualify opportunities using evidence rather than optimism. Challenge probability, value, expected timing, customer need, competitive position and next steps. A smaller pipeline containing credible opportunities is more useful than a large pipeline that cannot support reliable forecasting.
Why are sales pipelines often inflated in underperforming businesses?
Pressure to demonstrate future recovery can encourage weak opportunities to remain in the pipeline and probabilities to become overly optimistic. Over time, the pipeline becomes a source of reassurance rather than an accurate representation of likely future revenue.
What is pricing governance?
Pricing governance establishes clear rules for pricing decisions, minimum margin expectations, discount authority and exceptions. It allows commercial teams to respond to customers while preventing uncontrolled discounting from gradually eroding profitability.
What is a “good deal” in a commercial turnaround?
A good deal should consider more than revenue. It should combine an appropriate customer profile, margin, strategic fit, operational complexity, payment terms and deliverability. Sales, operations and finance should share a common understanding of what good business looks like.
Should businesses remove products during a turnaround?
Sometimes. Low-margin or operationally complex products can consume disproportionate resources and distract from stronger opportunities. Portfolio simplification can improve service, working capital, sales focus and operational efficiency, although decisions should be based on proper customer and financial analysis.
Should a struggling company hire more salespeople?
Not automatically. Additional salespeople add capacity, but they do not necessarily improve sales effectiveness. Leaders should first examine qualification, conversion, pricing, proposition, coaching and territory potential before assuming headcount is the solution.
How can sales effectiveness be improved during a turnaround?
Focus on qualification quality, pricing confidence, opportunity management, customer conversations, coaching and deal review discipline. Improving the effectiveness of the existing commercial team can sometimes produce faster returns than expanding it.
How should incentives change during a commercial turnaround?
Incentives should reinforce the outcomes the turnaround requires. Depending on the situation, this could include gross margin, revenue quality, customer retention, strategic growth and forecast discipline, rather than rewarding volume regardless of its economic value.
Why must sales, operations and finance align during a turnaround?
Commercial performance crosses functional boundaries. Sales creates commitments, operations delivers them and finance measures their economics. If each function operates against a different definition of success, revenue, margin and customer experience can deteriorate in the handovers between them.
What should CEOs measure during the first 90 days?
Measures should cover both outcomes and their drivers, including revenue, gross margin, price realisation, pipeline quality, conversion, customer retention, service performance, working capital and forecast accuracy. The precise measures should reflect the problems identified during diagnosis.
Should revenue growth be the main target during the first 90 days?
Not necessarily. Early revenue improvement can be welcome, but pursuing growth before stabilising the commercial system can make problems worse. The initial objective should be to create the control, discipline and capability required to make future growth sustainable.
What should a new commercial leader avoid doing in the first 90 days?
Avoid launching large numbers of initiatives before understanding the business. Immediate restructuring, indiscriminate cost cutting, aggressive target increases or major transformation programmes can create activity without addressing the underlying causes of underperformance.
Should a new leader restructure the sales team immediately?
Usually only where there is an urgent and well-understood reason. Organisational structure is highly visible, which makes restructuring tempting, but changing reporting lines before diagnosing customers, proposition, pricing, capability and process problems can simply reorganise the same underlying issues.
How important are key customers during a turnaround?
Protecting important customer relationships is critical. Leadership should understand which accounts contribute the most revenue and gross margin, which are vulnerable and where service problems or competitor activity create immediate risk.
When should a business walk away from revenue?
Revenue should be challenged when its margin, cost-to-serve, complexity, risk or strategic fit makes it economically unattractive. Turnarounds sometimes improve by deliberately stopping activity that creates turnover but destroys value.
What should success look like after the first 90 days?
Success does not necessarily mean the turnaround is complete. By day 90, leaders should expect greater forecast credibility, clearer priorities, stronger pricing discipline, fewer poor-quality deals, better accountability and greater confidence in the commercial system.
How long does a commercial turnaround take?
There is no universal timeframe. Some commercial improvements can happen quickly, while rebuilding customer relationships, capabilities and market position may take much longer. The first 90 days should establish the foundation and trajectory of the turnaround, not necessarily complete it.
Why do commercial turnarounds fail?
They often fail because organisations accelerate before stabilising, treat symptoms as causes, pursue too many initiatives or attempt to solve structural problems through greater pressure and activity. Sustainable turnarounds require diagnosis, discipline and focused execution.
What is the biggest mistake leaders make in their first 90 days?
One of the biggest mistakes is trying to demonstrate immediate action before understanding the system. Activity creates the appearance of leadership, but diagnosis creates the basis for effective leadership.
What are the three phases of a 90-day commercial turnaround?
A simple structure is:
Days 1–30: Diagnose and Stabilise Understand commercial reality and restore predictability.
Days 30–60: Reset Commercial Discipline Strengthen pipeline, pricing, portfolio and deal quality.
Days 60–90: Build Forward Momentum Improve sales effectiveness, align incentives and focus resources on profitable growth.
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