Initiatives and who is paid
Every move becomes named work with steps, a cost, odds, an owner and a pay plan, sorted so the high-value, low-effort work starts first.
The work itself
An initiative is a named piece of work with an owner, a start and an end, a cost, the measures it moves and how far, and its odds. Every planned movement is carried by at least one initiative; an initiative that moves nothing in the plan is cut.
Each comes with three to four plain steps. For example, in the sample, putting a reason code on every discount means: add five discount reasons to the quote and billing templates; require a code on every new discount from day one; review the discount report monthly until the uncoded line reads zero.
Effort against value
The first quarter’s work is sorted on one picture: how much effort each action takes against how much the objective it serves is worth. High value and low effort goes first.
How to read it. Orange bars are low effort; navy is medium. Two more first-quarter actions are readiness items with no dollar value of their own: build the add-back schedule, and decide which buyers can actually pay the price.
Real value, or a better-documented price
Every initiative is marked as one of two kinds, because they are worth different things.
Improves the economics
The business earns more: higher prices, lower cost, fewer customers lost. In the sample: re-bidding termination rates, migrating legacy rate cards.
Improves the diligence record
The business earns the same, but can prove it, so a buyer stops discounting it. In the sample: coding discounts, recording why customers leave, reconciling the number inventory.
Both raise the price at sale. Only the first raises what you take out of the business every year. A plan made only of the second kind would be a paperwork exercise.
What the buyer sees
Each initiative also says what it will look like to a buyer’s analyst, because that is how it gets credited. In the sample: “A discount schedule by reason is the first pricing question in diligence; it turns ‘our prices are soft’ into a managed policy.” And: “Churn by cause over 24 months is the single most persuasive retention exhibit a small provider can put in front of a buyer.”
Who is paid for it
People do what they are paid to do. If the plan asks account managers to save customers but pays them only on new seats, the plan loses. So every objective names how the people doing the work are paid for it.
Pricing
Sales and account management are paid on contract term and add-ons attached, not on seats alone. The price escalator is in the standard agreement, so nobody has to sell it.
Overhead
The billing lead owns the autopay and suspension numbers and is bonused on them. The owner’s own target is to keep administrative headcount flat as revenue grows.
Gross margin
Carrier management and network operations hold the blended rate and the second-carrier floor. A share of the saving above target funds the routing and abuse-detection tools.
Retention
Account management is paid on renewals and saves. The reason-code rate is a gate on the bonus, so measurement comes first.
Growth
Channel management is paid on active partners and partner-sold seats net of ninety-day churn. The owner holds the acquisition decision.
Who has the hours
The plan adds up the hours each initiative needs, by role and by period, and flags any role asked to do more than it has time for. In the sample, sales and account management are booked at 426 hours against 338 available in months 3–12, and the owner at 124 against 113. The fix is in the plan: the valuation already assumes a general manager at a market rate of $140,000, so the plan schedules the hire.
- Initiative. A named action with an owner, start and end, cost (one-off and run-rate), the measures it moves with the movement claimed on each by date, and an evidence grade
- Coverage. Every planned movement is carried by at least one initiative; a movement no initiative carries is a gap
- Cost and time. A measure’s cost and time to move are the sums over the initiatives that carry it
- Capacity. Hours by role across 0–90 days, months 3–12 and months 12–36; any role over 100% is flagged
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