Customer Ready Business

Client Profile: Software subsidiary of multi-billion dollar global corporation • Develops & markets location-based customer intelligence, customer communications and customer care software, data & services
Customer Base: Enterprise & SMB • Government agencies • Systems Integrators • Commercial & technical communities
Challenges: Improve sales productivity & performance • Establish single, unified sales organisation post intensive M&A activity • Implement common sales practices, processes & behaviour for multi-discipline international sales organisation • Simplify corporate positioning & messaging, create customer-ready value propositions
Impact: 30% increase in sales productivity measured by revenue per head, win rates, shorter sales cycles, opportunity management, forecasting accuracy • Sales pipeline 3x revenue targets
Sponsor: Executive Vice President, International
SITUATION: Having undergone an intensive period of M&A activity, our client needed to bring disparate sales teams together in a single, unified international sales organisation.  A sales organisation equipped to enable our client’s newly formed software business to capitalise on its extended range by delivering greater value to its customers, generating cost efficiencies and realising its growth potential through increased revenue.

The current sales organisation consisted of more than 200 people located throughout the EMEA region selling products and services from five discrete product groups.   Comprising account managers, technical sales, partner sales, services sales and inside sales people with widely varying skillsets and product knowledge, teams were using disparate processes, systems, and strategies inherited from the acquired companies.  This situation was making it difficult for the company to:

  • Forecast accurately
  • Realise cost efficiencies
  • Measure productivity
  • Identify skills gaps
  • Target new business opportunities to cross-sell and upsell
  • View and manage the sales pipeline
  • Align sales and marketing
  • Develop consistent account plans
  • Segment & manage accounts
  • Understand & analyse common buying patterns

At the same time, the company needed help to ratify its vision and strategy, create customer-ready value propositions, and align marketing and sales efforts more closely to maximise opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.

Aware of our expertise in the areas of sales enablement, sales & marketing alignment, and communications, Declare was approached by the company’s Executive Vice President, International to devise and deliver a comprehensive far-reaching sales enablement programme.  The goal being to deliver greater value to customers by improving sales productivity and performance.

APPROACH: We conducted a detailed analysis of recent customer and employee satisfaction surveys and coupled this with a series of 1:1 meetings with members of the leadership, sales, marketing, product management, services, HR and sales operations teams across EMEA.  This enabled us to develop a clear, in-depth picture of the challenges facing the company.

As common trends and business pains emerged,  it was agreed that the new sales enablement programme needed to be introduced via a phased approach.  In this way, sales enablement would deliver immediate business impact and value to customers whilst contributing to the company’s longer-term goals.

To determine the appropriate content, communications approach, and delivery formats for the new programme, the team used the Declare Sales Enablement Content Model as shown in the diagram below.

Sales Enablement Content Model
© Declare Communications Ltd

Sales Enablement Content ModelThe first phase needed to act as a foundation, addressing immediate business needs in the areas of:

  • Sales, marketing, product management and services alignment
  • Providing a consistent set of tools and value propositions
  • Establishing rules of engagement, common sales processes, business language, metrics and methodology

Enabling both the sales organisation as well as key members of the marketing, product management and services teams to complete Phase I,  Phase II would then lead to the delivery of a more focused, sales specific programme based on a multi-year, role-based programme aligned to each stage of the employee cycle; from onboarding through to continuous reinforcement.

SOLUTION: Drawing on Declare’s Managed Approach to Sales Training, Enablement and Readiness (MASTERS), our client’s sales enablement content model covered the following:

  • Sales process – pipeline  management, opportunity management, bid management
  • Sales skills & behaviour
  • Corporate readiness – understanding and communicating company vision
  • Industry expertise especially in Public Sector solutions
  • Sales readiness to cross and up-sell products and solutions from across the business
  • Business readiness – operating models, compensation plans, training investment
  • Sales tools
  • Deeper understanding of Professional Services capability
  • Roles, responsibilities & accountabilities
  • Internal orchestration
  • Internal communications

Our recommendations included implementing the following:

  • A single sales process and methodology across EMEA
  • Sales skills refresher workshops
  • Online access to ongoing sales skills refreshers
  • Product and solution training programme both workshop and online
  • Business strategy update sessions

In order to launch the campaign we recommended holding a pan-EMEA residential Sales boot camp in order to bring the entire team together for the first time and provide a forum for cross-business networking. And, to provide focus and internal awareness the ongoing campaign was branded internally as SPECTRUM – particularly apt due to the breadth of the Company’s offerings.

SPECTRUM was broken down into 4 key stages contained within the residential programme:

  • Strategic update
  • Product and solutions workshops
  • Sales process & methodology
  • Networking and interaction

The solution was also tailored more deeply to accelerate the integration of the recent acquisition of the French operating company by delivering sales process and methodology in French with supporting localised materials.

Results

  • 30% increase in sales productivity by using a common sales process & methodology within first full quarter of adoption across Europe
  • Improved sales forecasting using common format and terminology
  • A common set of tools used by the sales team to manage opportunities efficiently and with a common understanding
  • A simplified tool for opportunities under $100K
  • Smoother integration of recently acquired French operating company
  • Accelerated up-sell and cross-sell programmes resulting in increased sales pipeline in existing accounts through the introduction of different solutions