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Key Leadership Newsletter - May 2011

Greetings,

For many of us, life has become a lot more complex. And we’ve had to pick up our pace. But we’re resilient--we evolve and adapt.

The same can be said about the professional sales environment. It has changed dramatically over the past ten years. Basic product knowledge and fundamental communication skills are not enough anymore. Sales processes have evolved, and good sales people have adapted. Together, we’re learning to embrace the strategic complexities of today’s market and develop strategic sales practices to succeed in it.

In this edition of our newsletter, we’ll begin by explaining the strategic sales concept. We’ll spotlight some success stories and steer you toward some resources we hope you’ll find useful.

In this exciting journey and in the spirit of authentic transforming and collaborative leadership, we’re thrilled to share our experiences with you.

Sincerely,

Paulette

Sales: More Strategic, More Embedded, More Sophisticated

The sales process used to be so much simpler. Good relationship selling skills, a desirable price point, and consistently available product were often all you needed to capture opportunities in your market. Now, new procurement processes, economic chaos, and market uncertainty are creating unprecedented challenges for the sales profession.

While relationship selling has always been a cornerstone in the sales field, strategic selling goes a few steps further.

Truly understanding what it takes to build a confident, credible, and competent sales force is a critical bridge to growth. And cultivating the skills and qualities required of a successful strategic sales force is just as critical to your ROI as anything else you may be investing in.

Why sales 101 won’t work

What shapes trends in the sales profession also shapes businesses today. Pressure to perform well worldwide is increasing, despite factors that can make that a challenge. They include regulatory concerns, distribution logistics, cultural differences, and product relevance. And competition is brutal. Getting the sales process going often starts with being able to strategize with the customer early in the sales cycle. Keeping it going requires being empowered to move decisions forward throughout the cycle.

This may sound like consultative selling. But it’s much more than that.

What’s entailed in strategic sales

The sophisticated sales professional shapes needs for both the customer and their company in response to the business environment and can make things happen for both. Information is easily available to everyone these days, so simply providing information is not going to cut it anymore. Now, more than ever, interpreting information, connecting it with business and buying cycles, and helping customers “see round the bend” is the new normal.

Demographics are also changing. With four generations in the work force at the same time, diverse approaches to work are now the norm. The one-size-fits-all formula is being replaced by a generation of workers who are used to getting exactly what they need.

A new breed of sales professional

All this creates a new breed of sales professional. No more selling “what we have.” Instead, strategic sales people are expected to help customer organizations understand market opportunities and constraints, as well as operate as an extension of the organization.

Survival of the fittest

This means more than just supporting the organization. It requires sales professionals to deeply understand the market, interpret market data and its relevance to the customer, and enable “bridging” both organizations to ensure product pricing and delivery position them competitively.

Second, strong sales people understand the complexity not only in the market, but also in the selling environment. Sophisticated procurement departments drive what enters the pipeline and at what cost. Key decisions that challenge today’s sales people include making sure the right balance of profitability and volume are sustainable for both sides.

Third, as the overall organizations are part of the overall value chain, professional sales people are expected to be good at navigating matrixed organizations to get things done. In addition, their credibility as a two-way channel for information that impacts what the customer does and what the organization does places sales people smack in the middle—where they can function as a change agent. This puts them in the position to facilitate vision and direction for both sides. The end goal is creating win/win scenarios that advance both the selling organization and the customer toward their short- and long-term goals.

Finally, having deep relationships that foster trust and mutuality has always been important in sales. But, as contributing factors to closing deals have become more complex, relying too heavily on relationships can be an Achilles heel. Instead, think of relationships as the glue that holds all these factors together to form solid, strategic partnerships, further strengthened by a history of producing good results for both the customer and the company.

So what does this mean for the sales function?

The pressure to perform is on

Running an effective sales organization is never easy. And it gets harder when economic conditions are less than ideal. Yet there are organizations out there that consistently perform well, regardless of economic conditions. So the pressure to perform is always on.

Miller Heiman, a leading sales performance consulting firm, has conducted its "Sales Best Practices Study" for the past seven years. Data from the annual study provides a unique opportunity to explore why some organizations continue to succeed in challenging economic times and whether strong sales processes help insulate sales organizations from economic downturns.With 1,500 –3,200 respondents each year, survey data reflects a wide varietyof industries and perspectives from individuals at various levels within the organization.

In its most recent study, “The Performance Value of a World-Class Sales Process: A Multi-Year Comparison during both Strong and Weak Economic Conditions,” the firm offers evidence-based insight on what it takes to be successful during challenging economic times, based on data collected over the past three years.

The firm acknowledges that putting a world-class sales process in place in a sales organization with little structure can be daunting. But Miller Heiman assures organizations will reap its benefits in terms of performance with each step it takes toward achieving an “A” on the world-class grading scale.

And in today’s competitive market, you simply can’t afford not to.

Strategic sales savvy: winning in today’s competitive market

Read about how Key Leadership helped one of its clients enhance the capability of its sales team at both the individual and group levels in “Key Leadership Positions Global Chemical Company for Strategic Sales Success.”

Other resources

While it’s not quite as easy as 1, 2, 3, achieving success with a strategic sales approach is definitely doable. There are plenty of resources available to help you reorganize your sales processes and people.

World-Class Selling: New Sales Competencies is one of them. In this ASTD-sponsored study, authors Brian W. Lambert, Tim Ohai, and Eric M. Kerkhoff provide data-driven documentation needed to properly position sales resources and operations to achieve greater results.

Reading about how other organizations have successfully made the transition can also provide you with valuable insight. A good example of this is “Chaos to Cadence: Transforming Sales Organizations to Win in the Global Economy.” This IBM Global Business Services white paper details how IBM navigated the new competencies needed to thrive in the business of strategic sales in complex sales organizations.

Sink or swim?

Where does your sales force fit in?

Key Resources

Keys to Success: Customer Success Story

Global Chemical Company Positions for Strategic Sales Success

Connecting to the customer strategically is a given for next-generation sales effectiveness. When a sales leader wanted to evolve the sales organization in his division of a global chemical company into a complete performance culture, Key Leadership listened closely, proposed a plan, and followed through with a four-step approach.

This global chemical corporation was already almost there. It had a sophisticated sales force in place to serve its complex customer base. It was doing a good job servicing its clients, many of whom were as big as the multi-billion-dollar corporation itself. And sales were steadily increasing.

But the team’s leader wanted to align his sales team to reflect how the world of sales is continuously changing—and, in doing so, fully assimilate the breadth of the selling climate, the complexities of both the corporation and its customer organizations, the length of the selling cycle, and the challenge in selling real value. In other words, he wanted to help his sales force align more strategically with the corporation’s customers.

The diversified chemical company serves agricultural, industrial, and consumer markets worldwide with innovative solutions for food and agriculture, pharmaceutical, healthcare, pulp and paper, textiles, glass and ceramics, rubber and plastics, lubricants, structural pest control, turf and ornamental, and specialty industries.

For this organization, selling its products entails much more than a simple commodity transaction or relationship sale.

So Key Leadership partnered with the sales team leader to develop a strategy for enhancing the sales team’s capability at both an individual and team level.

A new spin on a trusted approach

The strategy entailed creating a four-stage approach to be executed over a one-year time frame and using a customized 360-degree feedback tool that facilitated deeper dialogue and more focused development.

Key Leadership’s customized approach included:

Gathering real-time customer input about what is important and what would add value regarding market competiveness
Looking at best practices across industries
Developing targeted areas of focus and uncovering ways to add even more value
Pinpointing what customers wanted and needed in the sales executive profile of capabilities
Collaborating with the sales team to address a unified set of strategies that really matter
Customizing a 360-degree instrument to gain even more detailed information about the sales executives themselves
Providing individual and team sessions, coaching, and follow up to ensure the right change happens and to reinforce the strategies

A better understanding of the bigger picture

Key Leadership developed a sophisticated set of questions—not a standard cookie cutter survey—designed to extract detailed feedback from the key customers and the corporation’s sales team. Highly sophisticated interview techniques uncovered rich data. The data confirmed some assumptions about the current state of sales affairs and provided opportunities to raise the stakes in adding even more value to customers.

What research supported was confirmed by the key customers. They are poised for linking with sales professionals and the corporation throughout the value chain.

Given the trends shaping today’s sales profession—that is, market complexity, stiffer competition, rapidly changing technology, and broader demographics—buyers have become more demanding. And buyer expectations have risen exponentially. This translates into more responsibility at the sales level.

The sales process has evolved from a transactional process into a consultative one. Now, it is more anticipatory and way more strategic. This requires even more sophisticated skills, a broader knowledge base, and the ability to view problems and opportunities from multiple points of view. At the same time, relational skills and trust building are even more important as customers share sensitive information and take direction from their most credible sales executives.

Taking it to the next level

Customers held the corporation in very high regard and were very satisfied with the service they received from their respective account executives. They truly valued the intelligence, integrity, innovation, and expertise their sales representatives brought to the table, as well as the long-term relationships that had developed.

However, when asked what the corporation could do to provide even more value, customers came up with a few key suggestions.

Better forecasting was one. Another was the analysis of markets and data as a way to initiate a more comprehensive dialogue and shared market assumptions. These enabled the customer and the corporation to evolve strategically together.

A tighter three-way alignment between customers, the chemical corporation, and the market was a third. The notion that the corporation could provide a more comprehensive view of the market because it touched all aspects of the market was a great, yet underutilized, asset.

Faster and more focused

Customers also wanted more tailored programs that reflected customer differences, as well as to speed up time to market on new products to remain ahead of the competition.

Bigger and better

Customers also wanted to see the chemical corporation staff up to become more visible and continue to build its portfolio of products to include an even wider variety of innovative solutions to differentiate itself further from its competition.

Mind mapping—a different way to report data

Key Leadership consolidated all the data into a powerful one-page visual report called a mind map and presented the findings to the sales force. This sample is meant to convey a sense of what kind of information was uncovered (we are sensitive to our client’s confidentiality).

Using the more detailed set of findings, the sales team then outlined five strategic goals and developed a communications process that would further enhance the customer feedback loop. The sales leader has shared the findings with key internal people—top leadership, marketing, and so on—to better align the value chain in service to customer needs and wants. The development of a customized 360-degree instrument to help the strategic account executives better understand their strengths and work toward further improvement on an individual level is currently under way.

Strategic sales savvy

What’s the net result of putting all this valuable data to good use? Enhancing strategic sales savvy. Being more proactive and aligning with each other’s business strategies to create more opportunities. Providing strategic direction to the customer and the company.

It’s the edge that makes a difference. And while nothing will ever replace the long standing relationships that have supported this company’s sales growth in the past, knowing what really matters also prepares next-generation talent to take over the reins with a bit more focus and support.

Next steps—keep it up and step it up

The chemical corporation’s customers appreciate the sales force’s ability to mine their own organization to get things done, act strategically, and create tailored solutions that fit individual customer needs. So Key Leadership is helping the account executives further refine their talents and will conduct follow-up sessions to evaluate progress and sustain the momentum.

After all, you can never have too much of a good thing.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Sales: More Strategic, More Embedded, More Sophisticated

Key Resources

Keys to Success: Customer Success Story

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