HIGH-PERFORMING SALES TEAMS
THE SCIENCE BEHIND SUCCESS
Aaron Hunt
Sales Capability
Manager
June 2014
Please Note: Some information has been removed from this presentation for commercial sensitivity reasons. All copyrighted material remains the property of its respective rightful owner.
Arrium
• $7b sales
• Export 12 million tonnes of iron ore per annum
• 9,000 employees
Arrium Steel Division
• $3.5b sales
• 5,500 employees
• Manufacture 2.5 million tonnes of steel per annum
AUSTRALIA
ASIA
NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA
SO WHO ELSE LIVES IN A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE MARKET?
LAST YEAR WE PRODUCED JUST $316M EBITDA AGAINST $7b REVENUE
INCREASED COMPLEXITY
LONGER SALES CYCLE
BUT IT IS PRETTY GLOOMY OUT THERE!
LACK OF GROWTH
OVERSUPPLY
DECLINING MARGINS
MORE STAKEHOLDERS
PURE COMMODITISATION
INTENSIFICATION OF RISK!!!
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
THE ANSWER IS NOT JUST TRAINING!
IT’S MORE THAN THAT
STRATEGY
WE ALL KNOW PORTER’S GENERIC STRATEGIES
PRICE / COST LEADERSHIP DIFFERENTIATION NICHE
“Only one person can be lowest price; everybody
else has to find something else to do.”
ONLY REALISTIC OPTION
PRICE / COST LEADERSHIP NICHE
DIFFERENTIATION =
Do Something Else!
EXHIBIT #1
© Tony Hughes (2010) “The Joshua Principle – Leadership Secrets of RSVPselling”
EXHIBIT #2
Tom Snyder – CSE2012
EXHIBIT #3
Arrium internal user – source unknown
DIFFERENT APPROACHES
• Engage early
• Provide new insights
• Help define solution
• Trusted advisors
• Known differentiators
• No two opportunities identical
• Sales process adapts to buying process
• Broad & deep relationships
SIMILAR RESEARCH FINDINGS
• Customer focused
• Clear value creation process
• Data-driven
• Lead customer
• Understand decision making process
• Very adaptive sales people
• Identify in-business coach
What does a high-performing sales organisation look like?
HOW DO YOU CREATE AN
ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH
SALES PEOPLE CAN
PERFORM TO THIS LEVEL?
CEB IDENTIFIED 24 ELEMENTS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE
1. Strategy
2. Change management
3. Sales culture
4. Internal alignment
5. Segmentation
6. Voice of the customer
7. Account planning
8. Coverage
9. Key account planning
10. Customer stakeholder management
11. Commercial messaging
12. Skill certification
13. Recruitment
14. Onboarding and training
15. Sales competencies
16. Coaching
17. Performance management
18. Frontline management
19. Goal setting and forecasting
20. Rewards and recognition
21. Sales metrics
22. Sales enablement
23. CRM
24. Sales process
Corporate Executive Board – Anatomy of a World Class Sales Organisation
Which levers
BUT WHICH LEVER DO YOU PULL FIRST?
Miller Heiman study the habits of world-
class sales organisations also
FOCUS ON CUSTOMERS
• Understand why the buy from us
• Defined Value Propositions
• Understand needs and wants clearly
• Internal alignment on account approach
91%
33%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Focus on Customers
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
COLLABORATIVE CULTURE
• Allocate the right resources to the right opportunities
• Management team work with sales to progress opportunities
• High-performers are studied to understand
• Best-practice is shared amongst the sales team
91%
30%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Collaborative Culture
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
KNOW WHY THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL
• Define clear criteria for key accounts status
• Align remuneration with business objectives
• Accurate CRM data
• Sales team focuses on spending time with customers
83%
30%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Understand Success Factors
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES
• Formalised, compelling VPs, communicated across the organisation
• Lean and reassess regularly
• Shared view of customer as core to business
• Confident collaboration by both groups
96%
31%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
World-Class The Rest
Defined VPs
89%
26%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Sales & Marketing Aligned
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
MANAGING OPPORTUNITIES
• Adhoc teams form to meet requirements of customer buying process
• Common processes
• Shared view of customer as core to business
• Confident collaboration by both groups
89%
29%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Smart Resource Allocation
89%
40%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Understand Customer Needs
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS
• Clear criteria for key accounts
• Measure life-time value, share of wallet and up-sell opportunities at all times
• Review success with key account
• Continue to sell after the sale is signed
85%
34%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
KA Criteria Established
89%
33%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Conduct Reviews with KAs
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
PEOPLE & ORGANISATION
• Management help to advance sales opportunities to closure
• Forward looking
• Pipeline management process
• Understand what makes top talent successful
• Quantify and map desirable behaviours
94%
34%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Mgmt Supports Sales Process
93%
34%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Key Success Factors
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
OPERATIONS & ENABLEMENT
• Aligned to and supportive of business strategy and goals
• Need to be challenging but achievable goals
• Confidence in CRM data set
• Standardised process for managing activities and recording
93%
38%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Compensation Aligned to Goals
78%
22%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Quality Data in CRM
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
MANAGEMENT EXECUTION
• Capture attributes and behaviours of top talent
• Inform training & development programs
• Remove back office clutter
• Structure support systems to provide what is required and when it’s required
89%
21%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
World-Class The Rest
Leverage Top Performer Skills 76%
24%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
World-Class The Rest
Maximise Time in Field
Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study
The Arrium approach
Employee lifecycle management for sales talent.
HOLISTIC APPROACH
Role Definition &
Capability Profiling
Talent Management &
Development
Performance
Management
- Clear understanding of how
each role supports the
strategy through its purpose
and contribution.
- Identified understanding of
the skills and knowledge
required to perform each role
to the desired level of output.
- Explicitly stated key metrics,
objectives & standards of
performance, as well as
clear behavioural
expectations.
- Ability to identify and recruit
high potential individuals from
within and out of the industry.
- Suitable remuneration and
rewards to maintain required
levels of engagement.
- Support continuous
improvement through learning
& development to meet both
current and future
requirements.
- Talent pipelines to fulfil
succession requirements at
each level of the organisation.
- Appropriate measures and
checks to ensure required
outputs are achieved.
- Coaching & training support
for individuals to achieve
required levels of
competence.
- Clear and explicit standards
and expectations of
deliverables.
- Suitable systems/processes
in place to provide both
predictive and responsive
indications of gaps.
© 2014 Arrium
Some interesting frameworks
PRO
VALUE BASED SELLING
• Jeff Thull – The Prime Solution
• Move beyond selling product or process and move on to performance
• Focus on what does it DO for the customer? The outcomes
• Tried and proven approach
PRODUCT
PROCESS
PERFORMANCE
Jeff Thull (2005) “The Prime Solution”
SPIN SELLING
• Perennial favourite
• Neil Rackham / Huthwaite International
• Research backed
• Main influence for current generation of consultative selling programs worldwide
S
P
I
N
SITUATION
PROBLEM
IMPLICATION
NEED/PAYOFF
Neil Rackham (1988) “SPIN Selling”
VALUE PROPOSITION MODEL
Barnes, Blake & Pinder (2009) “Creating & Delivering Your Value Proposition”
SELLING vs NEGOTIATING
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
“Selling is the
process of justifying
value.”
© 2012 Aaron Hunt
“Negotiating is the process
of trading concessions until
the customer’s perception
of value is equal to, or
greater than, the price being
asked.”
© 2012 Aaron Hunt
Developing high-performance is
challenging
BUT IT IS WORTH DOING
JUST BE SURE TO BE DELIBERATE ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU DO.
STATE YOUR EXPECTATIONS, PROVIDE SUPPORT AND HOLD PEOPLE TO
RIGOROUS ACCOUNT
THANK YOU
ANY QUESTIONS?
Aaron Hunt
Sales Capability Manager
Phone: 03 9903 6221
Mobile: 0417 540 751
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/aaronwhunt/
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