| Research conducted by Revenue Storm during | | | | implementation in the field. Sales management |
| the Strategic Account Management Association | | | | needs to be educated and trained so they can |
| Conference measured 100 Strategic Account | | | | own and lead the implementation process. |
| Managers in 48 companies and showed they | | | | Assessing the sales force against sales roles and |
| were 35% deficiency in allocating time to creating | | | | competencies provides at least two important |
| demand compared to Revenue Storm's | | | | factors: fitting the right people into the right roles |
| best-in-class benchmark. One potential reason of | | | | and identifying the competency deficiencies for |
| spending less time in this critical area is the lack of | | | | each sales representative. Identifying the sales |
| competencies that Revenue Storm has identified; | | | | representative's competency deficiencies provides |
| namely, managing pipeline, mapping politics, building | | | | direction for both specific training and specific |
| momentum, establishing executive credibility, | | | | coaching from sales management. |
| providing thought leadership, selling consultatively, | | | | Other functions need to be aligned to the |
| messaging and probing. These competency | | | | Go-to-Market Strategy including Marketing, |
| deficiencies are further exacerbated when the | | | | Delivery, Customer Service, Human Resources, |
| market is like it is today. | | | | Information Technology, Legal and Finance. All of |
| In order to address these deficiencies, you could | | | | these areas need to be educated and trained on |
| assess your sales force against the above | | | | the strategy. Marketing will need to provide |
| competencies and develop specific training | | | | specific inputs into sales such as developing |
| curricula to bring them up to best-in-class levels. | | | | market messages and customer case studies. |
| From my experience, sales training is not enough. | | | | Delivery and Customer Service outputs need to |
| One approach would be to align the organization | | | | be aligned with the specific strategy. Human |
| with the sales training initiative by starting with | | | | Resources function can assist with sales on |
| clarifying the Go-to-Market Strategy. | | | | assessment, hiring, selection and compensation. |
| The Go-to-Market Strategy provides a direction | | | | Information Technology manages the Customer |
| not only for the sales force but also the rest of | | | | Relationship Management application and needs to |
| the organization. There are four Go-to-Market | | | | be aligned with the Go-to-Market strategy, not |
| Strategies that companies can select. In fact, | | | | the other way around. Legal and Finance will also |
| companies can deploy all of them, but each of the | | | | need to be aligned with the strategy. Large |
| Go-to-Market Strategy needs to be aligned to | | | | companies have a Sales Operations function that |
| each selling group. The four Go-to-Market | | | | also assists and aligns the sales organization. When |
| Strategies are Transaction focus (example: low | | | | theses functions are aligned with the |
| cost, commoditized offerings), Process focus | | | | Go-to-Market Strategy, the company will avert |
| (example: solution, one-stop shop selling), Business | | | | the often complaint from sales forces that it's |
| focus (example: business improvement), Partner | | | | much more difficult working with internal |
| focus (example: equal risk reward and gain | | | | processes compared to working with customers. |
| sharing). | | | | This holistic approach starts with the |
| Once the Go-to-Market Strategy has been | | | | Go-to-Market Strategy and purposely aligns all |
| selected, sales process and sales roles including | | | | functions with the Go-to-Market Strategy. So it's |
| competencies need to be designed and aligned | | | | not just about sales training, it's about building an |
| with the Go-to-Market Strategy. Sales | | | | aligned engine that can provide fast acceleration |
| management needs to be front and center in this | | | | without the drag of sub-optimized, legacy, silo |
| step since they are the key role in successful | | | | functions. |