At Manhattan Associates, one of the things weve done right is that we have always had a mantra that everyone is in sales. Its in our DNAto do whatever it takes to best address the needs of our customers and to continue to deliver ongoing value,said Jeff Mitchell, executive vice president of Americas at Manhattan Associates, a leading supply-chain solutions provider based in Atlanta.
When I began this job, other than cultivating a sales culture, my focus was probably on people first.We are a culture that believes in very strong processes, methodology, and a common language.Now, we focus on business execution.We focus on lots of things in the beginning and middle of a sales cycle that you have to execute well in order to put you in a winning position on game day.
We do manage the sales process with technology. Its important, but not one of our top three items. Instead, we focus first on our people and the domain expertise they provide to our customers; second is the value proposition our solutions provide; and third we focus on our management people who are here to ensure successful execution. Then we focus on leveraging technology to further improve and extend the capabilities and deliver for the above.
For example, before we built our sales and marketing and implementation tools, we focused on raising our value proposition to a more strategic level. You have to ask the right questions first and really understand the business problems trying to be solved. Once you get all of the questions, the tools are the easy part.
Before, the sales reps just had to get the solution consultant to the presentation. Now the sales reps do so much more in the discovery phaseleading up to the presentation to ensure that everyone is ready for game day. The scope of our offering is such now that one solution consultant cant be expected to bring 100 percent of the domain expertise to the table single-handedly. So much of the strategy for success and overall coordination happens before the demo.
As far as coaching is concerned, we prioritize it. Most of our people have the expertise and can coach a deal, but doing it day in and day out has to be part of your culture.
There are two approaches to assessing benchmark strengths and weaknesses. You can use experience and intuition, or you can do a more formal assessment. Or, depending on the amount of time you have, you can do both.
Some weaknesses are immediately obvious to a new manager, and you can begin taking action right away. Sometimes, however, when you have been there a while, the real weaknesses in a sales force may be harder to detect. Ive been in evaluations where it was obvious that the management had a gut feel for what they needed but really didnt know because they hadnt measured it.
This book should help you with an overall organizational assessment scorecard. Assessing individual sales rep talent cant really be done effectively until you have defined your ideal sales cycle and the skills and competencies that this demands.
The quickest and most effective way to start is with a win/loss analysis by an outside third party. This will give you the quickest feedback on why you are winning or losing and where your fastest returns for improvement lie. All this can and should be completed within 90 days to determine your initial priorities.
2. Start with PeopleManagers First
To put it simply and starkly: If you dont get the people process right, you will never fulfill the promise of your business.Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, inExecution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Most successful sales executives have a following of loyal lieutenants whom they can call on in these situations. For those who have burned their bridges, this takes a while longer.
Once front-line managers have defined a new hiring profile for reps, they can begin upgrading the talent, replacing those who cant or wont change.
3. Next Is Your Sales Process
If you cant describe what you are doing as a process, you dont know what youre doing.W. Edwards Deming (19001993), Father of Total Quality Management
Defining your sales technique also will secure buy-in from your sales managers because it is their own work. The entire coaching discipline hinges on their reinforcement. It should be in both their performance review and comp plan, or you will get no more than a passive effort.
This can become a huge overkill project if you let it. It should be done in less than a week.
4. PositioningWhat Do We Say About Us?
Would you persuade, speak of interests, not reason.Benjamin Franklin, «Poor Richards Almanac»
An objective, and often brutal, evaluation of your techniques in this area usually is needed to make sure that you are not eating your own dog food. The vice president of marketings buy-in here is essential to avoid defense and denial.
5. Creating a Winning Sales Culture Align the Infrastructure
Priorities in this area include alignment of the new sales process with the rest of the sales and marketing infrastructure.