Overhauling a Vast Vast Corporate Sales Force
Overhauling a Vast Corporate Sales Force Imagine this scenario: You need a new digital camera. You’re not sure which one to buy or even what eatures you need. So you visit your nearest electronics superstore to tal! with a salesperson. You wal! through the camera section but can’t "nd anyone to help you. #hen you "nally "nd a salesperson$ he yawns and tells you that he’s responsible or selling all the products in the store$ so he doesn’t really !now all that much about cameras. %hen he reads some inormation rom the bo& o one o the models that you as! about$ as i he is telling something that you can’t "gure out or yoursel. 'e then suggests that you should tal! to someone else. You "nally "nd a camera(savvy salesperson. 'owever$ ater answering a ew )uestions$ she disappears to handle some other tas!$ handing you o* to someone new. +nd the new salesperson seems to contradict what the "rst salesperson said$ even )uoting di*erent prices on a couple o models you li!e. %hat imaginary situation may actually have happened to you. I so$ then you can understand what many business buyers ace when attempting to buy rom a large corporate supplier. %his was the case
with business customers o technology giant 'ewlett(,ac!ard beore -ar! 'urd too! over as ',’s CO a ew years ago. ,rior to 'urd assuming command$ ',’s revenues and pro"ts had /attened$ and its stoc! price had plummeted. %o "nd out why$ 'urd "rst
tal!ed directly with 011 corporate customers. -ostly what he heard were gripes about ',’s corporate sales orce. Customers complained that they had to deal with too many salespeople$ and ',’s conusing management layers made it hard to "gure out whom to call. %hey had trouble trac!ing down ', sales representatives. +nd once ound$ the reps oten came across as apathetic$ leaving the customer to ta!e the initiative. ', reps were responsible or a broad range o comple& products$ so they sometimes lac!ed the needed depth o !nowledge on any subset o them. Customers grumbled that they received varying price )uotes rom di*erent sales reps$ and it oten too! wee!s or reps to respond to seemingly simple re)uests. In all$ ',’s corporate customers were rustrated$ not a
happy circumstance or a company that gets more than 21 percent o its revenues rom businesses. 3ut customers weren’t the only ones rustrated by ',’s unwieldy and unresponsive sales orce structure. ', was organi4ed into three main product divisions: the ,ersonal Systems 5roup 6,S57$ the %echnology Solutions 5roup 6%S57$ and the Image and ,rinting 5roup 6I,57. 'owever$ ',’s corporate sales orce was housed in a ourth division$ the Customer Sales 5roup 6CS57. +ll salespeople reported directly to the CS5 and were responsible or selling products rom all three product divisions. %o ma!e matters worse$ the CS5 was bloated and underperorming. +ccording to one reporter$ 8o the 92$111 people wor!ing in ',’s corporate sales$ only around 91$111 sold directly to customers. %he rest were support sta* or in management. ', division e&ecutives were rustrated by the CS5 structure. %hey complained that they had little or no direct control over the salespeople who sold their products. +nd multiple layers o management slowed sales orce decision ma!ing and customer responsiveness. Finally$ salespeople themselves were rustrated by the structure. %hey weren’t being given the time and support they needed to serve their customers well. 3urdened with administrative tas!sand bureaucratic red tape$ they
were spending less than one(third o their time with customers. +nd they had to wor! through multiple layers o bureaucracy to get price )uotes and sample products or customers. 8%he customer ocus was lac!ing$ says an ', sales vice president. 8%rying to navigate inside ', was di;cult. It was unacceptable. +s 'urd peeled bac! the layers$ it became apparent that ',’s organi4ational problems went deeper than the sales orce. %he entire company had become so centrali4ed$ with so many layers o management$ that it was unresponsive and out o touch with customers. 'urd had come to ', with a reputation or cost(cutting and ruthless e;ciency. ,rior to his new position$ he spent <= years at >C?$ where he ultimately headed the company. +lthough it was a considerably smaller company than ',$ 'urd had it running li!e a well( oiled machine. >othing bothered him more than the discoveries he made about ',’s ine;cient structure. %hus began what one observer called 8one o 'urd’s biggest management challenges: overhauling ',’s vast corporate sales orce. For starters$ 'urd eliminated the CS5 division$ instead assigning salespeople directly to the three product divisions. 'e also did away with three layers o management and cut hundreds o unproductive sales wor!ers. %his
move gave divisional mar!eting and sales e&ecutives direct control over a leaner$ more e;cient sales process$ resulting in speedier sales decisions and )uic!er mar!et response. 'urd also too! steps to reduce salesperson and customer rustrations. liminating the CS5 meant that each salesperson was responsible or selling a smaller number o products and was able to develop e&pertise in a speci"c product area. 'urd urged sales managers to cut bac! on salesperson administrative re)uirements and improve sales support so that salespeople could spend more )uality time with customers. +s a result$ salespeople now spend more than 01 percent o their time with customers$ up rom @ust A1 percent beore. +nd ', salespeople are noticing big changes in the sales support they receive: Salesman ?ichard Bitucci began noticing some o the changes late last year. +t the time$ Bitucci was trying to sell computer servers to Staples. +s part o the process$ Staples had as!ed him to provide a sample server or the company to evaluate. In the past$ such re)uests typically too! two to three wee!s to ul"ll because o ',’s bureaucracy. %his time$ Bitucci got the server he needed within three days. %he )uic! turnaround helped him
win the contract$ valued at several million dollars. %o ensure that important customers are careully tended$ ', assigned each salesperson three or ewer accounts. %he top <$111 accounts were assigned @ust one salesperson8so they’ll always !now whom to contact. Customers are noticing di*erences in the attention that they get rom ', salespeople: Dames Farris$ a senior technology e&ecutive at Staples$ says ', has reed up his salesman to drop by Staples at least twice a month instead o about once a month beore. %he e&tra ace time enabled the ', salesman to create more valuable interactions$ such as arranging a wor!shop recently or Staples to e&plain ',’s technology to the retailer’s e&ecutives. +s a result$ Farris says he is planning to send more business ',’s way. Similarly$ Eeith -orrow$ chie inormation o;cer o convenience store chain 2( leven$ says his ', sales representative is now 8here all the time and has been more !nowledgeable in pitching products tailored to his business. +s a result$ last October$ 2(leven began deploying in its .S. stores 91$111 ', pen padsa mobile
device that helps 2(leven wor!ers on the sales /oor. A SALESMAN AT HEART
Once the new sales orce started to ta!e shape$ 'urd began to ocus on the role o the client in the sales process. %he act that ', reers to its business buyers as 8partners says a lot about its philosophy. 8#e heavily rely on Gour partnersH. #e loo! at them as an e&tension o the ', sales orce$ 'urd said. %o strengthen the relationship between ', and its partners$ ', has partners participating in account planning and strategy development$ an activity that teams the partners with ', sales reps and its top e&ecutive team. 3ecause 'urd wants the sales orce to have strong relationships with its partners$ he practices what he preaches. 'e spends up to 1 percent o the year on the road with various channel partners and their customers. ,art o his time is unneled through ',’s &ecutive Connections program$ roundtable meetings that ta!e place worldwide. 3ut many o 'urd’s interactions with ', partners ta!e place outside that program as well. %his demonstration o customer commitment at the highest level has created some "erce customer loyalty toward ',. 8I’ve probably met -ar! 'urd more times in the last three or our years than all the COs o our other vendors combined$ said Simon
,almer$ president o Caliornia(based S%+$ one o ',’s astest growing solution provider partners. 8%here’s no other CO o any company that si4e that’s even close. 'e’s such a down(toearth guy. 'e presents the ', story in very simple(to( understand terms. -ar! Sara4in$ e&ecutive vice president o +dvi4eJ %echnologies$ an ', partner or <= years$ sings similar praises. 8'e spent two(and(a(hal hours with our customers. 'e tal!ed in terms they could relate with$ about his own relationship with ', I%. 'e !noc!ed the ball out o the par! with our <=( plus CIOs who were in the room. One said it was the best event he’d been to in his career. In the our years since 'urd too! over as CO$ ',’s revenues$ pro"ts$ and stoc! price have increased by 00 percent$ 9
ew -e&ico called the S-3 &change. It combines a call center$ inside sales$ and channel sales teams. Observers have noted that whereas ',’s sales orce was
!nown or being more passive in the past$ it is now much more aggressiveli!e Cisco’s. 'urd !nows that because o ',’s enormous si4e$ it wal!s a "ne line. In act$ he reers to the company’s si4e as a 8strange riend. On the one hand$ it allows the company to o*er a tremendous portolio o products and services with support rom a massive sales orce. On the other hand$ multiple organi4ational layers can ma!e it more di;cult to create solutions or partners and customers. 'urd is doing everything he can to ma!e ', leaner and meaner so that it can operate with the nimbleness and energy o a much smaller company. %he changes that have ta!en place at ', have made most everyone more satis"ed. +nd happier salespeople are more productive$ resulting in happier customers. %hat should mean a bright uture or ',. 'urd !nows that there’s still much more wor! to be done. 3ut with a continued ocus on the sales orce and the sales process$ ', is creating a structure that creates better value or its business customers. >ow$ i your local electronics superstore could only do the same or you. . . .
?eerence: •
Eotler$ ,.$ L +rmstrong$ 5. 6<19<7. ,ersonal Selling and Sales ,romotion. In ,rinciples o -ar!eting 690th ed.$ pp. 0M9(0MA7. >ew Dersey: ,rentice 'all.
