Master's program in sales management strategy final

Master’s Program in Sales ManagementSTRATEGY AND ALIGNMENT

Nick’s Bio - Highlights Career:

ComputerLand Canada◦ 8 Years in Sales and Sales Management◦ Director of Marketing

Softchoice Corporation◦ VP of Sales◦ VP of Marketing◦ SVP of HR◦ SVP of Business Development

CultureByBrand

Personal:

Volunteering◦ Led teams to Ghana, Rwanda, Bali,

Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda and Guatemala

◦ Board Member for The Strongest Oak

Fitness◦ Master’s Swim Club member for 22

years◦ Club President

Married with one daughter

AgendaContext

Corporate Strategy Fundamentals

The Importance of Culture in Differentiation

Aligning Marketing Strategy and Sales

Landing Strategy in Value Propositions

Elements of Sales Strategy

Managing Leading Indicators

Conclusion

Two ways to drive company financials:

Decrease Costs

Increase Revenue

Leverage (Creates Financial Health)

Revenue

Expenses

Productivity

What Challenges are you Facing Today?Internally and Externally

Corporate

Strategy

IT IS ABOUT WINNING NOT COMPETING

Do you have a Strategy?

Are you growing faster than your competition?

Strategy

DifferentiationFocus (Choices)Value-Based PositioningAlignment

Operational ExcellenceTacticsA BudgetProduct Strategy

Examples Dell (circa 1990)

◦ Cut out the Middleman◦ Low Cost◦ Just in Time Manufacturing

Apple◦ Beautiful design◦ Revamp ecosystems◦ Fun, Utility

Tim Horton’s◦ Soup and Sandwiches◦ Always Fresh coffee◦ Homestyle lunches

What is your Strategy?

What is unique about what you offer?

Is there a unique focus that your company has?

Are your resources and processes aligned to enable your strategy?

Strategy Canvas

Strategy Canvas

Time to Practice (strategycanvas.org)Pick one of your companies

Inform the GroupWhat do you do?Who are your customers?What makes you different

Create the Factors of Competition for your industry

Plot your company on the Strategy Canvas

Plot at least one competitor

Pick a presenter

Time: 45 minutes

Groups

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4Patrick Graham Kristen Randall Cheryl Rose David GrinsteadBeth Gibbs-Bartel Francois Bosman Patti Anderson Marc BlanchetteJohn Connors Shaun Furneaux Stephen Miller Carolina Suarez-MaslankyCraig Gleason Anthony Cianciotta John Cassidy

What did we learn?Is your company differentiated?

Categories of Value

What We Offer What OurCompetitors Offer

What a CustomerWants

A

C

B

D

E

Airline Example:A. Safety

Route SelectionSchedule options

B. Alliance PartnersC. Friendly Service

SpeedD. Frequent Flier Miles

Seat SelectionE. Car Rental Discounts

Activity Map(Alignment of all Resources)

How you do it differentiates you!

Four Actions Framework Break the Trade-off Between Low Cost and Differentiation

Eliminate Create

Raise

Reduce

Which Factorsshould be reducedwell below theIndustry’s standard?

Which Factorsshould be createdthat the industry Has never offered?

Which Factors thatthe industry haslong competed on should be eliminated?

Which Factorsshould be raisedWell above theIndustry’s standard?

NewValue Curve

Four Actions Framework(Southwest Airlines) Break the Trade-off Between Low Cost and Differentiation

Eliminate Create

Raise

Reduce

Which Factorsshould be reducedwell below theIndustry’s standard?

Which Factorsshould be createdthat the industry Has never offered?

Which Factors thatthe industry haslong competed on should be eliminated?

Which Factorsshould be raisedWell above theIndustry’s standard?

NewValue Curve

SpeedFriendly Service

Seat Selection,Lounges, Meals, Frequent Flyer

Strategy AND Execution

95% of employees cannot articulate their company’s strategy

2/3 of IT and HR initiatives do not support corporate strategy

Strategy is not cascaded to Marketing, Sales, etc.

DifferentiatedStrategy

ExecutionC M

Culture

Values Drive Culture

Values Behaviours

Culture Brand

Me

We

Internal External

Example – Zappos

What is your Culture? Is it Unique?

What are your Company’s Values?

What Behaviours do you manage?

When Sales People are destructive to your culture what do you do?

Group Work (New Groups of 5)

Step 1:

Review the Values and Culture of your key competitor◦ Careers section of their website or About Us

Step 2:

Identify where you sound the same and where you sound different

Step 3:

Share with your team how your culture seems unique and different

Step 4:

Get feedback from the team on making this more VIVID

What did we learn?How does your culture help you to differentiate?

Marketing

Strategy

TURNING CORPORATE STRATEGY INTO ACTION

Marketing What is the Role of Marketing?

What is the Role of Marketing in your company?

Your company has a finite amount of $$ that it is able to spend on customer acquisition

◦ How much should be spent on marketing?◦ How much should be spent on sales?◦ What is the optimal mix for your industry? For your strategy?

• Revenue Growth• SGA as % or

RevenueKPI • Cost of Customer Acquisition

• Business MixKPI• Sales % of Plan• Growth Rate• Sales Comp as % of

Revenue KPI

• Customer Retention

• Customer Satisfaction

KPI

Planning

Strategic Plan

Marketing Plan Sales Plan Customer

Plan

VisionOverall Business View

3-5 Year HorizonFinancial GoalsCompany StructureLeverageInvestment

Market-Centric- 1 Year HorizonWhat Segments?What Offers?What Competition?DifferentiationMarketing Spend

Execution-Centric- 1 Year HorizonTerritoriesCoverageSales CompBusiness MixBiz plan for each market

Customer-Based- Quarterly or AnnuallyCustomer Value PropositionGrowth GoalsObjectives

Marketing Plan Elements

Section 1: Market Analysis

Section 2: Situation Analysis

Section 3: Marketing Strategy

Section 4: Implementation

Section 5: Financial Summary - Outcomes

Marketing StrategyWhat are

we Selling?

• Products• Services• Mix and Lifecycle• Portfolio Analysis

Who do we sell it

to?

• By Product• By Segment• By Geography• By Channel

Value Proposition

• Pricing Strategy• Margin Objectives• Angel Customers• Demon Customers

How do we Sell it?

• Sales Force• Social Media Plan• Website • Advertising

Value Propositions

Psychological Value

- Service- The

Experience

Value Proposition (Creating Value)

Technical Value

- Better Product

- Key Features

Economic Value

- ROI- Productivity

$$

The Marketplace

Are all Customers the Same? Is your Market Diverse?

Segment Specific Value Props

Which slice of the marketdo you wish to serve?

Value Propositions At our company we value ______________________________

This means we ______________________________

We seek to help Customers who ______________________________

Unlike our Competitors we ______________________________

Answering these questions:

Why should someone purchase your offering?

Why should someone purchase your offering instead of your competitors?

What is most worthwhile for someone to keep in mind about your offering?

Exercise - WorkshopSame Groups as before and Same Company

What are the Functional, Economic and Psychological areas of Value Creation? (where is the primary focus?)

Compare Value Proposition areas to Differentiation areas on the Strategy Canvas

Are there any key areas of focus? (Customer Segments)

Present the re-worked Value Proposition statement for your company

30 minutes

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4Patrick Graham Kristen Randall Cheryl Rose David GrinsteadBeth Gibbs-Bartel Francois Bosman Patti Anderson Marc BlanchetteJohn Connors Shaun Furneaux Stephen Miller Carolina Suarez-MaslankyCraig Gleason Anthony Cianciotta John Cassidy

What Did We Learn?How helpful was it to have people who didn't understand your industry asking questions?

Can you drive a preference for your company?Is every customer a good customer?

What can you apply when you get back?

Sales Strategy

What Do We Manage?

Sales Management

Representatives and Territories

Accounts Opportunities

Funnels andForecasts

Elements of Sales Strategy

Value Proposition

Customer Segmentation

Coverage/ Territories

Use of Multiple Sales

Channels

Sales Competencie

sActivities for Sales People

Sales Management

Sales Incentives

EfficiencyProductivity

Winning

Recommendation1. Workshop all elements as part of your next fiscal year planning cycle

2. Work in tandem with Marketing

3. Plan changes well in advance

Leading Indicators

Lagging Indicators

Examples of Lagging Indicators% of plan

Customer Satisfaction

On-time Delivery

Market Share

Win-Loss Ratios

Customer Retention

Customer Profitability

What do these things have in

common?

Leading Indicators

Examples of Leading IndicatorsNumber of Sales People Trained/Certified

Number of prospects identified

Number of customer appointments each month

Number of Demonstrations completed

Number of prospects touched in Seminars

Size of the Sales Pipeline

Sales Cycle

Does The Rep know how to sell

the product?

Do we have any

identified suspects?

Have we had

technical people on

site?

Have we done a

proof of concept?

Have we presented

an ROI Analysis?

How about you?“ When we get technical people onsite we win”

“ When we do a demo we win”

“ When we present ROI cases we win”

Group WorkBreak into groups of four

Share your leading indicators

Discuss how you could measure at least one new leading indicator effectively (Make sure it is Strategically Aligned!!)

20 minutes

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4John Cassidy Carolina Suarez-Maslanky Marc Blanchette Kristen RandallAnthony Cianciotta Stephen Miller Patti Anderson David GrinsteadCraig Gleason Shaun Furneaux Francois Bosman Cheryl Rose

John Connors Beth Gibbs-Bartel Patrick Graham

What did we learn?How do Leading Indicators help you to execute strategy?

Glancing BackContext

Corporate Strategy Fundamentals

The Importance of Culture in Differentiation

Aligning Marketing Strategy and Sales

Landing Strategy in Value Propositions

Elements of Sales Strategy

Managing Leading Indicators

Conclusion

ContactNick Foster

Cell: 416-275-0776

Email: nick@culturexbrand.com

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