SBI, The Growth Advisory

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Brian Walker, CEO of Herman Miller about finding and sustaining strategic alignment from the CEO’s chair all the way to the customer. In our first segment, Brian discusses some steps he’s taken to drive sales strategy from his role as CEO. The beginning of the processes includes annually narrowing down a set of four to five business strategies presented to the company to see all the way through. From there, each will be outlined in a detailed one-page document in order to understand the situational analysis of the project you’ve decided to take on in order to achieve overall business alignment. Next, Brian shares what has helped him run a strategy where strategic alignment exists along the product and sales team, and the role the CEO plays in keeping the product team, the marketing department and the operations group aligned. In our last segment, we ask Brian to send us off with some advice from his approach to leading a sales team as a CEO.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Paula Shannon, the chief sales officer and executive vice president of Lionbridge Technologies, about how to keep your team invested in a sales strategy as the year progresses. In our first segment, Paula shares what she feels is the right level of detail that a sales leaders should be requesting from their direct reports to gauge execution. A part of Paula’s company sales strategy consists of a weekly, monthly, and quarterly cadence of strategic reporting on sales strategy and a lot of focus on the details of day-to-day sales pipeline management. Next, Paula discusses how she keeps her CEO, CFO and the whole team on board throughout the year by executing a strategic sales strategy. Paula explains how she believes proof lies in the data and how she and her team focus on studying the historic data available to them to identify trends that later translate to a sales forecasting strategy. In our final segment, Paula helps us understand the delicate balance that lies in being both customer focused and company focused when change arises.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with, Stuart Kerst, vice president of sales operations at Hewlett Packard (HP), about how to increase the available selling time of a sales team to move the needle in an optimized sales process. In our first segment, we look at the industry standard of how much time a sales person should spend selling versus non-selling, and then we ask Stuart to share his point of view on how he believes sales reps should spend the 2000 hours available to them. Stuart walks us through technology’s role and how automation helps achieve the ideal balance. Stuart also touches on the role CPQ takes in the strategy development to support these strategic opportunities. Next, we focus on the root of the sales cycle productivity issue and how Stuart was able to increase the customer face time. Stuart shares with us how it begins with their annual process that includes a customer satisfaction review with their salespeople to find out where the pain points lie. In our last segment, we discuss how to reduce misalignment between the sales and marketing by aligning metrics of tracked data and how sales ops can say no to the field and not lose political capital.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we speak with Rick Balkind, the head lead of the sales enablement department for Pegasystems, about the intricacies of building and managing a sales enablement team. We discuss everything from the lead-generation process, RFP response team, new sales rep onboarding program, the design of a sales process, implementation of a sales methodology, and enablement of the sales management team. In our first segment, Rick shares with us how to ensure new programs and initiatives are being adopted in Q2-Q4, which numbers should be tracked to make sure sales enablement is impacting the business quarter-to-quarter and why it’s important to grow a sales pipeline in order to support growth. Next, Rick discusses how the sales management role of sales enablement developed over time and how a cross-functional evolvement team became of it. Rick then walks us through the content of their quarterly meetings. In our last segment, Rick breaks down his strategy development behind measuring an account workflow in assuring the pipeline development takes place as planned. Every quarter, each sales representative must create an account plan, which will later be scored. We end our segment by hearing Rick’s vision of the future of sales enablement.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Tim Huffmyer, the CFO of BlackBox Network Services, about reallocating a sales and marketing budget as the year unfolds. In our first segment, Tim discusses how to establish expectations for your stakeholders at the beginning of the year. He then details how he and his team reallocate the budget as the year progresses and things change. Next, Tim walks us through a hypothetical corporate strategy case study focused on head count planning, how that aligns with a P&L statement and the obstacles that come with it. In our final segment, Tim shares with us how he measures the market and the return on his sales and marketing strategy.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Fred Florjancic, Chairman of the Board at Ramsey Industries, and member of the board of directors at the Elkay Manufacturing Company and Liberty Tire Recycling, about sales and marketing effectiveness from the board’s perspective as it relates to accelerating revenue growth. In our first segment, Fred helps us understand how a board member should analyze a company during a sales and marketing strategy execution, by walking us through the five Ps of success: the people, the products, the plants, its processes, its prices. We also discuss how often board meetings should take place and how to best prepare for them. Next, Fred fills us in on the impact the CEO can have in leading the marketing and sales strategy to help meet the company’s revenue goals. We also dig a little deeper into what makes a great sales and marketing leader and how to hire the right talent as a board member. In our last segment, Fred shares with us how he strategically aligns his teams, from product to marketing to sales, for the most effective sales strategy.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with John Pierce, the Senior Director of Human Resources for the Americas Region and Global Sales & Marketing team at Motorola, about recruiting strategies he has implemented to attract the best talent in the market. In our first segment, John dives into recruitment and selection strategies with defining how to find the talent pools you need, where they're needed and the numbers that are required. We also learn about a single-page document that helps summarize the talent acquired and further analyze them in three categories: competencies, behaviors and A-player leadership elements. Next, John discusses how to approach the hiring process by sharing qualities to look for in applicants and how to strategically interview potential employees. We then hear John’s perspective on ways to handle an A-player walking out the door, including how to react and what you learn from that process. In our last segment, John shares how to pave transitionary paths for employees looking to move up in their departments and how to prepare them for success once they get there.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Jack Whalen, VP of Marketing at Phillips 66, about marketing strategy development. In our first segment, Jack identifies the difference between B2B and B2C marketing objectives, why investing in a lead generation program will support your marketing strategy and how compelling content can catapult your strategy to the next level. Next, Jack shares his experience in experimenting with a lead development team and what the first phase of results looked like. Jack then delves into data tracking and how trends in numbers help tell a story about your current and potential consumers’ behavior. In our last segment, Jack covers how to continue building an innovative marketing strategy in the face of a business acquisition.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Chris Cole, CEO of Intelligrated, about the role the CEO plays in the development of the sales strategy. In our first segment, Chris shares how he managed to gain success and revenue with his company during a difficult economic cycle by listening to customers and crafting products and services that helped his customers succeed. He also discusses how strategically aligning your sales strategy to your customer needs is essential to your overall strategy development. Next, Chris shares with us how he and his company differentiate themselves from others by offering more to their customer than just the product itself. In many ways, his team acts as strategic business consultants to their clients and, in return, they witness a very high percentage of repeat customers. In our last segment, Chris discusses why developing a successful sales strategy requires the perspective of internal and external resources.

This week on the SBI Sales and Marketing podcast, we spoke with Jeff White, chief revenue officer of Extreme Networks, about designing a new sales strategy within the first 90 days of a new job. In our first segment, Jeff describes how to become intimately knowledgeable of your business and how to properly analyze an organization in order to pinpoint where the transformative work needs to happen for a new sales plan. Next, Lee walks us through Extreme Network’s corporate strategy, which focuses on being a product innovator. He also discusses the importance of arming your company with subject matter experts in order to gain a deep understanding of your customer and then being able to align your selling strategy accordingly. In our last segment, Lee sends us off with tips on how to manage day-to-day sales and marketing deliverables while executing a 90-day sales strategy transformation.