HIGH-PERFORMING SALES TEAMS

THE SCIENCE BEHIND SUCCESS

Aaron Hunt

Sales Capability

Manager

June 2014

Please Note: Some information has been removed from this presentation for commercial sensitivity reasons. All copyrighted material remains the property of its respective rightful owner.

Arrium

• $7b sales

• Export 12 million tonnes of iron ore per annum

• 9,000 employees

Arrium Steel Division

• $3.5b sales

• 5,500 employees

• Manufacture 2.5 million tonnes of steel per annum

AUSTRALIA

ASIA

NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA

SO WHO ELSE LIVES IN A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE MARKET?

LAST YEAR WE PRODUCED JUST $316M EBITDA AGAINST $7b REVENUE

INCREASED COMPLEXITY

LONGER SALES CYCLE

BUT IT IS PRETTY GLOOMY OUT THERE!

LACK OF GROWTH

OVERSUPPLY

DECLINING MARGINS

MORE STAKEHOLDERS

PURE COMMODITISATION

INTENSIFICATION OF RISK!!!

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

THE ANSWER IS NOT JUST TRAINING!

IT’S MORE THAN THAT

STRATEGY

WE ALL KNOW PORTER’S GENERIC STRATEGIES

PRICE / COST LEADERSHIP DIFFERENTIATION NICHE

“Only one person can be lowest price; everybody

else has to find something else to do.”

ONLY REALISTIC OPTION

PRICE / COST LEADERSHIP NICHE

DIFFERENTIATION =

Do Something Else!

EXHIBIT #1

© Tony Hughes (2010) “The Joshua Principle – Leadership Secrets of RSVPselling”

EXHIBIT #2

Tom Snyder – CSE2012

EXHIBIT #3

Arrium internal user – source unknown

DIFFERENT APPROACHES

• Engage early

• Provide new insights

• Help define solution

• Trusted advisors

• Known differentiators

• No two opportunities identical

• Sales process adapts to buying process

• Broad & deep relationships

SIMILAR RESEARCH FINDINGS

• Customer focused

• Clear value creation process

• Data-driven

• Lead customer

• Understand decision making process

• Very adaptive sales people

• Identify in-business coach

What does a high-performing sales organisation look like?

HOW DO YOU CREATE AN

ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH

SALES PEOPLE CAN

PERFORM TO THIS LEVEL?

CEB IDENTIFIED 24 ELEMENTS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE

1. Strategy

2. Change management

3. Sales culture

4. Internal alignment

5. Segmentation

6. Voice of the customer

7. Account planning

8. Coverage

9. Key account planning

10. Customer stakeholder management

11. Commercial messaging

12. Skill certification

13. Recruitment

14. Onboarding and training

15. Sales competencies

16. Coaching

17. Performance management

18. Frontline management

19. Goal setting and forecasting

20. Rewards and recognition

21. Sales metrics

22. Sales enablement

23. CRM

24. Sales process

Corporate Executive Board – Anatomy of a World Class Sales Organisation

Which levers

BUT WHICH LEVER DO YOU PULL FIRST?

Miller Heiman study the habits of world-

class sales organisations also

FOCUS ON CUSTOMERS

• Understand why the buy from us

• Defined Value Propositions

• Understand needs and wants clearly

• Internal alignment on account approach

91%

33%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Focus on Customers

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

COLLABORATIVE CULTURE

• Allocate the right resources to the right opportunities

• Management team work with sales to progress opportunities

• High-performers are studied to understand

• Best-practice is shared amongst the sales team

91%

30%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Collaborative Culture

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

KNOW WHY THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL

• Define clear criteria for key accounts status

• Align remuneration with business objectives

• Accurate CRM data

• Sales team focuses on spending time with customers

83%

30%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Understand Success Factors

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

• Formalised, compelling VPs, communicated across the organisation

• Lean and reassess regularly

• Shared view of customer as core to business

• Confident collaboration by both groups

96%

31%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

World-Class The Rest

Defined VPs

89%

26%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Sales & Marketing Aligned

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

MANAGING OPPORTUNITIES

• Adhoc teams form to meet requirements of customer buying process

• Common processes

• Shared view of customer as core to business

• Confident collaboration by both groups

89%

29%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Smart Resource Allocation

89%

40%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Understand Customer Needs

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS

• Clear criteria for key accounts

• Measure life-time value, share of wallet and up-sell opportunities at all times

• Review success with key account

• Continue to sell after the sale is signed

85%

34%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

KA Criteria Established

89%

33%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Conduct Reviews with KAs

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

PEOPLE & ORGANISATION

• Management help to advance sales opportunities to closure

• Forward looking

• Pipeline management process

• Understand what makes top talent successful

• Quantify and map desirable behaviours

94%

34%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Mgmt Supports Sales Process

93%

34%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Key Success Factors

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

OPERATIONS & ENABLEMENT

• Aligned to and supportive of business strategy and goals

• Need to be challenging but achievable goals

• Confidence in CRM data set

• Standardised process for managing activities and recording

93%

38%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Compensation Aligned to Goals

78%

22%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Quality Data in CRM

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

• Capture attributes and behaviours of top talent

• Inform training & development programs

• Remove back office clutter

• Structure support systems to provide what is required and when it’s required

89%

21%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

World-Class The Rest

Leverage Top Performer Skills 76%

24%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

World-Class The Rest

Maximise Time in Field

Miller Heiman – 2013 Sales Best Practices Study

The Arrium approach

Employee lifecycle management for sales talent.

HOLISTIC APPROACH

Role Definition &

Capability Profiling

Talent Management &

Development

Performance

Management

- Clear understanding of how

each role supports the

strategy through its purpose

and contribution.

- Identified understanding of

the skills and knowledge

required to perform each role

to the desired level of output.

- Explicitly stated key metrics,

objectives & standards of

performance, as well as

clear behavioural

expectations.

- Ability to identify and recruit

high potential individuals from

within and out of the industry.

- Suitable remuneration and

rewards to maintain required

levels of engagement.

- Support continuous

improvement through learning

& development to meet both

current and future

requirements.

- Talent pipelines to fulfil

succession requirements at

each level of the organisation.

- Appropriate measures and

checks to ensure required

outputs are achieved.

- Coaching & training support

for individuals to achieve

required levels of

competence.

- Clear and explicit standards

and expectations of

deliverables.

- Suitable systems/processes

in place to provide both

predictive and responsive

indications of gaps.

© 2014 Arrium

Some interesting frameworks

PRO

VALUE BASED SELLING

• Jeff Thull – The Prime Solution

• Move beyond selling product or process and move on to performance

• Focus on what does it DO for the customer? The outcomes

• Tried and proven approach

PRODUCT

PROCESS

PERFORMANCE

Jeff Thull (2005) “The Prime Solution”

SPIN SELLING

• Perennial favourite

• Neil Rackham / Huthwaite International

• Research backed

• Main influence for current generation of consultative selling programs worldwide

S

P

I

N

SITUATION

PROBLEM

IMPLICATION

NEED/PAYOFF

Neil Rackham (1988) “SPIN Selling”

VALUE PROPOSITION MODEL

Barnes, Blake & Pinder (2009) “Creating & Delivering Your Value Proposition”

SELLING vs NEGOTIATING

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

“Selling is the

process of justifying

value.”

© 2012 Aaron Hunt

“Negotiating is the process

of trading concessions until

the customer’s perception

of value is equal to, or

greater than, the price being

asked.”

© 2012 Aaron Hunt

Developing high-performance is

challenging

BUT IT IS WORTH DOING

JUST BE SURE TO BE DELIBERATE ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU DO.

STATE YOUR EXPECTATIONS, PROVIDE SUPPORT AND HOLD PEOPLE TO

RIGOROUS ACCOUNT

THANK YOU

ANY QUESTIONS?

Aaron Hunt

Sales Capability Manager

Phone: 03 9903 6221

Mobile: 0417 540 751

Email: hunta@onesteel.com

LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/aaronwhunt/