This document discusses how a large global company with declining sales can improve its sales process and strategy. It argues that in knowledge-intensive industries, sales teams alone are ineffective at selling complex products and services, and that the company's current sales model of aggressive targets, high incentives, and a sales-only focus is misguided. The document recommends that the company rethink its sales process to involve subject matter experts collaborating with sales from the beginning to understand customer needs and provide knowledgeable, customized proposals and solutions. It provides an example of a company that takes this collaborative approach and achieves a nearly 100% success rate in winning bids.

1. *
“Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76

2. * A Typical Global Company
* Fortune 500/1000
* 200 Divisions
* 40 Countries
* 25000 Employees
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3. *
@ Acme Inc.

4. * Original Question “Our Sales are dropping. We
have not met our targets. Closing Ratio’s are
abysmal. Should we set more aggressive
targets, incentivize and hire more Sales
people?”
* The Correct Question - “Assumptions have
changed. In knowledge intensive industries
Sales teams are not enough to Sell alone.
Should we relook at our Sales Process &
Strategy?”
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5. *
And The Philosophy Behind The Answer

6. * Salary + 50% PRB on meeting Sales Targets + Commission on Sales
* Heavy Incentivization and Pressure to meet Arbitrary Targets
* Aggressive Sales Targets which have no basis in Reality e.g. we did 20
last year this year we will do 30. Really? How? Why?
* Sales only interested in meeting the numbers and after closure
throws it over the wall to the rest of the organization and washes its
hands
* Sales promises anything sells anything and strains and breaks the
organizations operations and reputation further declining sales
* Few favorite schemes used and tried with everyone. Poor Ratios
don’t worry Sales much; everything is fixed with a larger Size of
Leads/Pool
* Heavy on cookie-cutter proposals
* Salesmen with a huge portfolio of Industry Contacts are highly a
Prized Catch!
*

7. * In the Knowledge Industry the Sales Function by
itself is ineffective
* They have no idea of what they are selling
* Technology/Knowledge products, services and
solutions are too intense and complex to be sold by
non-engineering/non-practitioner MBA's by
themselves
* Customers are always more knowledgeable than
your Sales
* Todays organizations are Technology and Innovation
Driven compared to the Sales Driven organizations
of the past
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8. *

9. * Business 2 Business
* Inbound Marketing, Very Reputed
* 2 Weeks time from receiving RFP to Submission
* No dedicated Pre-Sales team
* Sales Manager/Director becomes the RFP Owner and Supervises
* The Sales team is assembled immediately within hours w/ 2 BA(s), 1 Architect, 3
Engineer(s) 2QA(s)
* No cookie-cutters or wild guessing games
* Everyone Analyzes Requirements together
* They create Master Story Lists, do Poker Estimation, Raw Velocity, Release Planning,
Costing… collectively
* Experts chip in on the Corporate Forum with Experiences, Cases, Gotcha’s and Advise
in 24 hours across the Globe
* They ask the Customer lots of Questions, refuse RFP’s sometimes and/or ask for more
time to file the best Response.
* Basically They Invest in Sales! Collaborative Sales!!!
*

10. * In one office 12 RFPs done in one year
* 1 RFP Withdrawn by the Customer
* Each RFP involved competing with at least 2 dozen
top Global companies in bidding
* 11 of 11 RFPs won!!!
* 100% Success Rate
* They don’t use any Sales metrics. They don’t need
to
* 98%-99%+ Employee Utilization across the company
across the Globe across the year
*

11. Aditya!!!
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