Page 1 of 4© 2013 Alliance Performance Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6 Strategic Behaviors of Best-in-Class Sales ProfessionalsTurn a complex market into a land of attainable opportunity with these research-identified best practices.By Kristoffer Stewart

Behavior 1: Maximize customer knowledge

Best-in-class sales professionals learn everything they can about their customer’s business and their customer’s needs. By increasing both the depth and breadth of their customer knowledge, top performers are better able to spot inefficiencies in the

customer’s business—inefficiencies their solutions might alleviate. To maximize customer knowledge and become experts on their customer’s business, these sales professionals ask themselves questions like:

• What are my customer’s needs, challenges, and strategic goals for their organization?

• What criteria are being used to evaluate competing options?

Behavior 2: Capitalize on all available data sources

While they see the customer as a veritable treasure trove of useful information, best-in-class sales professionals also identify and capitalize on every relevant, non-customer data source. They review industry reports as well as their own

organization’s sales and marketing reports with an analytical eye, looking for trends, usage spikes, and other key data points to help them better understand the drivers behind each account. Top performers also utilize the other headquarters-based sources of information identified in Figure 1.

To capitalize on these resources, these sales professionals ask themselves questions like:

• What is my organization’s sales data telling me about this customer’s business?

• What data and metrics is the customer using to evaluate the profitability and efficiency of his or her healthcare business?

Executive SummaryWhat word best describes today’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology sales environment?

If you said “complex,” you would be echoing what sales representatives, corporate accounts managers, L&D managers, business unit directors, and other industry stakeholders tell us on a daily basis.

Whether they begin by discussing the increases in competitive challenges, access restrictions, and regulatory oversight, or the fact that it seems like sales professionals need to drive sales without actually selling, they all end up speaking to the complexity of the marketplace.

Such a complex marketplace can seem overwhelming. In fact, it might leave your least capable sales professionals scratching their heads. Your middle-of-the-curve performers, meanwhile, may be getting mired into complacency, and thinking, “if I can just hit my numbers this quarter, I’ll be fine.” But your best-in-class sales professionals—your top performers—thrive in this complicated sales environment [see Figure 2 on page 3]. They drive results in spite of, or perhaps because of, the complex dynamics of the marketplace. How do they do it? And how can you get the rest of your sales force to achieve the same results?

Alliance Performance Systems studied top-performing sales professionals at some of the world’s leading innovation-led businesses to answer these questions. As a result of this research, we identified six behaviors closely linked to the success these best-in-class sales professionals have in the field. These behaviors, described below, are driven by a variety of critical-thinking questions these top performers ask themselves as they analyze their accounts.

© 2013 Alliance Performance Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6 Strategic Behaviors of Best-in-Class Sales Professionals

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Figure 1: HQ-based Sources of Information

District managers/segment directors Sales reports

Company colleagues in the field

Account planners & other analysis tools

The Sales Ops department POA/compliance reports

The Marketing department Contracts & business reviews

Business analytics/intelligence teams Price lists

Behavior 3: See the “big picture”

In addition to digging into the data, best-in-class sales professionals also take a step back to get a larger view of an account in the context of their own organization, its sales goals, as well as the goals of competitors. With this big-picture

perspective, top performers spot opportunities and constraints for both their customers and their own organizations. Such global thinking also allows them to anticipate the “ripple effects” of business decisions as well as to uncover hidden opportunities for new business.

To see the “big picture,” these sales professionals ask themselves questions like:

• What are my organization’s strategic objectives and how do these align with my customer’s objectives?

• How does my customer perceive my organization’s value, and what leads me to believe this?

Behavior 4: Plan to leverage insights

Best-in-class sales professionals allot some account planning time to leveraging the insights they glean from exhibiting Strategic Behaviors 1-3. They make logical connections between the data and known or predicted customer

assumptions. They also use analytical tools, including SWOT analysis, to rank multiple solutions before presenting any to the customer. They organize all of the data and their analysis into a concise and cohesive “insights narrative” that will appeal to the particular customer they’re calling on. Their strategic goal is to use this data-driven narrative to corroborate or correct customer assumptions and to challenge the customer to think differently about his or her business.

To effectively plan to leverage insights, top performers ask themselves questions like:

• On my last account call, what did I share with the customer that he or she considered valuable?

• What clinical or organizational obstacles exist where I, and my company’s solutions, might be of value?

Behavior 5: Nurture strategic relationships

Best-in-class sales professionals leverage much more than just data and insights…they also leverage relationships.

In addition to building rapport with individuals across the customer’s

business, top performers are known for developing connections with influential stakeholders within their own organization. Leveraged appropriately, these stakeholders often become champions and sponsors who make business cases and contracts more likely to win approval. In addition, these champions and sponsors are resources best-in-class sales professionals use to help them address account-related concerns or issues.

To nurture strategic relationships, top performers ask themselves questions like:

• Who are the internal champions and sponsors at my organization who can help me to align critical support resources for servicing the account?

• Who influences decision-making within the account, and what is important to these particular individuals?

Behavior 6: Collaborate and share successes

Top performers ensure that their successes and best practices benefit their entire organization. They share the customer data and insights they collect and analyze cross-functionally and across business units—and in return,

they seek and request useful data and insights from their peers.

Best-in-class sales professionals also rely on colleagues to help them develop a consistent and unified account strategy, and they provide regular account updates to all team members and critical support resources along the way. To effectively collaborate and share successes, top performers ask themselves questions like:

• Who are the most effective account managers within my organization?

• Who else should I be communicating with that could help me with this account?

© 2013 Alliance Performance Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6 Strategic Behaviors of Best-in-Class Sales Professionals

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Average Performers… Top Performers… •  Are familiar with the customer’s

business and staff •  Are experts on the customer’s business, staff, and

their organizational, financial, and clinical needs

•  Are familiar with the customer’s utilization and control policies for their products

•  Are experts on the effect of customer utilization and controls, and understand the business drivers

•  Rely on the customer’s interpretation of account-relevant information

•  Perform their own objective analysis and tell a concise, logical, cohesive story with the data

•  Rely on assumptions the customer has made •  Corroborate or correct the customer’s assumptions with solid data

•  Collect surface-level account facts •  Collect all relevant account data and make logical connections

•  Offer limited data to support their position •  Use a range of data from multiple sources to support conclusions

•  Present a single solution for consideration •  Perform a SWOT analysis to rank multiple options before offering recommendations

•  Focus on one account at a time, and see only the “here and now”

•  See the Big Picture, and understand the “ripple effects” through the entire book of business

•  Think locally •  Think globally, beyond any single account

Figure 2: Key Differentiators of “Average Performers” and “Top Performers”

FREE JOB AID Download our Key Account Insights Generator to explore

more of the questions that drive the 6 strategic behaviors of best-in-class sales professionals

To find out more about the 6 Strategic Behaviors of Best-in-Class Sales Professionals contact Peter Pisarri at: ppisarri@allianceperformance.net or call us at (941) 766-0058.

Building a solid foundationThe good news: These strategic behaviors and the questions driving them are teachable. They can be transferred to all members of the sales force. The not-so-good news: An individual’s ability to effectively demonstrate the behaviors depends largely on his or her capacity for critical thinking and ability to “connect the dots.” These are skills that are much more difficult to teach and to master.

Fortunately, Alliance Performance Systems has developed a series of performance improvement solutions designed to help sales professionals at all levels along the curve build a solid foundation for these so-called “soft skills.” In the process, they’ll practice the core skills that make each of the Six Strategic Behaviors possible, and over time, learn to spot insights and opportunities by asking themselves the same kinds of critical-thinking questions top performers ask. These solutions can turn a complex, and sometimes overwhelming, marketplace into a land of attainable sales opportunity.

© 2013 Alliance Performance Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.Page 4 of 4

Key Account Insights Generator Critical-thinking questions best-in-class sales professionals use to analyze their accounts and uncover insights

Behavior Questions driving the behavior

1. Maximize customer knowledge

• What are my customer’s needs, challenges, and strategic goals for his or her organization? » What are the customer’s goals—personally, and professionally?

• How do these affect his or her decision-making?• What criteria are being used to evaluate competing options?

2. Capitalize on all available data sources

• What is the account’s market share and that of its competitors? » How is market share trending for the previous four fiscal quarters? » What’s driving the trend?

• What data and metrics is the customer using to evaluate the profitability and efficiency of his or her healthcare business?

• What differentiates our solutions from each of our competitors’?

3. See the “big picture”

• What are my organization’s strategic objectives and how do these align with my customer’s objectives?

• How does my customer perceive my organization’s value and what leads me to believe this?

• Which payer ultimately reimburses the customer for the products my company sells? » What is the formulary positioning (tiers) of those products?

4. Plan to leverage insights

• On my last account call, what did I share with the customer that he or she considered valuable?

• What clinical or organizational obstacles exist where I, and my company’s solutions, might be of value?

• What trends might impact this customer’s business and market share, and is it important for my customer to know this information?

5. Nurture strategic relationships

• Who are the internal champions and sponsors at my organization who can help me to: » Put a compelling business case together? » Align critical support resources for servicing the account?

• Who influences decision-making within the account? » What’s important to these particular individuals? » How can I strengthen my relationship with these decision-influencers?

6. Collaborate and share successes

• Who are the most effective account managers within my organization? » How do I connect with them to learn their best practices?

• Who else in my organization has insight into my accounts?• Who else should I be communicating with that could help me with this

account or to develop new business?

Website: www.allianceperformance.com | Phone: (941) 766-0058 | Fax: (941) 764-8552 | Email: info@allianceperformance.net