EstablishingLasting Changesin the Sales andMarketing EnterpriseWHITE PAPER

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DEVELOPING GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING A NEW SALES AND MARKETING METHODOLOGY Although it seems counterintuitive—because we always think of change as chaotic—change is a manageable process that has a definite structure and outcomes that you can reliably anticipate. If you attempt to implement major corporate change without understanding this process, you’ll be confused by reactions that are a natural part of the process. Implementation guidelines can help managers anticipate the unexpected and manage the outcomes of major corporate change.

Establishing Lasting Changes in the Sales and Marketing Enterprise

INTRODUCTIONYour organization has decided that you must develop new processes, methodologies and technologies to increase the effectiveness of your sales force. Those you have, the ones that used to bring you great results, are not working in today’s economy. You know that if you do not change and adapt, your organization will become a follower, not a leader in your industry. Maybe your situation is not quite as drastic as this, but you know that your current approach will only have limited effectiveness in the current economy. How can you ensure a successful change in selling behavior, a winning cultural transformation?

The Current Atmosphere of Change Fast evolving technology and a perennially challenged global economy are forcing businesses to significantly change the way they operate. Delivering goods and services is becoming increasingly complex. Businesses have to use advanced information systems,

organizational structures, improved production methods, and ultimately new ways of thinking to meet the increasingly sophisticated and complicated demands of the customer.

To keep pace with the changes in the marketplace, companies are always in a state of change. Organizations must understand how to manage change. If you change your sales and marketing methodologies without understanding how to execute the change, your initiatives will not be sustained.

As with any of our White Papers, there will be a big variance in the seniority and experience of the readership. This White Paper aims to provide something for the complete range of requirements, but if you want to dig deeper or move wider, we urge you to get in touch with us individually. You can do this via email to: info@thetasgroup.com.

Based on our experience in implementing our sales and marketing processes in hundreds of organizations around the world, The TAS Group has developed a consistent and highly effective change management process for implementing large-scale process changes in sales and marketing organizations. We call this our change Execution Process, and the process diagrammed below covers the phases of a successful sales and marketing process change initiative:

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Learn

Manage

ApplyMeasure& Coach

DELIVER SOLUTION

DesignSolution

AlignStakeholders

DeployDealmaker

De�neObjectives

ADOPT SO

LUTI

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LIZE BENEFIT

PLAN SUCCESS

• Create commitment and motivation for the project among all managers and employees

• Sustain the change initiative without The TAS Group’s continued involvement

• Achieve a measurable and significant return on your investment in sales and marketing effectiveness

• Create business value, which you can trace directly to the approach and solution

Our Change Execution Process helps ensure that your sales and marketing changes do not get lost in the shuffle of change but instead become a priority to management and your sales and marketing teams. The TAS Group’s process ensures that your change initiative is successful by helping you:

• Align your change initiatives with your business imperatives

• Integrate change initiatives with existing company processes

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Our goal is to help you achieve organizational effectiveness by putting in place the people, processes, and technology to help you meet your sales goals. We will work with you to train your people, establish best practices, and put in place the technology to support the two.

Speed is key to achieving successEvery additional month that you add to the implementation of a new process dilutes its effectiveness and increases your opportunity cost. Condensing the implementation time window helps embed the process because everyone starts using the process simultaneously, which creates momentum for change. By rolling out a structured change program you can ensure that teams start using consistent and manageable processes. Generally, but not always, the smaller the organization and the simpler its structure, the speedier the implementation.

The TAS Group rolled out a new sales methodology at one of the world’s largest software companies. The company’s sales force had traditionally been an individualized, almost maverick sales force, but the company needed to implement a consistent sales methodology for their entire worldwide sales force. This was a major culture change for the company, which required a structured approach for rapid implementation. If the change limped over several months, the existing culture would have absorbed the change. Our Change Execution Process allowed a rapid implementation, which, in turn, gave the company an immediate return on their investment while achieving the culture change they needed.

Achieving organizational effectivenessThe traditional model of training focuses on training as an ‘event’, not a process. Using the traditional model for training people, Sharon, the Vice President of Sales, would inform Keith, the Director of Training, that she wanted the entire sales force to receive sales training to improve their account planning. Keith or Sharon would then select the best supplier to deliver the training and schedule the times for the training courses. After lining up the classes, Keith would send a memo to all sales personnel informing them that they must take the class and ask them to enroll. The sales force can sign up for any class at any time they want.

Mike, a sales person in Atlanta, took one of the first account planning classes, but the rest of his team didn’t attend class until several weeks later. After the class, Mike had several questions about applying what he learned to his current accounts, but he had no one to ask since his sales manager was too busy to attend the training. Mike also tried to integrate the information from his new account plan into the Company’s current CRM system, but there was no place on the screen to add the information. And, when he asked technical support why, they didn’t seem to know what he was talking about.

Mike was consequently very frustrated about taking several days of selling time to learn a process of which he was only able to use a small fraction in his daily activities. He communicated his perception that the new process was “pretty much useless” to the rest of his team, so by the time they took the class, many had little motivation to learn or apply the new process. Eventually the rest of the team was trained and Mike’s sales manager had the knowledge he needed to coach and support Mike but it was too late to change Mike’s perception. In the end, the sales force employed some of the techniques, but overall the company didn’t receive the maximum value from their training investment. They could have achieved a much greater ROI by using a change execution process that ensured the new process was institutionalized and embedded into everyone’s daily work habits.

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Sponsors will:• Decide which changes to make• Communicate the new priorities to the organization• Provide the proper reinforcement to ensure success

Major change will not occur unless the appropriate sponsors demonstrate sufficient commitment and the first-line sales managers and coaches buy into the change and manage to it.

ANALYZING YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS You must analyze your business to determine what changes your organization requires. If you do not start with solid plans, your initiative will fail.

Determining the root cause of your problemsBusiness analysis helps identify all problems in order to tailor the sales effectiveness solution. Often, the apparent problem is a symptom of a more serious underlying problem. An in-depth analysis determines the root cause.

Organizations that have successfully created effective changes do an in-depth analysis to determine:

• What they should change• How they should change• What the change will cost them (not just in financial

terms)

They always understand that anything could go wrong at anytime, and they take that into consideration when evaluating the cost of change. You must analyze your business and identify the problems that change might cause, and then make plans for circumventing or lessening the problems. You have to answer questions such as, “Where will this change have its greatest impact and at what speed?” “Should we proceed?” “Who is going to absorb it first?” “How do I prepare that part of the organization for what will happen?” “What resistance am I going to encounter?”

During the business analysis you should identify:• Business issues, problems, and opportunities inherent

in accomplishing the change• Key people involved in securing the necessary support

for the change to succeed• Key constituencies affected by the change• Metrics that you can use to measure success

Selecting sponsors of changeDuring the business analysis phase, you must identify the people who thoroughly understand the inner workings of the affected organizations and gain their support and commitment to the change. Sponsors are typically people who have this intimate knowledge as well as the power to initiate and legitimize change.

Good sponsors must have the following characteristics:

Power The organizational change to legitimize the change with the target population

Pain The power to legitimize a sufficient degree of pain regarding the status quo

Vision A clear definition of what change must occur

Resources

A thorough understanding of the organizational resources needed for a successful implementation, and the ability and willingness to commit what is necessary to the project

Organizational Impact

A thorough understanding of the effect the change will have on the organization

Human ImpactThe capacity to fully appreciate and empathize with what the employees are being asked to change about the way they operate

Scope The capacity to thoroughly understand the size of the group to be affected by the change

Public RoleThe ability and willingness to demonstrate the type of public support necessary to convey strong organizational commitment to the change

Private RoleThe ability and willingness to meet privately with key individuals or groups to convey their strong personal support for the change

Consequence Management

Be prepared to promptly reward those who facilitate the implementation process or express displeasure with those who inhibit acceptance to the change

Monitoring Activities

The determination to ensure that monitoring procedures are established that will track progress or problems that may occur during the implementation process

SacrificeThe commitment to pursue the task knowing that a personal, political, or organizational price may be paid for implementing the change

Sustained Support

The capacity to demonstrate consistent, sustained support for the change and reject any course of action with short-term benefits if it is inconsistent with the implementation process

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INTEGRATING THE CHANGE INTO EXISTING PROCESSES AND SYSTEMSThe TAS Group implementation team helps you to develop a detailed implementation plan that schedules and assigns all the critical components of a successful implementation.

Most processes don’t operate in a vacuum – they are linked to other processes in some way. You must identify how the change affects all the linked processes, clear up inconsistencies in the processes, and integrate the new terminology, methods, and models with your existing processes.

You should thoroughly test your changes to make sure that your employees will accept them. In larger organizations, you can do such a test by rolling out the change to a test group and by running pilot programs. This phase will allow you to find the holes in your planning and repair them before you take the change to the whole organization. During this phase you should take steps to:

• Adjust your current processes• Lower the resistance to change• Personalize the change

Adjusting your current processesDuring the testing of the change, you will be able to see how the change affects and is affected by the current conditions in the organization. The most obvious effects of the change are in current processes and technology. Will changing your sales and marketing methodology affect your sales forecasting? Will you need to adjust your CRM system to accommodate the new methodology and technology? You can make the necessary adjustments to processes relatively simply compared to the effort it will take for you to adjust the corporate culture that created the need for those processes in the first place.

Your processes and technology will need to work together. You may need to adapt your technology to fit the new methodology. We specialize in technology that encapsulates your new methods and integrates seamlessly within your CRM system. We can also configure our technology to fit your sales processes.

ALIGNING MANAGEMENT WITH THE NEW SALES AND MARKETING METHODOLOGYFor the change to be truly successful, you need your managers who are down in the trenches to become your agents of change. They need to be the managers your salespeople and sales support staff answer to daily.

Management alignment is the most critical part of the process. Management must understand and actively support the sales force training by, for instance, explaining the purpose and content of the training and the encompassing technology to the sales force. After the training is over, management must measure, use, speak to, coach to and reward based on the new technology and methodology – if they do not, the sales force will revert back to the old methods.

The sales force won’t make changes if no one pushes them and then reinforces the training through the technology, until they see how the new way benefits them financially. If an individual goes to a manager for help with the new process, and the manager can’t or won’t help them, then the employee will be less likely to continue the change effort. To sustain the change, management must learn and use the new technology and methodology.

Managers must also show their organization that they support the change and that the change is a priority by taking a leadership role in initiating the change. If employees perceive that the change is unimportant or even less important than other initiatives, then the change will not stick. The management alignment phase helps elevate the importance of the change in the mind of management.

During implementation you need to make allies of your managers; they must understand and commit to being sustaining sponsors of change. Your initiating sponsors of change, executive management, must commit to continually demonstrate to managers the importance of the change.

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INSTALLING THE NEW SALES AND MARKETING METHODOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGYNow the time has come for you to put all the pre-planning to the test. You have analyzed your business to make sure that the new methodology was right for your sales and marketing organization. Then you brought management on board and showed them the importance of implementing a new sales and marketing methodology. You then integrated the methodology into your existing processes and culture. Now you must deploy the change to your entire sales and marketing organizations through the underlying technology.

To effectively implement change you must:• Strategize. Make sure all steps are specific, measurable

and goal oriented• Monitor and reinforce. You should oversee the

progress, offer solutions to problems that arise, and apply the correct consequences to behavior

• Remain team focused. Remain sensitive to the needs of individuals in the team, the team as a group, and the organization

Successful implementations make employees feel that they have input into the change. You must provide them a forum for expressing their opinions and then take those opinions seriously. You should also involve them in solving problems that arise from change, making decisions about the change, planning the change project, and evaluating the results of change. They have to feel that they are an essential part of the change, not just one of many spokes in the wheel. No one enjoys carrying out orders when they have no input into the orders.

Training teams and not just individualsTo embed the change, you must rapidly train everyone the new process and technology touches. Entire teams will receive training together, either in classrooms or virtually, and all teams within each business unit will receive training during the same time frame. Installing the process like this will help ensure that management can reinforce their teams’ training.

Lowering resistance to change Even in the best circumstances employees will meet change with resistance. Resistance is a human response to any event that disrupts a person’s expectations. People are not resisting the change but the ambiguity that comes with change. To successfully change, employees must be willing and able to change. They must have the required skills, know how to use them, and want to use them. Employees who are willing and able to address change will feel less resistant to change. If they fear that they cannot adequately address the problem or opportunity, then they will resist change. To help lower employees’ resistance to change you need to:

• Encourage open resistance• Explain the cost of change

You can minimize negative effects of resistance by encouraging employees to express their fear openly instead of secretly. You can hear and address open resistance, but covert resistance can go unnoticed until it destroys a change project. Knowing how your people feel will allow you to address their fears.

Personalizing the changeSo far in the integration process, you have done things to help the organization as a whole accept the new sales and marketing methodology, as well as the underpinning technology. Now you must start targeting your efforts to smaller groups. During the integration phase, you will personalize the change process for each group. You must use the integration phase to show employees their importance in the initiative while reassuring them of their security within the organization.

Through good communication, you can show employees that they are important in the change process and that you empathize with their situation. Major problems in change initiatives stem mainly from a lack of communication with the people the change impacts personally. To avoid getting trapped in a self-destructive cycle of misunderstanding, you must effectively communicate with employees.

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• Reject ideas that promise short-term benefits but are not in line with the ultimate goal

• Stand fast in the face of adversity, remaining determined and focused in the quest of the goal

• Apply creativity and ingenuity when resolving problems or issues that would block the goal

The transfer of ownership is complete when each of your managers can support, reinforce and coach the process with his or her employees. The TAS Group’s consultants ensure that the managers are willing and able to sustain the change. To prepare managers, we include them in specific activities throughout the change execution process. Before the training programs, our technology helps your managers prepare for the program, which they will attend with their employees. During the programs, our consultants introduce your managers to their coaching role and support them throughout the event. And, finally, after the programs, our technology provides ongoing intelligence and support until your managers are not only fully equipped to sustain the change, but also can refresh and reinforce it.

TRANSFERRING OWNERSHIP OF THE CHANGETo successfully implement a new sales and marketing methodology, all managers must be able to support, reinforce, and coach the process with their employees, through the technology. The transfer of ownership begins during the management phase. In all phases you are showing managers their importance in implementing the new methodology and technology and showing them how to implement it and use it. During this phase, your sponsors must continue to provide the support that they gave to managers during the previous phases.

During the transfer of ownership phase, managers must make sure that their people feel comfortable with the new sales and marketing methodology and do not revert back to the old ways. You must continue your effort to build strong teams. You must also reinforce your commitment to the new methodology and technology. Your commitment to change is evident when you:

• Invest resources to insure the desired outcome• Consistently pursue the goal, even when under stress

and with the passage of time

REVIEWING THE SUCCESS OF THE IMPLEMENTATIONAt the very beginning of the change project we help your executive management determine the appropriate success metrics for the project. These success metrics are often linked to your critical success factors.

We will also help identify any issues or inhibitors preventing full implementation of the new methodology and technology.

After implementation, the analytics components of our technology provide you with the vital measurement capability to accurately assess the impact of the project at pre-defined anniversaries and coach or course-correct where necessary.

We’d be delighted to discuss your specific needs further, and explore how Dealmaker can drive sustained sales performance improvement in your organization. If you wish to find out more, please contact us at info@thetasgroup.com.

ABOUT THE TAS GROUPThe TAS Group helps progressive sales organizations increase their sales velocity resulting in higher win rates, bigger deals, shorter sales cycles, and more qualified deals in the pipeline. Our unique value is deep methodology embedded within intelligent Dealmaker software, 100% native in Salesforce. Smart coaching, delivered just-in-time, improves sales performance and accelerates sales results. We have changed the paradigm of improving sales effectiveness from traditional sales training to delivering sales methodology and insights when and where the sales person is working a sales opportunity.

For more information visit www.thetasgroup.com

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