October 28th Edition 2014 Top Sales World Magazine 2

JF: Most organizations seek topperformers who can help to growthe company, but I know that youand the team at MHI ResearchInstitute continuously researchthis idea of top “performer”. Whatwould you say is the definingdifference that sets a world classtop-performer from the rest?

TS: As our research shows, mostorganizations know their topperformers, but often, they don’tknow why these people are topperformers. There is a definingdifference that can be observedand mapped to performance, andthat’s the individual behavior. Threebehaviors are key to top

performance, and that’s providingperspective, conscious collaborationand performance accountability.

JF: How would you defineperspective?

TS: Providing Perspective is acustomer core engagement andmessaging principle that is basedon the idea that we really need tounderstand the customer’sbusiness needs in order to provide

World Class Sales Performance –The Defining DifferenceJonathan Farrington interviews Tamara Schenk, ResearchDirector for the MHI Research Institute.

The JF Interview

The JF Interview

Top Sales World Magazine October 28th Edition 2014 3

a solution that meets thecustomer’s desired results. Salesprofessionals who provideperspective work backwards fromthe customer’s specific context,their challenges, and their situation.They also analyze the entirecustomer community - that meansall involved stakeholders and theirdifferent approaches how to solvethe problem or how to master thechallenge. Based on that, topperformers also analyze thespecific decision dynamic of howthis customer is going to make adecision this time, since allcustomers make decisions indifferent ways. Based on thiswisdom, they map these findings totheir own portfolio of products,services and solutions to come upwith a tailored approach thatenables the customer to achievetheir desired results and wins.Providing perspective is a “this ishow you can achieve your goals”approach rather than “this is what Iwant to sell to you”. More on thatcan be found in this infographic andthis blog post.

JF: Insuring that there is thistailored approach doesn’tguarantee success but increasesthe likelihood of success. Onesize fits all just doesn’t workanymore does it?

TS: Absolutely--all aspects aredifferent—Customers are different,the buying situation is different,goals and the people who areinvolved are different. Salesprofessionals need adaptivecompetencies to connect the dotsbetween their experience, skills,

knowledge, strategies andexpertise to really understand thecustomer’s situation and to providea valuable perspective that makesa difference in terms of valuecreation.

JF: What are the key successtactics to provide perspective?

TS: Yes, there are a fewprerequisites that have to be inplace that are also success factors:Coaching is a key leadershipelement that has to be in place atthe frontline sales managers. Valuemessaging in a customer core wayis sales enablement’s responsibilityand of course - collaboration as amindset and a practical way ofworking together to achieve betterresults in a shorter amount of time.

JF: Obviously you have studiedthis concept of coaching quite abit, and head up our communityon Enablement. Most salescoaches know that they shouldbe coaching, but what makes foreffective coaching?

TS: The data shows that coachingis effective, when it follows anintegrated approach and when it’sfocused on improving the quality ofthe right sales activities andbehaviors that lead to the desiredsales objectives. That means thecoaching framework and thecoaching guidelines for frontlinesales managers have to have thesame foundation as theenablement approach. If so,coaching is a natural reinforcementof all enablement and trainingservices. If coaching doesn’t

happen or if it follows a differentapproach, it is setting all theenablement investments at risk. Nosales leader can afford such asituation – this is whyunderstanding the dependenciesbetween coaching and enablementservices is so important.

JF: I read a statistic that lessthan 25% of sales managers arespending more than 15 hours perweek coaching. Is that yourexperience?

TS: It is different in differentindustries depending on thecomplexity of the business. Theresearch shows that getting startedon a regular practice of coaching ismuch more important than focusingon the amount of time. Preliminaryresults from our latest researchindicate that coaching has a highpriority but does not have a time-wise urgency.

JF: I also read that less than 50%of sales managers do nocoaching at all.

TS: This is where sales executionshould happen and obviouslydoesn’t happen. It comes down tothe fact that this role is often notvery well defined. Often, they werethe best sales person and if so, thenew sales manager continues tosell and manages the people butand is not leveraging the potentialof the team.

JF: Let’s take that secondsuccess tactic to provideperspective—value messaging.We’ve heard that expression but

what is most critical to be able todeliver value messaging?

TS: The most critical thing is tounderstand the customer journey;the entire journey from when theyfirst discover the problem and achallenge to understand potentialsolutions then through the buyingcycle and into implementation. It alsomeans to accept that there is nolonger a “one size fits all” valueproposition. Value messages to besuccessful follow a dynamic and amodular approach; they have to betailored to the different phases of thecustomer’s journey and to thedifferent involved stakeholders.Value messaging parallelsperspective and works backwardsfrom the customer context and valuemessaging has to show customersdifferent ways to achieve results andhow they can create more successfor themselves. Many timesorganizations provide the valuemessages and say here it is, butsales professionals have to learnhow to deliver those value messagesespecially if they are addressingdifferent buyer roles. Valuemessages address the customer’scontext, help them to think differently,and they help them to understandthe broader scope of a problem andits business impact and how to solveand to achieve the desired results.This is why content services andtraining services have to be wellintegrated and to go hand in hand.

JF: In order to deliver valuemessages do you think that alevel of commercial bandwidth,experience, knowledge, know-how is needed?

TS: Absolutely. This gets down towhat is the strategic enablementapproach, and it is not only aboutknowledge. Knowledge is key, butthe sales professional needs evenmore knowledge in different areas;in industries and verticals, inmarkets, in products and services,understanding the business,understanding value chains,verticals and they need to have theselling and conversational skills inplace and the ability to play withthe situation. Adaptivecompetencies are necessary toquickly adjust behaviors to adifferent, new or complex situation.All of that has to come together.

JF: Collaboration was the thirdkey success tactic toproviding perspective. Arethere specific ways that topperforming sales groupsdemonstrate collaboration?

TS: First an organization has to becalibrated for collaboration thatmeans that we have to removebarriers. And barriers can beresponsibility or budget barriersand sales leadership needs toremove these barriers and thencollaboration has to be enabledbased on a framework approach.Then technology can help.Conscious collaboration is one ofthe defining elements of world-class sales performers, as our2014 Sales Best Practices Studyshowed. The purpose ofcollaboration is always to achieve

better results in a shorter amountof time. Collaboration allowsindividuals with disparate areas ofexpertise and different roles towork together in ad hoc scenariosthrough a common language andstrategic frameworks. Collaborationconnects teams, organizationsand companies. It’s how they worktogether to multiply their individualcontributions.

JF: The MHI Sales BestPractices Study captures andmeasures the behaviors,attributes and performance ofWorld-Class Sales performancearound the globe. How can welearn more about theseconcepts and how can peopleparticipate?

TS: People can participate byclicking on this link.

What’s special for the readers ofTop Sales World magazine is that wehave created a page where peoplecan also get access to an infographicon perspectives. And of course,survey attendees get exclusive firstaccess to the full study results in Q12015 and immediate access to ourresearch note “The Next Level ofTransparency”.

We are grateful and happy foreveryone to participate; it’s agiving and receiving process. �

You can also listen to the audioversion of this interview HERE.

The JF Interview

Tamara Schenk is the Research Director for theMHI Research Institute. Visit here.

October 28th Edition 2014 Top Sales World Magazine 4