Entering a role as a new sales leader can be challenging enough. Entering a new role within a legacy company during tumultuous market conditions might then seem impossible. Having overcome these challenges, Steve King, CRO of Hexagon PPM, joins us to discuss his experience leading a full go-to-market transformation.

Steve shares how he prioritized the challenges he faced and began leading the sales organization through massive change.

Today’s show is a demonstration on how sales enablement drives greater productivity per sales person and helps you scale the sales organization. To follow along, download our 10th annual workbook, How to Make Your Number in 2017. Turn to page 319 of the PDF to review the Sales Enablement phase of the workbook. [p]

Joining us today is Kent Cissell, the Senior Vice President of Sales Operations at Heartland Payment Systems. Heartland serves over 300,000 businesses domestically by offering best in class payment, payroll, and POS solutions.  Kent leads sales operations at Heartland and is responsible for sales enablement. Kent is uniquely qualified to demonstrate how to deploy sales enablement.

Why this topic? Getting an increase in sales head count is difficult. The expense cops expect all the current sales reps to be at quota before they agree to add any new heads. And when new sales people are hired there is little patience from the executive team members, who want each to generate revenue as quickly as possible. The sales enablement function exists to onboard new sales hires and to drive revenue per sales head up. Neglect sales enablement and forgo adding head count in the future.

For those sales enablement leaders measured on time to revenue. How quickly do we get these sales people to a point where they're selling enough, generating enough gross margin to cover their cost? Listen has Kent demonstrates Heartland’s investment a jump start and mentoring programs, and one on one coaching to ramp new reps.  It’s the way to build sales enablement.

Sales enablement is a key piece to your sales strategy. Neglect it and forgo adding sales head count in the future. Listen as Kent describes to how develop and execute a successful sales enablement strategy. And if after listening, you want to learn more, you can download our workbook, How to Make Your Number in 2017. It’s your step-by-step guide to a complete sales strategy, which includes a strong sales enablement program.

Developing and executing your company’s revenue growth strategy is not easy. Too often the corporate strategy stops with the executive team. When, in fact, it needs to trickle down throughout the organization. Listen to how John Myers, CEO at Rentokil Initial, has successfully does this at his company. 

Rentokil Initial is one of the largest business services companies in the world with 60,000 employees across 60 countries. As you can imagine, developing and executing a revenue growth strategy in a company of this size is no easy feat. Despite this challenge, John has been able to effectively translate his strategy throughout the entire organization.

During this podcast, John will discuss:

• How to define your company’s mission, vision and values.
• How to ensure your customer’s experience matches your brand promise.
• How to determine the organization’s financial objectives.
• How to know which markets to compete in, and which to avoid.
• How to determine your sustainable competitive advantage.

Your corporate strategy must be more than just a series of tactics. To make your number, you need to develop and execute a complete revenue growth strategy. This strategy needs to pull insights from the external marketplace and use this data to make key choices. Choices like “why do we exist?” Your strategy will set the direction for the entire organization. Listen to this podcast to hear how one of your peers has been able to do exactly that.

It’s marketing’s job to set the sales team up for success. To do this, the marketing and sales strategies must be aligned. We recently spoke with Clint Poole, the Vice President of Marketing at Lionbridge about this issue. You can listen to the episode here. Clint is responsible for driving demand for the company’s new solution offerings via a multi-channel demand generation program. This has given him great insight into how to align marketing and sales.

During the interview, Clint will tackle topics such as:

• How to ensure your brand promise is communicated correctly by the sales team.
• How to create both demand generation and sales enablement content.
• How to nurture leads until they are sales ready.
• How sales can play a role in helping marketing campaigns be successful.

We will use SBI’s playbook, “How to Make Your Number in 2016” to guide our conversation. If at the end of the show, you want a copy we’ll let you know how to get it.  

Aligning the marketing strategy to the sales strategy in a large businesses is hard to do.  Why? Because the two strategies are the most closely tied of any of the functional strategies. As a marketing leader, you must think through how you are going to help make the sales team successful. What is the key? A well thought out methodology. If you do not have a structured approach you will lose both time and money. Click here to listen to how one of your peers has done it right.

Product leaders must set up their marketing and sales team for success. If they don’t, those teams have no chance of accomplishing their objectives. Listen to our recent podcast on this topic. It’s an interview with Todd Wells, the Senior Vice President of Product Development at Frontier Communications. Frontier is a $11 billion dollar telecommunications provider that has been around since 1935.

During this interview, Todd will answer questions such as:

• How do you determine which markets to compete in?
• How do you determine the cost to build, market, sell, install, and support a product?
• How do you work with marketing to develop messaging?
• How do you work with sales to enable them to sell the new products?

We use SBI’s 6 Step Revenue Growth Methodology to guide our conversation. If at the end of the show you’d like a copy, we’ll let you know how to get it.

It is mission critical for the product team to be in alignment with marketing and sales. It’s the only way each functional team will be successful in achieving their objectives. And it starts with a well thought out product strategy. Listen to how one of your peers has set his organization up for success.

Are your product and sales strategies aligned? Too often companies miss their number because these teams are not on the same page. Listen to our recent podcast on this topic. It’s an interview with Inna Kuznetsova, the President of Inttra Marketplace. The company offers container booking, shipping instructions, and tracking services via its SaaS offering. 21% of the world’s trade begins at Inttra.

As President, Inna has responsibility for strategic alliances across the organization. While at IBM, she developed a solution to misalignment between product and sales. She now uses this process at Inttra, and will walk our audience through the concept.

During this interview, Inna discusses:

• The concept of a Product Council.
• How she develops the product road map.
• How she launches a new product.
• How to determine which channels your buyers prefer.
• How a product should be marketed, sold and bought.

To grow your company, you will need to successfully bring new products to market. Product and sales must be aligned or you’ll have a disaster on your hands. You should slow down, think through your strategy, and rely on a proven methodology. You can start by listening to Inna’s interview here.

Are your territories balanced? And have you placed the right reps in the right territories? This is no easy task. If you are one of many that struggle with this issue, listen here. It’s an interview with Charles Race, the Executive Vice President of Field Operations at Informatica. Informatica is an enterprise software company with approximately $1 billion in sales and 6,000 employees.

Charles’ experience uniquely qualifies him to give advice on this subject. He has implemented an excellent process at Informatica. Specifically, he has succeeded at territory planning and headcount relative to quota capacity.

During this podcast, Charles answers questions like:

• How do you determine the potential of each account?
• How do you determine the optimal size of each territory?
• How do you design balanced territories?
• How do you assign quotas for each territory?

To guide our conversation, we use SBI’s playbook, “How to Make Your Number in 2016.” We walk through how to allocate territories for maximum revenue potential. We’ll also let you know how to get a copy at the end of the episode.

Capacity planning in large businesses is hard to pull off. The key is a well thought out methodology. A good place to start is by listening to Charles’ advice here. He will walk you through how he has successfully done this at Informatica.

Have you integrated your product road map with your go-to-market strategy? Most executives think they have. But in reality, their go-to-market strategies are a collection of tactics versus a coherent plan.

If you suffer from this problem, listen to this podcast. It is an interview with John deLorimier, the EVP, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Concentra. Concentra is a national healthcare company that focuses on improving America’s health, one patient at a time. They operate 330 medical centers in 40 states.

During this interview, John discusses:

• Concentra’s corporate, product, marketing, and sales strategy
• How he integrates to company’s product strategy with his go-to-market strategy.
• How to establish launch goals, and understand launch risks.
• Who is responsible for content creation and for training the sales team on the new offering.
• How to measure progress against the launch objectives.

We use SBI’s 6 Step Revenue Growth Methodology to guide our conversation. If at the end of the show you’d like a copy, we’ll let you know how to get it.  

Developing an actual go-to-market strategy is critical to a successful product launch. If you’ve had a launch failure recently and want to see hear one of yours has done it successfully, listen now. 

We recently caught up with Ed Puisis, who is the CFO of Intelligrated.  Intelligrated is a $700 million industrial automation company growing 20% per year and is forecasted to hit $1 billion in just a few short years. 

We asked Ed to share with us his views on Sales and Marketing, from the perspective of the CFO.  The Chief Financial Officer is a key player in the development of the sales and marketing strategy but is one that is often overlooked in its development. This podcast is meant to offer insight into how finance, sales, and marketing can work together. 

You can listen to the podcast here. 

By listening to this interview you will learn how to: 

• Build KPIs correctly
• Connect sales/marketing KPIs to corporate KPIs
• Measure process effectiveness
• Move beyond activity metrics and get to causation 

If you are a Sales or Marketing Leader and need a better relationship with the CFO, you might find this helpful.

Original article at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/a-cfos-perspective-on-sales-and-marketing

Mark Synek of SBI talks to Rich Doggett, a twenty-year marketing veteran, and the VP of Field Marketing at Sysco Corporation. They discuss direct marketing, and how to apply corporate marketing strategies to field marketing. Also discussed is the importance of balancing internal and external customer needs. Follow along with Mark and Rich to find out how important buyer potential is, and why you should be getting away from product marketing and getting involved with customer marketing.

We recently interviewed Rich Doggett, Vice President of Product and Field Marketing at Sysco.

Sysco is the largest food distributor, does $45 billion in annual revenues, has 50,000 employees, and over 400,000 customers. 

By listening to this podcast, you will learn: 

• How product marketing can partner with the field sales team.
• An approach to think through which products should be sold through which channel.
• Examples of how to grow wallet share from key accounts.

Original article at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/how-to-migrate-from-product-marketing-to-customer-marketing

We caught up with two bright Sales Ops Leaders from the software industry. Evan Randall is the Vice President of Sales Ops at software company Tableau Software. The work that Evan is doing contributed to amazing sales results during the last quarter. Check these numbers out: 

Revenue growth of 71% and on run rate of $420 million.

License growth of 66%.

Added 2,500 new customers.

Big deals (>$100k) up 68%. 

Jerad Lally is the Director of Sales Ops at Paylease.  The work that Jerad is doing contributed to the company tripling in size and getting acquired by top tier private equity firm Francisco Partners. 

By listening to this podcast, you will: 

1.  Hear why staffing sales enablement with former sales reps produces great results.

2.  Understand the difference between a strategic and tactical Sales Ops Leader.

3.  How to ramp new sales reps to revenue quickly through certification. 

If you are a CEO, or Head of Sales, at a software company, ask yourself: “Are you getting maximum value from the Sales Ops function?” 

Hopefully, Evan and Jerad are two calibration points to help you answer this question. Highlights are from the blog post: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/best-in-class-sales-operations-leadership-in-the-software-industry

Matt Sharrers interviews Heartland's Chief Sales Officer about sales growth, how to acquire quality members, how to keep a good atmosphere in the workplace, and some key goals and struggles he faces planning for 2015.  More highlights can be read in this blog post: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/the-1-ranked-sales-team-of-2014

Here is what you will learn by listening to this podcast: 

1. How Tony, 34 years of age, became the youngest Chief Sales Officer in the Fortune 1000.

2. Why they have not changed the sales comp plan since 1994.

3. What the “Sales Rep Bill of Rights" is.

4. The difference between the goose and the eggs. 

Greg Alexander, the CEO of SBI is joined by George Norton, the head of the chief sales officer practice at Heidrick & Struggles.  If you are not familiar with Heidrick & Struggles, they are the world’s top executive search firm.  As a Partner in the firm, George gets hired by CEOs to fill the role of head of sales.  If you are a CEO, and are wondering if you need a new sales leader, listen to this.  It might help you think through this. If you are a head of sales, and are looking for the next adventure, listen to this.  It might help you increase your marketability. More blog highlights at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/heidrick-struggles-outlines-what-ceos-look-for-when-hiring-a-head-of-sales

A New Approach to Time Management for Sales Managers. Josh Horstmann, Principal at SBI, is joined by Mike Walz to discuss sales management cadence.  Mike is the VP of Sales and Marketing at Ramsey Industries with over 25 years of experience in the Industrial Sales Marketplace.  Josh and Mike discuss how buyer behavior is changing, and how sales managers must adapt their strategies.  Hear how Mike manages his team, and aligns their reps and buyers resulting in increased sales.  More highlights can be read at the blog post here: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/a-new-approach-to-time-management-for-sales-managers

How Agility Logistics Transformed Their Sales Force. Andrew Urteaga, a Principal at SBI, is joined by Paul Mullins, the SVP of Business Development for Agility Logistics. Agility Logistics is one of the worlds’ leading providers of integrated logistics with five hundred companies across 100 countries. These two discuss sales adoption, and how to get sales initiatives to stick inside an organization. They talk about what signs denote a need for change, why a company should push for a change, and items of note to help with adoption. When trying to push new sales strategies, a key item to focus on is making sure key stake holders are on board from the beginning. More highlights in this blog post: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/how-agility-logistics-transformed-their-sales-force

How Guidance Software Uses Data to Drive Their Marketing Efforts. John Staples, a Partner at SBI, is joined by Alex Andrianopoulos, the Head of Marketing at Guidance Software. Alex has an engineering background, which gives him a different perspective on marketing. His technical expertise has helped him understand the needs of his customers and how to help them most effectively. They discuss the many priorities marketing executives should be considering, including instilling a data driven culture.  They discuss relying on objective data and benchmarking to determine where to focus marketing’s efforts and resources.  More highlights in the blog post at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/how-guidance-software-uses-data-to-drive-their-marketing-efforts

The UPS Capital Story: Sales Training’s Contribution to Making the Number. George de los Reyes, a Principal at SBI, is joined by Curt Redden, Director of Sales Training for UPS Capital. Curt is a certified professional in learning and performance and has 20 years of experience in sales training and coaching. They discuss how learning development is becoming a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Listen to this podcast to gain insight on talent development to learn how to get the right people on board and invest in your people to maximize output. More highlights in the blog post at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/the-ups-capital-story-sales-training%E2%80%99s-contribution-to-making-the-number

A Sales Reorg with 99% Customer Retention & 5% Rep Turnover. Dan Perry, of SBI, is joined by Matt Boice, VP of Sales Operations for The Enthusiast Network. Matt’s organization was recently restructured and he is here to share his best practices. He will discuss the reasons for restructuring, the difficulties associated with it, and most importantly the benefits. Listen to this podcast to gain insight from your peer who was able to thrive during his company’s reorganization. More podcast highlights are at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/podcast-a-sales-reorg-with-99-customer-retention-5-rep-turnover

Mitel CMO Martyn Etherington Discusses Leveraging Buyer Personas. Martyn Etherington joins Mark Synek with SBI for the SBI podcast. Martyn is the CMO and Chief of Staff at Mitel, a global leader in business communication that easily connects employees, partners and customers. The two professionals discuss the topic of buyer personas, and all the ways personas can be leveraged throughout your sales and marketing organization. More podcast highlights at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/new-podcast-mitel-cmo-martyn-etherington-discusses-leveraging-buyer-personas

Hear How LegalZoom and Infusionsoft Manage Sales. Ryan Tognazzini, Principal at SBI, sits down with two thought leaders in the business community. Joining him are Aaron Stead and Ed Arcinue. Aaron is the senior vice president of sales at Infusionsoft and a fifteen-year veteran in the field. Ed is the vice president of sales at Legalzoom. They debate a huge struggle sales leader’s face today: the difficulties of balancing time, focusing on achieving short-term results, and planning for long term strategic initiatives. More podcast highlights at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/new-podcast-hear-how-legalzoom-and-infusionsoft-manage-sales

Sales Ops Inside Big Companies. Matt Sharrers, Partner at SBI, talks to Kimberly Appleton from On Semiconductor, and Chris Fris from Ryder Logistics about the role of sales operations; specifically the transformations that the role is undergoing and how the demands of the role are changing. They also discuss some of the challenges that go along with this role. The information that they have to share is revolutionary in this field of work. More podcast highlights at: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/sales-ops-inside-big-companies

Pfizer and Jive Software Share Sales Enablement Philosophies. Greg Alexander with SBI interviews two Sales Enablement Professionals to gain insight on the topic. The first Sales Enablement professional's name is Andy Garrity and he runs Sales enablement at Pfizer. Joining him is Patrick Merritt who runs Sales Enablement at Jive Software. They discuss what Sales Enablement is, and the challenges concerning Sales Enablement. More Podcast highlights can be found at http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/blog/podcast-pfizer-and-jive-software-share-sales-enablement-philosophies

By listening to this podcast you will learn:

• How to centralize sales enablement without creating a political turf war.
• Jive Software’s approach to on boarding sales reps.
• Pfizer’s approach to gamifying sales training.
• How mobility can enable the sales team without taking anyone out of the field.