How can intra-collaboration approaches enhance sales performance in a complex global enterprise?
22nd September 2017 | Laurent Douek
Introduction
Working most of my career for global companies like PWC, IBM and SAP, I have been confronted with solutions and services of rising complexity, which are sold and delivered to increasingly knowledgeable customers in a competitive and transforming global environment. The daily activities of my sales team in direct relation with its customer are central: they are understanding the customer’s goals, business issues, industry, organisation, buying centres and relevant stakeholders. Furthermore, they are communicating with the customer at different hierarchical levels and aligning mutual expectations. Finally, they are designing and building the appropriate solution, demonstrating the solution’s benefits mapped to customer’s business requirements and pain points, developing and presenting value propositions, creating a compelling event and negotiating terms and conditions.
The variety of these activities and the required competencies demonstrate that selling complex solutions is not a “one-man show”. Thus, my sales representatives must exploit their own organisation and its resources. They must collaborate in an effective manner among all engaged contributors, prior to and during the sales process, and finally achieve their objective: winning the deal. This is a challenging task in a global and matrix organisation like SAP.
This study focuses on intra-organisational collaboration or relationships within the enterprise’s network and its stakeholders to impact sales results positively. Multiple roles across multiple lines of businesses and hierarchy levels can be engaged on a sales deal. Each of these roles, or internal stakeholders, while effectively collaborating with each other can contribute to the success of a deal, and eventually to overall sales results of the organisation.
PLEASE NOTE: Subscriber-only content – To read the full article, please login or purchase a subscription. Subscription Options Login
