Elevation Insights ™ | Customer Intelligence (Strategic Accounts | Key Accounts)

© Elevation Insights™ 2012-2014. All Rights Reserved.A Chirala Holdings™ Subsidiary & partner of Crescendus™ 1© Elevation Insights™ 2012-2014. All Rights Reserved.A Chirala Holdings™ Subsidiary & partner of Crescendus™

Elevation Insights™

Customer IntelligenceStrategic Accounts | Key Accounts

© Elevation Insights™ 2012-2014. All Rights Reserved.A Chirala Holdings™ Subsidiary & partner of Crescendus™ 2

Senior Management Sales Mandate- Happens every year in almost all companies

Sales Team Mandate-I want the team to start focusing more on solutions sales strategies & services for ourcustomers in key accounts, that includes targeting decision makers at various levels (e.g.CEO/CFO, VP, Director etc.). This is important for the following reasons:• Becoming a trusted partner and advisor to our customers• Increasing customer retention• Growing revenue by selling deeply within our customer’s organization (e.g. differentbusiness units)• Protecting margin

VP Sales Initiated Scenario

Deliverables:I expect my Sales Managers & Directors to comprehensively research, analyze and develop anaction plan and supporting system that addresses customer intelligence, industry trends &pain points/unaddressed opportunities for each of our key/strategic accounts. This customerintelligence process should be part of the account conversion plan for this fiscal year, andshould be kept current.

Based on the latest customer information intelligence, I also expect you to develop customizedtargeting strategies for key decision makers within each of our strategic and key accounts.


VP Sales Deliverables: Deep Dive

Note- The team may be required to collect, analyze and maintain additional sources of information. Also, a new set oftasks and deliverables may be demanded as the year progresses.

VP Sales Deliverables

•Requires team to collect detailed customer intelligence and up-to-date tracking of all new developments forthe strategic and key accounts:

• Customer Sales & Distribution Channels•Customer Marketing Strategies•Industry Developments•Regulatory•Legal•Intellectual Property•Competitor Pressures• R&D/Product Development•Supply Chain•New Initiatives•Cost Reduction• Executive Strategy• SEC/Regional Country Filings•Analyst Presentations

• Analyze all the above data and come up with key/strategic account specific solutions selling targetingstrategies, addressing new opportunities for revenue growth.

• Develop a wide range of strategies to target customer Executives, Directors & senior decision makers.

InformationTypes


Key Concerns from Top Sales Personnel: Not Enough Customer Facing Time

• Core Focus- The company can maximize ROI by letting sales use it’s valuable time talking tocustomers & things that they do best- selling, rather than doing background information research,that needs frequent updates. Such background research should be done by headquarters oroutsourced to an external firm.

• Bandwidth Issues- Limited time to comprehensively investigate all the pertinent informationrelating to all the strategic/key accounts & understand customer/decision maker pain points & issuesimpacting them and their industry. We can document actual customer meetings details but alladditional preparation research and customer intelligence work should be done by headquarters oroutsourced.

•Marketing Limitations-•Marketing develops trends and value propositions to cover a market or product space, not foreach and every account. Additional work is required by sales to tailor customized solutions toan individual account.

•Building customized targeting strategies for each key account and by decision maker shouldbe led by marketing or in consultation with an external firm.

Key ConcernsCommon ObservationBetween 30-50% of sales personnel time is spent onnon-customer facing tasks


Practical Tips for Success: Support your Sales Team……with Tangible ResourcesDo not ignore internal sales conflicts & what is usually “not said” in meetings

Management View Top Sales Performers View

Solutions Selling is essential for the success of ourcompany and for us to differentiate our products fromour competitors, in a tough market.

Sales team should be well informed & prepared. So,the task of doing background research of key accounts& staying current on customer intelligence is vital,and sales need to do it.

We are paying you a lot and this is part of your jobresponsibilities.

The team is on-board with the idea of solutionsselling strategies and agrees with managementon it’s importance to the company.

Execution of solutions strategies for keyaccounts places huge burden on top salesperformers and cuts into their already over-extended time schedules.

Conducting background research and keepingcustomer intelligence can be better handled byheadquarters or outsourced. This will improvesales ROI.

•Top sales performers have the above concerns but are hesitant to tell VP Sales and internal Executives,beyond a certain limit, since companies have an inherent bias to exceedingly reward “positive talk” behavior.•If the top performers concerns are not taken seriously, they will go along with management but productivitywill suffer, & eventually dissatisfied (burned out) top performers will leave for other opportunities. Thisattrition reduces morale, lowers productivity and also increases your recruitments costs.•Management will be stuck with only “yes-men” sales representatives, and in the end, the entire companysuffers from poor performance.• Even VP Sales (or VP Marketing) tenures will be cut short if poor sales performance continues. Thisexplains why the average tenure of VP Sales/Marketing is less than 3 years in highly competitive industries,and it always seems like a revolving door with frequent ups & downs.• Management can win if they understand their top sales performers and provide all the necessary resources(either via internal hires or soliciting external help) to help make them successful and remain motivated. Theincremental costs incurred in doing the background work is well worth it.

Practical Tips


Internal Team Meeting (scheduled by Sales Executives within your company)

• List of Key/Strategic Accounts Targeted• Usually ranges between 20-40

• Customer Intelligence Requirements• 10-15 different sources of data• Ability to monitor and collect frequentlychanging data

• Program Office set-up & development of variousworkstreams• Creating a single unified template document formonitoring customer intelligence•Establishment of common metrics for analysisincluding weighed parameters• Ranking of information & call to action• Maintenance requirements for customerintelligence data• Development of customized targeting strategiesfor each of the key accounts• Developing presentation materials targetedtowards decision makers (various levels)• List of materials required for on-going internalmeetings /progress updates to VP Sales/Executives

VP SalesVP MarketingCFOSales Director (s)Strategic Sales TeamFinancial ControllerDirector Contracts ManagementMarketing DirectorProduct Management Director

Product Manager (s)Legal CounselRegional Directors (e.g. for Countries)Business Unit Leader (s)Financial Analyst (s)Business Development DirectorBusiness Development Manager (s)CEO & entire Executive Team (usually Monthly orQuarterly updates)

Purpose: To discuss the VP Sales mandate, the following team assembles to go through the deliverables.

Note- The composition of teams and titles varies by company, depending upon it’s size, offerings, markets & specificcompetitive situation.

Internal Team Involved Key Tasks Discussed

CoreTeam


Most Widely Used Sales Intelligence Information Requirements for Key Accounts

KeyInformationNeeds

• Customer intelligence data pertaining to your key accountsincludes:

• Regulatory- SEC Filings, Warnings, Penalties, Approvals, Industryregulations• Sales Diagnostics- Primary Customers of your key accounts, Key CustomerDiagnostics & their growth profile/challenges, Sales Force, Key Initiatives,Customer Lists• Marketing- Value Proposition, New product launches & initiatives, strategyto supplement legacy products, Pricing strategies, business model innovationstrategies, Go-To-Market approaches, Channels, Industry development,competitor news• Business Development- Recent deals & terms, licensing, contracts• Production & Supply Chain- Manufacturing locations, supply chainpartners, disruptions, strikes, violations• R&D, Engineering, Innovation- New technologies, patent filings,partnerships, tech transfer lists, product roadmaps, publications, industrymeetings• Legal- Patents, Contracts, Regulatory Compliance information/country,Litigation•Finance- Financials, Cost Reduction News, Recent industry multiples,Benchmarks (if available)•Human Resources- Key Personnel changes•Executive Activities- Industry events, panels, awards• Competitor Activities- new products, pricing, go-to-market approaches,which competitors are affecting your key accounts

© Elevation Insights™ 2012-2014. All Rights Reserved.A Chirala Holdings™ Subsidiary & partner of Crescendus™ 8External

Opportunities

(Ecosystem)

Executive

Presentations

(Key accounts)

Strategy

Mapping to

Customer

Needs

Key Accounts Customer Intelligence Workflow (applicable to most companies)Data Collection, Analysis, Reporting, Maintenance, Recommendations & Call-to-Action

Executive

targeted

lettersKey accounts

Customer intelligencedata

collection

Data Analysis&

Reporting

recommendations

Call to Action

INFORMATION UPDATES MAINTENANCE(e.g. Weekly, Monthly)

20-40 Key Accounts(can vary by company).

10-15 broad categoriesof data required.

Additional sub-categories ofinformation need to bemonitored & collectedwithin the above 10-15broad categories.

Information is frequentlychanging.

Data Analysis-Pre-set criteria, usuallyemploying weighingparameters based on type ofinformation & it’simportance.

Reporting Formats-MS Excel, orSecure Website withrelevant documents (e.g. MSExcel, Word, Powerpointetc.).

•Identify unaddressedopportunities within keyaccounts.

• External partners that couldcomplete your solutionsecosystem- Potentialpartnership opportunities.

• New product developmentopportunities.

• Development of valueproposition based on newopportunities.

• Presentation documents foryour annual strategy meeting.


Execution Options: Internal “do-it-alone” Approach vs. External Help

External Help: Elevation Insights™

Internal Approach

Elevation Insights™ can collect, analyze, report & maintain your key accounts customer intelligence data, andhelp relieve some of the burden of your top performing sales personnel. In addition to building and maintainingyour customer intelligence for the key accounts, we will also offer our recommendations and assist you with yourcall to action items for the various key accounts. These action items may include new opportunities forcompleting your solutions ecosystem with external partners, new product development, building valueproposition & actual customer targeting materials (letters, strategy and customer presentations) that aretailored to various decision makers.

We can also develop documents (e.g. MS Excel, Word, Power point or place them all on a secure website) thatcan act as a central repository for your annual strategy sessions.

20-40 10-15

KeyAccounts

PotentialInformationTypes

Note- Actual figures can vary greatly, depending upon industry space.

X

Resource Strain• 10 plus senior management & top salesteam members will need to spend extensiveamounts of time, in addition to regular duties.• Real Costs incurred.• Information gathering, analysis & reportingchallenges add additional pressures, loweringproductivity.

Frequent Information Updates Required


Decision Time: Let your internal ROI guide you!

Time Cost Decision•Internal Meetings

•Initial strategy discussions•Setting up of internal program office& work streams•Follow-up strategy discussions•Information gathering•Information review & analysis•Conference calls with traveling team•Data analysis & reporting•Series of follow-up discussions toreview key accounts data and analysis• Decision meetings to go overrecommendations shortlist• Call to Action set of meetings &preparation materials• Updating above materials with newinformation & re-do above decisionmaking process.

• Internal Email Chains/Calls• Regular Duties Impact

• Overtime to focus on regular duties• Productivity & potential revenueimpact on existing responsibilities• Stress on your current team•Potential attrition of top performers

•On-Going Maintenance• To keep customer intelligencecurrent & update data analysis &reporting

•Key Parameters

• Total number of meetings• Total time spent on attendingmeetings and completing meetingtasks (incl. email time, conferencecalls, presentation reports, targetdocuments, information costs)• Total number ofattendees/meeting along withcomposition (e.g. VP, Director,Strategic Sales Personnel)• Calculate total cost based on totaltime and fully loaded cost figuresby various attendees, for all thetasks involved in completing theproject.

Use Fully Loaded Cost Figures:Manager level: $100-125/hourDirector level: $150-200/hourVP level: $250-350/hourNote:Placing a cost figure on all yourinternal activities will highlight thetrue cost of completing a task. Thisis often ignored within internalcompany settings while dealingwith salaried employees.

Situation 1If your internal total costs,available sales bandwidth,and timelines are acceptableto your company, then it isprudent to complete theproject internally withoutany external help. A keyassumption here is that yourcompany has all the rightskill-sets to complete theproject.

Situation 2If the right skill-sets areunavailable within yourcompany or the timelinesand total internal costs arenot acceptable, thenwe recommend seekingexternal help.


If your company is currently facing some of the challenges mentioned in thispresentation, we encourage you to contact us.Telephone:1-(865)-332-0942Email:[email protected]:www.elevationinsights.com

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