Strategic Account Management Methodology - a review by Tony Hackett

Strategic Account Management Methodology
– a modern review

Tony Hackett

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mrtonyhackett

Blog: www.mypublicbrand.com

Twitter: @mypublicbrand

Contents
1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................1-4
2 The Tas Group..........................................................................................................................2-4
2.1 Platform Leadership..........................................................................................................2-4
Dealmaker’s® TAS® Opportunity Management...........................................................................2-4
Dealmaker’s® TAS ®Account Management .................................................................................2-5
CHAMP ....................................................................................................................................2-5
Problems .................................................................................................................................2-6
2.2 Solutions Offered..............................................................................................................2-6
Sales Performance Automation .................................................................................................2-6
Sales Leader and Sales Operations Leader:.................................................................................2-7
Sales Training...........................................................................................................................2-7
Sales Coaching .........................................................................................................................2-7
Sales Coaching Office Infrastructure ..........................................................................................2-7
2.3 The Operations Process.....................................................................................................2-8
Solution Partners......................................................................................................................2-9
Systems Integrators..................................................................................................................2-9
Independent Consultants ..........................................................................................................2-9
Referral Partners .................................................................................................................... 2-10
Strategic Partners................................................................................................................... 2-10
Alumni/History....................................................................................................................... 2-10
2.4 Customers...................................................................................................................... 2-10
Revenue ................................................................................................................................ 2-10
3 Holden International .............................................................................................................. 3-11
3.1 Products/Services ........................................................................................................... 3-11
Holden's Power Base® ............................................................................................................ 3-11
EFOX SOFTWARE .................................................................................................................... 3-12
3.2 The Company ................................................................................................................. 3-13
Location................................................................................................................................. 3-13
Revenue ................................................................................................................................ 3-13
4 Huthwaite.............................................................................................................................. 4-15

1-2 Strategic Account Management www.mypublicbrand.com

Approach/Services ................................................................................................................. 4-15
4.1 Pricing............................................................................................................................ 4-16
4.2 Solutions ........................................................................................................................ 4-16
Huthwaite’s SPIN® Solution Suite ............................................................................................ 4-16
Locations: .............................................................................................................................. 4-20
5 Sales Performance International (SPI) ...................................................................................... 5-21
Solution Selling® Learning Library ............................................................................................ 5-22
Tools Offered ......................................................................................................................... 5-22
Service and Technology Offerings ............................................................................................ 5-23
CRM Enablement ................................................................................................................... 5-23
Marketing Alignment.............................................................................................................. 5-23
Training and Coaching Services ............................................................................................... 5-24
Company ............................................................................................................................... 5-24
Training Approach .................................................................................................................. 5-24
6 Performancemethods.com...................................................................................................... 6-26
Global Presence ..................................................................................................................... 6-27
7 Revenue Storm....................................................................................................................... 7-27
Measuring Success ................................................................................................................. 7-28
Interactive Tools..................................................................................................................... 7-29


1 Introduction
Strategic Account Management (SAM) is a management approach adopted by selling companies
aimed at building a portfolio of loyal strategic customers. By offering them on a long term basis, a
service/product offering tailored for their specific needs it is a progression towards a form of
‘partnership’ or alliance with major customers characterised by joint decision making and problem
solving, integrated business processes and collaborative working across buyerseller boundaries,
described as a process of “relational development”.

2 The Tas Group
The Tas group believes in delivering sustained customer value is passion. They help their customers
achieve consistent and increased revenue, accurate sales forecasts, and greater sales effectiveness.
They have combined their training tools with Dealmaker to achieve comprehensive training and
reinforcement.

2.1 Platform Leadership
The unique value is the result of combining two disciplines; (1) intelligent software applications, and
(2) deep sales methodologies. Innovation is at the core of the companies’ efforts and the
Dealmaker® intelligent software application is the engine driving revenue growth for customers .
According to the Aberdeen Group, customers of The TAS Group realise 21% greater quota
attainment1.

Dealmaker’s® TAS® Opportunity Management
Dealmaker is in use by more than 850,000 sales people worldwide. The software is used by sales
organisations to gain the clarity necessary to improve individual and overall team effectiveness by
providing on-demand sales best practice learning and application - creating a repeatable process to:
 Increase win rates
 Improve forecast accuracy
 Reduce sales cycles
 Increase deal size
 Reduce discounting
 Created competitive advantage
 Grow pipeline size and quality

1 Web Content from, “Company Overview” by thetasgroup, undated, at: http://thetasgroup.com/ourcompany.html#ixzz1euBYlv28


Dealmaker’s® TAS ®Account Management
Managing large scale, complex, global relationships demands a high level of competence, market
understanding, and knowledge not only of the customer, but their ecosystem and value chain. The
TAS Group helps account managers focus on the key competencies that are critical for success:
 Developing, documenting, and executing multiple-year strategies and plans
 Understanding the customer’s market, competition, business partnerships, and exten ded
value chain
 Linking solutions in the most compelling context by providing the most value to the
stakeholders who care the most
 Increasing high margin, predictable revenue while promoting customer retention,
satisfaction, stability, and growth

CHAMP
CHAMP (Channel and Alliance Management Process) enables the user to create and manage
predictable revenue streams from partnerships. CHAMP Partner Planning provides the method
and tools to uncover a partner’s key business goals and objectives. It also aids channel managers in
standardising their partner management processes and aligning activities to produce a positive,
measurable impact on partner productivity, proposals, and close rates.
 Recruit and manage the “right” partners

 Collaborate more effectively with partners during joint deals

 Build and maintain “trusted advisor” status with partners

 Achieve more consistent and predictable revenue growth through partners

 Gain more mindshare with partners

 Understand partner business drivers

 Improve pipeline management and forecasting

 Understand partner portfolios, and how best to leverage their time, money, and resources

 View channel activity from the partner’s perspective

 Improve go-to-market strategy execution


Problems
Revenue improvement: Improve pipeline quality and size, increase win rates, and shorten sales
cycles. And with Dealmaker reinforcing and measuring best practices across the sales team every
day, the company gets a revenue boost that lasts and actually improves over time.
Sales Forecasting: Sales people spend on average 2.5 hours per week on sales forecasting – and in
most cases deals do not close as forecasted. Dealmaker software removes guesswork out of
forecasting by removing sales people’s subjectivity and guides them to truly understand when a de al
will close. Accurate sales forecasts result because of objective in-depth analysis of the team’s actual
performance and knowledge of what it takes to close deals.
Effectiveness Problems: TAS workshops are supplemented by Dealmaker virtual learning for pre-
workshop knowledge transfer, and post-workshop reinforcement. This eliminates the average 87%
drop in retention typical within 30 days of learning in traditional classroom sales training. Post-
training, Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation platform integrates with CRM system so that the
sales person applies what they learned.

2.2 Solutions Offered
For the above discussed problems of revenue improvement, sales forecasting, effectiveness
problems, the company have devised solutions that is a combination of training and automation.

Sales Performance Automation
Research has shown that people overwhelmingly favor an on-the-job learning process over a time-
consuming one or multi-day workshop, while technological advances like web 2.0 have the ability to
make people more productive than ever before.
Creators of ‘Sales Performance Automation’, The TAS Group has been developing a more efficient
sales learning and applying system for selling organisation since 2005. This system is the Dealmaker
Sales Performance Automation software, which integrates transparently into the CRM system.
The Dealmaker provides an intellgent solutions to the Sales Professional:
 Leading sales process and methodology to standardise best practice, guides the professional
on opportunities to work on, what to do next and how to maximise chance of winning.

 Is fully configurable to every business and uses intelligent automation to provide coaching
and deliver insight on deals, sales cycle and sales velocity

 Eliminates the need to manually update forecasts Dealmaker calculates them automatically


 Provides graphical opportunity and account management maps that allow the user to
explore business problems and uncover solutions as a team and together with customers.

Sales Leader and Sales Operations Leader:
 Integrates deeply with CRM system to provide end-to-end analytics based on accurate,
objective data, and synchronises in real time
 Provides accurate forecasts at all levels of the sales organisation, based on proven sales
process rather than laborious, subjective judgments
 Supports sales learning, assessment and certification, to teach and reinforce key concepts
and make selling the right way an everyday thing
 Incorporates social media – leverages the knowledge of community and alerts the user on
problem areas so that the leader can proactively
 Supports the addition of sales methodology

Sales Training
TAS Group's Dealmaker on-demand sales performance platform is applicable when there is a need
for extended learning. With the proven TAS methodology, built-in e-learning, and tools to reinforce
and measure sales performance, Dealmaker ensures that sales training investment continues to
generate improved revenues over the long haul.The dealmaker buolds
 Sales Effectiveness
 Revenue
 Forecasting

Sales Coaching
40% improvement in sales performance, impacting the top 30% of their deals.
As a result of coaching Return on Investment in sales goes up 27% according to Gallup and, where
sales coaching is involved, customer loyalty improves by 56%.

Sales Coaching Office Infrastructure
The TAS group provides wholesome Sales Coaching Office infrastructure designed to align 5 key
elements to deliver sustained, repeatable and predictable results for customers. These are:


 Training and enabling
content and technology
(SCO Resource Center)
 Expert coaching of the
sales process
 Sales methodology and
specific deals (Coaching
Operations)
 Underlying processes
and support systems
(Logistics)
 Measurement and reporting (Analytics)
 Capturing, assessing and pushing of competitive trends and sales best practices back out to
field sales and sales management (Sales Insights)
 Completing a formal embedded coaching system, with a ‘closed loop approach’ to sales
performance improvement
The TAS group aims at providing continued reinforcement of their sales training with the help of
the dealmaker. The typical process includes identification of sales and unique opportunities in the
customer sales cycle, implementation of automation to coach and reinforce training.
Support customer processes, measure, analyse internal processes and competitive trends.
Push sales best practices and field sales management and therefore sustained performance
improvement.

2.3 The Operations Process
The solutions offered by TAS are delivered by various groups in each country. The company calls
them certified partners. Some of the partners are:
 The Bee Group: United States, Canada and Latin America
 Blue Ridge Sales Effectiveness: offers the tools necessary for sales leaders, sales
professionals, organisational development leaders, HR professionals, and organi sations to
grow and prosper in unprecedented times.


 Durhamlane: is a sales performance Solutions Company that helps organi sations increase
their revenues, profits and build stronger customer relationships. Focus is UK
 Harwood Partners: helps sales organisations with tools, training and technology to Increase
win rates, shorten sales cycles and measure and manage sales performance. Location US,
Europe and Asia.
 Pelorus International: Pelorus International delivers proven expertise and business value
while assisting clients in the execution of Sales process development, forecasting and
pipeline management, channel and alliance management, sales automation tools for CRM
integration and sales management coaching.
 CTA Partners: The CTA Partners is a global consulting company that speciali ses in Sales
Coaching, Training and Automation. Focus Latin America

Solution Partners
The company partners with top-tier, market-proven intellectual property that helps sales people sell
more effectively. Huthwaite (Dealmaker)

Systems Integrators
Companies that have proven expertise in integrating technology solutions into customer
environments partner with the Tas Group.
Ecenta and The TAS Group have collaborated to help SAP customers to increase sales revenue by
integrating theDealmaker platform with SAP CRM.
Storm Technology is a leading business technology consultancy that specialises in building solutions
that help clients gain better value faster from Microsoft technologies. Their solutions on premise or
in the cloud - are based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the Dealmaker platform.

Independent Consultants
Representative Companies that provide customers with the highest levels of process, methodology
and technology expertise, strategic thinking, and hands-on skills.
Europe: France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands, UK and Switzerland
North America: Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Texas, Canada, California, Georgia, North
Carolina, Virginia, and Mexico
Asia Pacific: Korea, China, Australia, New Zealand


Referral Partners
Independent professionals, industry influencers and professional service consultants who introduce
The TAS Group to prospective clients and in return receive a referral fee. Referral partners receive a
5% referral fee on all closed sales which includes both products and services sold.

Strategic Partners
Strategic Partners: The strategic partners for the Tas Group are companies that provide enterprise-
class CRM applications, global social networks, sales productivity, marketing automation and other
capabilities. Its current partners are Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle.

Alumni/History
They claim to have trained over 850,000 people. The company’s HQ is in Seattle, and they have a
large presence in Atlanta, as well as satellite offices around North America. Internationally, their
major offices are in Reading, England and Dublin, Ireland 2.
The company was founded as Select Selling, Ltd. in 1989 and changed its name to The TAS Group in
July 2006.
As of December 20, 2010, Info Mentis, Inc. was acquired by The TAS Group. Info Mentis, Inc.
operates as a consulting and performance improvement company. It provides skills training
programs, consulting services, coaching, and online support tools.

2.4 Customers
Customers of The TAS Group, the world leader in intelligent sales performance automation, attain
team quota 20 percent higher and 54 percent more sales representatives achieve quota than all
other customers using competitive solutions.

Revenue
The revenue has been estimated in detail in the excel document. The company can be expected to
be doing business over $500 million. Please note that we have not included estimated of
commissions from CRM and saleforce applications etc.

2 Blog content titled, “Aberdeen Group Reports TAS Group® Customers Are Best-in-Class…” by tasgroupblog, dated October 2011, at: http://www.thetasgroup.com/blog/?p=252


3 Holden International
Holden International was founded in 1979. Holden International has helped over 600,000 sales
professionals in 25 countries generate measurable sales process improvement. Their innovative
Power Base® Compete methodology equips sellers with the tools, tips, techni ques and practices to
succeed in today’s transformed marketplace.
Holden provides training for professionals across the organi sation. The various levels the company
provides training are:
 C-Level Executives: Make Compete Sales an Organisational Competency
 Sales Leaders, Managers, and Sales Operations: Learn How to Win Against Competition
 Sales Professionals: Win Opportunities, Accounts and Territories
 Training and Development Professionals: Drive Adoption across Your Organisation

3.1 Products/Services
Power Base® Compete Strategy enables sellers to develop insight into competitive must-win deals
in a way that is coachable and sustainable, through sales training courses and programs that make
Compete Selling a management science.

Holden's Power Base®
Holden's Power Base® Compete Selling training workshops are all about engaging and defeating
competition at every level–whether in an individual sales opportunity, across a range of accounts, or
throughout an entire territory.
POWER BASE® SELLING COURSE
Training Eligibility: Training for any level
Length: 2 Days
Students: 20
Winning Sales Plan for an actual “live” sales opportunity
Companion Programs: Power Base® Compete, Compete Sales Manager Coaching, Compete Account
Strategy, Compete Territory Strategy.
POWER BASE® COMPETE SELLING COURSE
Student Eligibility: Advanced Sellers
Length: 2 Days
Students: 20
Compete Strategy for a specific "live" opportunity


Companion Programs: Power Base® Compete Sales Manager Coaching, Compete Account Strategy,
Compete Territory Strategy
POWER BASE® COMPETE ACCOUNT STRATEGY COURSE
Student Eligibility: Sellers managing large accounts
Length: 2 Days
Students: 20
Account Plan (2 pages)
Companion Programs: Power Base® Compete, Compete Sales Manager Coaching, Compete Territory
Strategy
POWER BASE® COMPETE REINFORCERS PROGRAMS
Student Eligibility: Sellers at any level
Length: 2 Days
Students: 20
Enhanced Winning Sales Plan
Companion Programs: Power Base® Compete, Compete Sales Manager Coaching, Compete Account
Strategy, Compete Territory Strategy
POWER BASE® COMPETE SALES MANAGER COACHING
Student Eligibility: Sales Managers
Length: 2 Days
Students: 20
Power Base® Selling
Companion Programs: Power Base® Compete Selling, Compete Account Selling, Compete Territory
Selling

EFOX SOFTWARE
Holden's efox Software Solution (Published in 2002) is a technology enablement of sales
methodology, and it plays a crucial role in the successful installation and reinforcement of the
Power Base® Compete Strategy within the organisation.
efox increases user adoption of the installed sales methodology by making it easier to understand
and implement. At the same time, efox facilitates a more disciplined application of the Power Base®
Compete Strategy methodology, which enhances its forecast accuracy.
Typical features that allow easy learning and reinforcement are:


 Graphically intense user interface
 Valuable insight early in the sales cycle
 Enhanced predictive indicators and practical "real-world" input for coaching opportunities
 Timely feedback enables more effective sales coaching
POWER BASE INTERACTIVE (PBI): PBI is a web-based sales training tool that accelerates
preparation for a Power Base® Compete Strategy program and for reinforcement of central
concepts after the program.
POWER BASE COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT: Proprietary sales force assessment tool critical in
evaluating the current effectiveness of an organisation's sales professionals, and in gauging their
propensity for sales competency improvement.
FOX-IN-A-BOX VIDEO SERIES FOR MANAGERS: Reinforces key aspects of coaching a Winning Sales
Plan grounded in Power Base® Compete methodology.
POWER UP AUDIO SERIES FOR SELLERS: These 11 audio modules, each lasting 6-10 minutes,
provide on-demand reinforcement of the Winning Sales Plan and Power Base® Compete Strategy
methodology at the office, at home or on the road.
Efox is available in three versions
 efox Team Edition
 efox CRM Edition
 efox Personal Edition

3.2 The Company
The company was founded Holden International in 1979. 30+ year history, they have consulted on
hundreds of thousands of competitive deals, and helped over 600 organi sations of all sizes to make
Compete Selling a management science they can understand and replicate.
The company on the average holds 2 Day Public seminars. The average cost per person is $1950.

Location
Holden international’s principal presence is focused on US or North America, United Kingdom,
Canada, and Asia Pacific - Japan, China and India. The company has offered sales training to over
600000 sales professionals over a period of 20 years.

Revenue
The revenue earned by the company can be estimated over $250 million during 2011.


Holden International is one of the leading companies that has aimed to deliver comprehensive
sales strategy to its customers. The company delivers top down comprehensive strategy for all
levels of professionals.
The interactive software allows reinforcement, and assessment tool. Efox is available in Team,
CRM and Personal edition.


4 Huthwaite
Huthwaite is one of the world’s leading sales performance improvement organisations. Founded on
scientifically validated behavioral research, their methodologies include internationally renowned
SPIN® Selling.
Huthwaite assesses the organisation's needs and develops customised sales performance
improvement and coaching programs that drive real business results.
Their sole focus is sales effectiveness.

Approach/Services
The services include:
 Sales Expertise: Cross Selling , Discounting, New Product Launch, Commoditisation,
Consolidation of Competition, Consolidation of Customers, Mergers & Acquisitions, Margin
Pressure, Transactional Relationships
 Basics: Behavior Change, Buying Cycle, Value Drivers
 Core Competencies: Face to Face Selling, Sales Strategy, Prospecting, Negotiations,
Presentations, Proposals, Coaching, Pipeline Management
 Customised Plans: Creates and delivers the most customised programs in the industry,
analysing business needs, integrating business objectives, and incorporating relevant
contextual content. These include Implementation plan, Branding, content, delivery,
reinforcement.
 The Integrated Learning Experience is the most comprehensive and effective sales
performance improvement process expertly engineered to produce both immediate and
long-term individual and organisational selling excellence. These include: Pre-assessment,
Pre-elearning, Instructor led Training, Reinforcement, Post-assessment, Proficiency
Development.

 Measurement: Measurement tools include Pre-assessment and post assessment. Post-

survey

 Resource Center: Includes a number of resources


4.1 Pricing
SPIN® Selling $1595
Winning Sales Strategies $1695
Coaching SPIN® $995
Negotiating Skills $1595
Buyer Focused Marketing $1595
On the average the company organises around 4 workshops in a month (Public)

4.2 Solutions
The solutions offered by the company are more customised and integrated to deliver a more holistic
experience to the client. The modules are fully customised to client or business needs coupled with
tools for Reinforcement, Post-assessment, and Proficiency Development.

Huthwaite’s SPIN® Solution Suite
Huthwaite’s SPIN® Solution Suite provides the most comprehensive and structured approach to
sales performance improvement across all the dimensions of the sales value chain and its related
functions such as marketing and product development.
Its flexible framework allows for three distinctive approaches to choose from, depending on the
needs of the client:
 A comprehensive approach simultaneously deploying all components of the suite to rapidly
transform all aspects of a sales organisation.
 Targeted interventions using selected components of the suite to meet identified needs.
 Sequentially deploy the components of the suite to migrate a sales organisation to a
higher level of performance through a structured series of targete d interventions.
The SPIN® Solution Suite consists of:
Sales skills: Develop clients' needs, demonstrate capabilities, create competitive differentiators to
advance the sale.
Sales strategy: Increase competitive win-rate by aligning selling strategies to clients’ buying
behaviors.
Negotiations: Execute winning negotiation strategies that optimise outcomes and foster long-term
business relationships.
Prospecting: Differentiate from competitors and fill opportunity pipeline through Huthwaite’s
unique prospecting methodology.


Sales Management: Drive sales team to accelerate and achieve results by coaching how to
implement sales training skills.
Diagnostic Tools: Sales Skills Inventory and Sales Performance Analytics

Huthwaite’s Sales Skills Inventory and Sales Performance Analytics are sets of statistically-valid,
empirically-verifiable diagnostic instruments that measure the full range of skills that sellers and
their managers need in order to perform at a superior level.
Performance analysis of both the organisation as a whole and by demographics
A comparison of the organisation against industry benchmarks
A basis for curriculum development and metrics for:
 Driving performance change and business results
 Evaluating the effectiveness of sales training over time
 Laser-focused proficiency and reinforcement strategies
SPIN® Selling: SPIN® Selling is an acronym for a questioning model that helps sellers uncover and
develop the needs of their customers.
The purpose of questions in the complex sale is to uncover Implied Needs (statements by the
customer of problems, difficulties, and dissatisfactions) and to develop them into Explicit Needs
(specific customer statements of wants or desires).
Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff--form a powerful questioning sequence that
successful people use during the all-important Investigating stage of the sales call to help in the
needs development process.
SPIN® 2.0 is for sales professionals who want to shorten their sales cycles, strengthen customer
relationships and improve their sales effectiveness
 Uncover customer business problems and develop those needs they best meet
 Present their offerings with high impact, avoiding “feature dumps”
 Differentiate their offerings from the competition, even in a commodity environment
 Win business without discounting
 Make credible sales calls at senior executive levels

Winning Sales StrategiesTM: Winning Sales Strategies TM teaches participants to get to the decision-
maker, deal with competition, understand buyer psychology, and identify new business within
existing customer accounts.
BUYER FOCUSED MARKETING™: In buyer focused marketing the company will help the professional
learn:


 Create customer demand, especially in new markets
 Speak in a language customers understand and respond to
 Discover the power of the value drivers that were uncovered by huthwaite research
 Meet the customer at each phase of the buying cycle™ - with messages that move the
customer to action
 Design customer-centric measures and leading indicators to track and communicate the
success of marketing efforts
 Influence customer decision criteria in favor of their own solutions
 Maximise timing, relevancy and persuasiveness to achieve differentiation and create
demand
Negotiating Skills WorkshopTM: is based on the most sophisticated negotiating model ever
devised. The two-day program combines a proven behavioral success model with a logical planning
process:
 Use behaviors proven effective by top negotiators
 Plan negotiating strategies that consider bargains, concessions, and long- and short-term
issues
 Set objectives for both parties
 Prioritise issues and possible trade-offs
 Analyse limits and costs of concessions
 Evaluate fallback positions and implications
 Use tactics for persuasion and bargaining
 Handle deadlock and conclude the deal
Six Characteristics of World Class Sales Coaches solution: presents the best practices of the world’s
best sales managers. Huthwaite combines the results of its research into sales performance
effectiveness and 30 years of experience working with sales organisations across industries in a
powerful training program for sales coaches that helps:
 Achieve the right balance of efficiency and effectiveness
 Determine the right level of management involved in face-to-face selling
 Sell where there is most opportunity to create customer value
 Separate transactional business from consultative business
 Focus on the early stages of the business pipeline


 Build a coaching culture
 Reward high performers
DESPERATELY SEEKING PROSPECTS: Desperately Seeking Prospects fills an urgent need for
consultative, business-to-business sales organisations that are not getting the prospecting results
they require.
The company also offers an online e-FFECTIVENESS program, designed to test and reinforce SPIN®
Selling skills.
The program will help build
 Online Reinforcement
 Skill Drills
 Post-Assessment
Huthwaite Dealmaker®: helps sales organisations achieve measurable improvements in sales
performance and attain greater forecasting accuracy. By integrating proven Huthwaite sales
methodology and contextual learning into day-today sales practices, organisations can finally
leverage the true benefits of their CRM investment. The dealmaker suite of the Tas group helps
combine Huthwaite’s expertise in their training programs.
 Dealmaker Pulse - provides intelligent social networking for sales
 Forecast Analysis - takes the subjectivity out of forecasting
 Opportunity Management - utilises industry-leading methodologies from Huthwaite
 Performance Coach - tracks performance of each deal through each stage for each individual on
your team


Locations:
Huthwaite operates its global locations in:
United States Mexico
Canada Brazil
Australia: Mebourne, Sydney
Greater China, Singapore
Eupore Middle East
Huthwaite Europe and South Africa
The company is having around 100 employees. Information on revenue or even the number of users
they have to date is not available.
The company is one of the leading Sales Training Organisations that are increasingly turning their
services into specific modules addressing the sales professional needs in tandem with the business
as a whole.
The development of the modules include a combination of the basics, best practices,
understanding of the Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff, helping the sales
professional understand, demand, customer problems, implied needs, competition etc.
The company in partnership with dealmaker provides reinforcement, forecasting and assessment
tools for its customers.


5 Sales Performance International (SPI)
Sales Performance International (SPI), is a global sales training and performance improvement firm,
that has received recognition as a leader in the sales training industry for its experience and
excellence in providing an outstanding sales methodology to clients. SPI is the exclusive worldwide
owner of the Solution Selling® Learning Library, an end-to-end training and professional
development curriculum for sales professionals, managers, and marketers.
In 2011 SPI introduced SellingStreamTM, a continual learning program that provides an unlimited
subscription to the entire library of courseware, and also provides a comprehensive array of
continual learning and reinforcement assets.
SPI has assisted more than 1 million sales and management professionals in more than 50 countries
and 14 languages achieve higher levels of performance 3.
Over 1 million sales professionals, all over the world, rely on the Solution Selling® sales process and
methodologies to differentiate themselves, not only by what they sell, but by how they engage with
customers. For more than two decades, Solution Selling® has been the definitive approach for
moving from selling products to selling and marketing high value solutions.
Solution Selling helps achieve:
 Higher individual quota attainment
 Higher team quota attainment
 Increase in average deal size
 Improved time to productivity
As Sales Process Solution Selling® not only helps with what to do, but it specifically focuses on how
to do it.
A Philosophy - The customer is the focal point. Helping customers solve their business problems and
achieve positive, measurable results to those problems is the basis of all actions.
A Map - Solution Selling® provides a map of how to get from where you are to where you want to
be.
A Methodology - Solution Selling® is a system of methods that includes tools, job aids, techniques,
and procedures.

3 An Article titled, “Sales Performance International Receives Award for Top Sales Methodology Training Companies ” by TrainingIndustry.Com, dated march 2011, at:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110322005340/en


 A Sales Management System - Solution Selling® provides sales and executive management with
a process to analyse pipelines, qualify opportunities, and coach skills.

Solution Selling® Learning Library
The Solution Selling® Learning Library provides a proven, integrated curriculum for critical skills and
knowledge improvement at the individual, team, and management levels.
For Enterprise: SellingStream™ is a fundamentally new approach to sales training. SPI's new
continual learning program, SellingStream™, aligns the traditional approach of training in a course
by course method with a programatic approach to planning, executing and reinforcing l earning
over time. Its foundation is built on the best practices and core methodology of Solution Selling®.
SMB: Solution Selling® for Small to Medium Business has been developed specifically to meet the
needs of smaller companies. This affordable and complete program is superior to other training
offerings typically presented to small and mid-size businesses.
Solution Selling: The Solution Selling® University is a role-based professional development platform
offering easy, anywhere, anytime access to world class Solution Selling® courses on SPI's eLearning
portal.

Tools Offered
The tools offered by the company are:
 Instructor-Led Training (ILT)
 eLearning (eL)
 Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT)
 SellingStream™ is designed to deliver the highest possible return on your sales training
investment. Industry research clearly identifies the single biggest challenge in sales training –
retention and application of new methods following training events. The "Content Retention"
illustrations (below) are based on actual learning research that reveals the erosion of newly
learned methodology content when there is no formal reinforcement. As a result, most sales
training dollars do not realise the expected return on investment.
 The SellingStream™ program has been designed to drive results by providing a steady stream of
continual learning and reinforcement for specific selling and management roles.

Program Planning and Configuration: the module includes Sales Process design, Solution Selling®
Sales Execution sales tools, (examples are centered on a “solution” and common selling scenario),


private, enterprise LearnCenter on SPI’s Learning Management System (LMS), and Review Findings
and Validate.
Solution Selling® Learning Library: integrated curriculum for critical skills and knowledge
improvement at the individual, team, and management levels. The solutions include foundation
and advanced course for professionals at various levels in the marketing department.
Program Reinforcement: The scheduled portion of reinforcement drives the sales team to
participate in specific learning and reinforcement activities – a necessary discipline when sales
teams leave training and go back to their busy, real world. This includes Skill Assessments, Push
Reinforcement Questions and Tips, Virtual Review Sessions,
On-Demand Reinforcement Components: They include eLearning, Topical Webcasts, Sales
Knowledge Center, Video Sales Moments, Discussion Forums, and Sales Tools and Templates,
Program Management: SPI provides one program manager to oversee the continual learning
program for the program’s duration.

Service and Technology Offerings
The company provides sales training tools that provide business integration, including CRM
integration, marketing alignment, and a variety of training and coaching services.

CRM Enablement
CRM and Sales Process Alignment: Aligns sales process with CRM system for improved adoption
and process adherence.
Solution Selling® Playbooks for Kadient : Integrates Solution Selling process and methodology
directly into mainstream CRM systems using Kadient’s innovative Sales Playbook technology.
Landslide CRM for Solution Selling: A complete CRM offering for small and mid-size businesses with
the Solution Selling process built in.
CRM Integration Partners: Partnerships with multiple third parties to provide native configuration
services and accelerators or integrated applications for the all mainstream CRM systems.
Management Dashboards: Out-of-the-box Solution Selling® Management Dashboards for
Salesforce.com.

Marketing Alignment
Solution Messaging Workshop: This hands-on workshop helps marketers develop tactical
messaging and sales tools that directly support the Solution Selling methodology.


Sales Tool Build: Create customised Solution Selling® tools to reflect real world products and
solutions, making training more relevant and providing useful execution tools for key stages in the
sales process.
Solution Selling® Messenger: A revolutionary web-enabled methodology that simplifies and
enhances problem-solution mapping process and automatically generates a variety of solution-
centric sales conversation and enablement tools.

Training and Coaching Services
Workshop Facilitation – They offer certified workshop facilitation for global training initiatives in
virtually all mainstream languages and locales. They provide both classroom facilitation for all
courseware and train-the-trainer (T3) facilitation.
Account Reviews - These reviews provide a repeatable method for assessing and validating a
business relationship, and defining a plan for maximising account potential.
Opportunity Reviews - These reviews provide a proven approach for winning complex and strategic
opportunities.

Company
Founded in 1988, SPI has been the leader in helping global companies successfully transition from
selling products to marketing and selling high-value solutions.
SPI has assisted more than 1,000,000 sales and management professionals in more than 50
countries and 14 languages to achieve higher levels of performance.
The company is headquartered in US, with its offices in Canada, China, and Europe. The company
has provided training modules to over 150 large companies.
The company Industry focus is:
eCommerce, Healthcare
Manufacturing Professional
Publishing Technology

Training Approach
The company is now offering public events or training workshops for the smaller work forces. The
events scheduled are at least 4 per month.
The cost of the open workshops are, Solution Speak at $1,250, and Solution Access $1,750. The
revenue estimates has been provided in the excel document attached. The company is expected to
earn over $650miliion during 2011.


The SPI international is one of the top companies in sales training that typically focuses on increase
in
 Individual quota attainment
 Higher team quota attainment
 Increase in average deal size
 Improved time to productivity
Those are typical of Strategic account management. The company provides customi sed specific
solutions depending upon the business size thereby fully customi sing the learning program. The
company also provides on demand tools, along with a resource library, and CRM enabled tools to
fully initiate, reinforce and assess learning tools for businesses.


6 Performancemethods.com
Based in Atlanta, GA, PMI provides consulting and training services to assist clients in the design,
development and deployment of value-focused customer engagement best practices. PMI’s unique
approach provides clients with customised and integrated solutions consisting of sales processes,
best practices, supporting tools and consultative selling skills.
PMI believes that to provide the highest value to clients, an assessment of sales effectiveness and
execution must be conducted prior to deploying any new best practices, tools or conducting field
sales team training.
This collaborative assessment takes into consideration a client’s existing sales processes/tools,
sales leadership and coaching, competitive landscape, customer value requirements and the
needs for effective account team alignment.
PMI then validates findings from the sales best practices assessment
with client senior sales leadership and makes recommendations to provide for the deployment of
new skills, processes, best practices, tools and job-aides.
Customised, Client-Specific Solutions: PMI’s sales best practices solutions are based on field input
and feedback from:
 Client’s salespeople and account teams
 Client’s sales leadership team
 Client’s customers
 Client’s go-to-market partners
They provide a customer value tool.
Co-Creating Value With Your Most Strategic Customers: The process is represented in a
customer/supplier collaboration presentation in Web 3D/Second Life technology.
Seeing Through The Customer’s Eyes: Account relationship assessment tools,
Creating customer Value: Sales Best Practices Solutions
PMI creates worldwide client value and coverage through its global partnership with Mercuri
International, the world's largest sales training and development
Consultancy, and is an active participant and sponsor in the Strategic Account Management
Association (SAMA), the world’s largest non-profit community of sales best practices.


Global Presence
The company has leveraged its global presence with the help of Mercuri International. Performance
Methods, Inc. and Mercuri international announced a global partnership designed to leverage the
strengths of each firm to create value on a worldwide level for their mutual clients.
Mercuri serves these markets with sales training and consulting offerings in 14 languages and runs in
excess of 18,000 events attended by over 330,000 participants each year. Mercuri’s broad global
client base includes over 15,000 organisations, many of whom have been in partnership with
Mercuri for over 10 years.
PMI does not appear to be offering one 2 or three day workshops for individuals. The company has
15 key team members for the organisation.
I have included PMI in the discussion since the process adopted by them reflects all the processes
involved in Strategic account management. Where the company:
 Evaluates clients existing tools and services
 Evaluates the customers implied requirements
 Evaluates the competitive landscape to
Create more value with most strategic customers followed by customer relationship assessment
and reinforcement tools, creating customer value with sales best practices. Though the company
has primarily focused on the North American Market, Its partnership with Mercuri has led to its
expanded global presence.

7 Revenue Storm
Revenue storm is another company in this direction. Revenue Storm is the premier revenue
performance consultancy proven to help Fortune 1000 firms to help their suppliers increase
profitable, sustainable revenues by 10% to over 100%—enterprise-wide.
Revenue Storm was founded in 2000 to bring fresh thinki ng and best-in-class methodologies to help
business-to-business sales organisations accelerate revenue growth. The firm is headquartered in
Chicago supporting clients in 33 countries and nine languages. Our Europe office is located in
London.
Revenue Storm is committed to helping each salesperson, manager and organisation to be the best
revenue producer they can be.


 The company helps evaluate optimum sales or “Go-to-Market” Strategy—from a price-based
transactional focus up to joint market partner.
 Based on proven analytical tools, they benchmark the capabilities and performance of sales
organisation and its people as they compare to the optimum strategy.
 They work with executive management—including sales management, marketing, human
resources, information technology and legal executives—to understand, align with and lead the
transformation to accelerate revenue.
They combine training with targeted coaching and ongoing electronic and paper-based tools to
enable effective talent management and generate lasting, real-world, top-line performance.

Measuring Success
Executive Alignment: Revenue Storm works directly with executive management in one -on-one and
group sessions to align the enterprise around revenue acceleration. Revenue Strategy Alignment™,
Marketing Alignment, Shadow Management™,
Improved Training and Talent Management
One-on-one or with small groups of managers or sales executives to deliver sales on live pursuits ,
they coach over 320 sales pursuits per year, totaling over $11 billion. Their process includes the
principles of strategic account management, with a key differentiation and focus on revenue.
Setting the Strategic Foundation
Their coaching programs for executives (Revenue Strategy Alignment), sales managers (Managing to
Revenue) and account executives (Coaching to Revenue) set the foundation for the entire
organisation to translate strategy into action.
Improving Management Performance
They coach the executive team on driving the sales strategy (Shadow Management), help managers
guide sales talent to reach its potential (Talent Management) and improve the ability of individual
managers or sales executives to use their strengths and win business (Coaching to Competencies).
Advancing Sales Pursuits
Sales pursuit and major account penetration coaching drives key deals.
Sales Talent Predictor (STP) is a state-of-the-art psychometric tool and measurement service
designed to help hire, train and coach high performance salespeople. The STP benchmarks 27
specific competencies, such as negotiation, against the optimum sales strategy. With this data, the
user can differentiate and predict performance for different groups of employees with a high degree
of statistical significance, validity and consistency.


Interactive Tools
Map Your Revenue Growth – A six-module interactive experience helps assess current versus
optimum Go-to-Market Strategy, and identify immediate actions to accelerate revenue.
(Assessment)
Calculate Revenue Leakage - Quickly assess revenue losses—and potential revenue acceleration.
(Identify)
Assess Organisational Alignment for Revenue Growth - Identify how poor organisational alignment
is robbing you of revenue performance. (Internal Alignment)
Estimate Return-on-Investment for Sales Talent Prediction - See how accurately predicting sales
talent can deliver improved revenue performance. (Forecast)
The company focus is on improvement of Revenue that is the key for any business selling products
and services. The key process adopted is “Sales pursuit and major account penetration coaching
drives key deals” along with problem identification, assessment, training, reinforcement and
forecast.


Strategic Account Management Methodology - a review by Tony Hackett

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