Selling Through Someone Else: How to Use Agile Sales Networks and Partners to Sell More

Selling Through Someone Else can help any executive charged with driving growth in his or her organization whether it be the CEO, Chief Sales Officer, Chief Customer Service Officer, CIO, head of human resources, or maybe all of those as a small– or medium–size business owner. This book provides a fresh look at how to use not only your "sales force" but also your "selling force" to expand revenues and market share. The authors from Accenture, one of the world′s largest consulting companies, apply lessons learned from their experience working with Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies. They explain how to get smarter about what your customers truly want and effectively leverage independent partner networks, despite complex distribution channels.

Analytics, the shift to digital selling and mobile sales tools, and new approaches to sales operations can reshape the entire sales function. Selling Through Someone Else shows you how to make your company competitive with this new dynamic and iterative selling model starting today.

Preface vi

Section I THE RISING IMPACT OF SALES AND DISTRIBUTION: WHY "GOOD ENOUGH" ISN T ENOUGH ANYMORE 1

1 Why It′s Time to Change Selling: Your Sales Model Is Broken 3
Robert Wollan

2 The Solution Agile Selling: Growth Can Come from Investing in Your "Selling Force," Not Just Your "Sales Force" 20
Robert Wollan

3 The Agile Sales and Distribution Ecosystem 38
Mike Heald and Paul Neumann

4 Time for a Refresh: The Updated Sales Strategy 51
Naveen Jain and Varun Ratta

5 Looking for Channel–Selling Innovation? Four Industries That Stand Out 67
Robert Wollan, Anne O Riordan, Jean–Laurent Poitou, Fabio Vacirca, and John L. DelSanto

Section II THE NEW AGILE SELLING MODEL AND STRATEGY 91

6 Advanced Strategies for Customer Targeting and Lead Generation 95
Lan Guan and Golnar Pooya

7 A Renewed Focus on the Differentiated Customer Buying Experience 109
Ron Ref and Ami Palan

8 Price Strategies in a MultichannelWorld 128
Tom Jacobson, Cecilia Nguyen, Tiffany Gilbert, and Julian Short

9 Bringing Science to Selling 152
Jan Van der Linden

10 Incentives ThatDrive Performance:Motivating the Right Behaviors with the Right Sales and Marketing Incentives to Optimize ROI 178
Jason Angelos and Gary Singer

Section III BUILDING THE BETTER NETWORK POSITIONING FOR SUCCESS AND EFFECTIVENESS 201

11 Joint Initiatives: A Step Change for Sales Collaboration 203
Mike Heald, Paul Neumann, and Golnar Pooya

12 A New Look at an Old Problem: Selling to Small– and Medium–Size Businesses 217
Ron Ref and Lan Guan

13 Using Social Media to Engage Buyers, Empower Sellers, and Reinvent the Sales Process 234
Kari Kaario and Jason Breed

14 Around the Block or Around the World: How to Enter New, GlobalMarkets 262
Christian Requena, Golnar Pooya, Grant Hatch, Pieter Becker, and Tomas Kandl

Section IV BEYOND THE "PILOT" PHASE: THE CORE COMPONENTS OF THE AGILE SELLING ENTERPRISE POSITIONING FOR EFFICIENCY 281

15 The CIO Sales Agenda: How to Build an Advanced Sales and Distribution IT Infrastructure 283
Robert Wollan, Paul Daugherty, and Saj Usman

16 Tablets,Smartphones, and Apps:The Importance of aClear, Standardized Mobility Strategy 296
Yusuf Tayob, Terri Rinella, and Aidan Quilligan

17 New Rules for Tools and IT Infrastructure: The Cloud and Agile Tools, Processes, and Systems 314
Saideep Raj and Beth Boettcher

Section V EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES FOR SELLING SUCCESS 335

18 Profiling and Shaping a High–Performance Sales Force 337
David Smith, Victoria Luby, PhD, and Patrick Mosher

Notes 357

Index 365

ROBERT WOLLAN is the Global Managing Director of Accenture′s Management Consulting Customer Relationship Management practice. He leads a global team of professionals skilled in customer–centric marketing, sales, service, and customer operations, and drives major growth areas across the industries Accenture serves globally. Robert holds seven patents for innovations in customer relationship management. He coauthored The Social Media Management Handbook, a practical guide to implementing key social media strategies and achieving business goals.

NAVEEN JAINIS the Managing Director of Accenture′s Management Consulting CRM Sales Transformation practice. His teams help increase sales organization productivity and effectiveness and provide strategic insights, func??tional expertise, and global implementation skills to help clients maximize profitability by transforming customer relationships across all of the industries Accenture serves globally.

MICHAEL HEALD is the Managing Director of Accenture′s Communications, Media, and Technology Sector, Management Consulting West practice. His teams focus on the unique and dynamic needs of communications, media, and technology companies, including how to deliver greater results from sales forces and sales channel partners. Formerly holding executive positions in the industry, he brings personal experience in both change and operations.