Key Challenges and Priorities in Asia s Sales Transformation Process

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1 ASK THE EXPERTS: Key Challenges and Priorities in Asia s Sales Transformation Process As customers become more sophisticated and informed, many established sales professionals are struggling to communicate their value proposition and close deals. Now more than ever before, the onus is on sales leaders to guide their team through this new challenging sales landscape - but where to begin? To find out, we contacted three of Asia s top sales leaders from L Oreal Singapore, Symantec and Lastline, to discover how they are leading their teams to sales success.

2 BALANCING LEADERSHIP AND AUTONOMY Peter Plaisance Commercial & Business Development Director (ASEAN + India) L Oreal Singapore When it comes to enhancing the performance of your sales team, would describe yourself as passionate about this topic? Why? (I mean, aside from just hitting targets and getting paid). Peter: I am incredibly passionate about developing people in general. So when it comes to finding out what makes a team or individual tick, the real challenge is to blend their expertise and /or passion with what the customer or market needs. In other words, how can this team or individual capitalise on their strengths in order to move the business forward and add value to the customer. In my career, the most satisfying moments have come when you see someone own their own road to success after you have given them the right direction, leadership and space to work. Can you share a success story with us in regards to a change that you implemented, that helped improve the effectiveness of your sales team? What was the measurable result? Peter: One example would be setting up the right KPIs to a sales team along with a dashboard for measurement and subsequently watching their performance improve within a time frame of 90 days. The 5 most important things to bear in mind while setting up the right KPIs or goals are: Understand your team and where their strengths are Ensure the team understands the why and how of the goal or KPI Give them clear goals and specific, measureable targets Construct and use a measuring tool to track progress Calibrate and re-calibrate all the time. What are you currently working on to improve the effectiveness of your sales team? Peter: We are currently focusing on overall sales capability. By this I mean not only the sales person but also the management team. It s all about giving them the fundamental tools and direction to move forward. Why is this a priority for you now and have you seen any improvements so far? Peter: Every country has different market dynamics and all have a very challenging year ahead. This means that unless we upgrade our sales capability, we will not be able to improve the level of effectiveness or efficiency for our customers. It s very simple, if we only keep doing what we already do, we will not improve over our competition. To avoid this, we are doing more sales training and more consistent road checks with all of our teams to ensure habits are sticking. Peter: There is no leader if nobody follows. The #1 goal of a leader must be to ensure people believe and trust his/ her direction and passion so that they know the necessary steps/changes to follow. The second highest priority is to give people the autonomy and space to work as a team, allowing them to share best practices and own their own progress.

3 DATA DRIVEN DECISION MAKING Han Sin Chia Director Sales Operations, Asia Pacific and Japan Symantec When it comes to enhancing the performance of your sales team, would describe yourself as passionate about this topic? Why? (I mean, aside from just hitting targets and getting paid). It is very fulfilling to have your processes, (such as pipeline MGT and forecasting process) being implemented and proven to be very effective in driving revenue growth, not just in APJ but in the US too. For most MNCs, it is usually the other way round. Most organisations now realise that data-driven decisions are critical to their business. Many are grasping the need to utilise business intelligence in order to successfully implement major changes to the way they run their operations. However, most end up with too much irrelevant information and metrics which cloud their decision making. For me personally, it is very gratifying that I can directly drive revenue impact by looking at the right information at the right time, without the noise. Can you share a success story with us in regards to a change that you implemented, that helped improve the effectiveness of your sales team? What was the measurable result? For Micro Focus APJ, I simplified the pipeline/ forecast processes, (which was previously implemented based on a high end consulting) and tightened up the sales discipline. It resulted in a >20% year-on-year improvement in EBITDA in the following 3 years, every year. For Micro Focus North America, they emulated the same APJ process last year and have achieved the same results. What are you currently working on to improve the effectiveness of your sales team? I am currently looking at improving sales management processes (pipeline management, forecasting, monthly business reviews) and the right business intelligence for the Veritas business in APJ. Why is this a priority for you now and have you seen any improvements so far? Veritas has a unique opportunity to act like a startup, (although a huge one) and implement the sales discipline and processes for huge business growth. The monthly business review processes I have designed so far for APJ have been working and are recognised at the global level. However it s still early days and there are a lot more things we can do to impact the business. Simple data-driven decision making and achieving the balance between the art and science of sales. It is very gratifying that I can directly drive revenue impact by looking at the right information at the right time, without the noise.

4 AGILE SELLING AND ADAPTING TO CHANGE Lawrence Ang Regional Vice President Lastline When it comes to enhancing the performance of your sales team, would describe yourself as passionate about this topic? Why? (I mean, aside from just hitting targets and getting paid). Lawrence: I have always believed that the best performing sales teams are led by sales leaders who can coach to challenges as they are evolving. Therefore, as a sales leader, I continually challenge and question myself regarding how well my sales team is being coached. This is especially regarding agile selling as I know it is one sure way that my sales team is able to perform under my leadership. Can you share a success story with us in regards to a change that you implemented, that helped improve the effectiveness of your sales team? What was the measurable result? Lawrence: At Imperva, as a sales leader for Asia, I successfully implemented a strategy change for various sales teams based around the concept that the objective was not to hit home runs, (a few big deals per quarter vs. many smaller size deals) in order to meet the quarterly target. Instead I promoted the idea of advancing every sales opportunity in smaller increments if possible. This is because smaller sized deals are easy to close in a timely manner as the customers tend to have smaller budgets readily available. Then if the customer likes our products they can have come back and have a bigger phase 2 and/or phase 3 implementation later. In this way, my sales team closed many multimillion finance and service providers deals in multiple phases. This process helped Imperva secure the 2012 and 2013 Frost & Sullivan Southeast Asia Market Share Leadership Award in the category of Web Application Firewall, beating incumbent F5 Networks who won four years in a row before that. In addition, I managed to have my sales team overachieve their quarterly numbers for 8 consecutive quarters whist I was there. Thanks to the many smaller deals we were closing, our sales volume per quarter increased 5-fold over the course of 2 years. What are you currently working on to improve the effectiveness of your sales team and why? Lawrence: I am currently coaching my sales team to recognise that people don t buy simply on your say-so. This is especially when most companies are new to technology solutions such as anti-malware to protect their network. A better approach is for a prospect to go through a period of self-discovery before making the decision that Lastline s product or service is the right solution for them. This is because resistance is always pre-programmed and people don t like to be told what to do or buy. So I have implemented a strategy of selling by telling. This involves asking key questions or relating third-party stories, for example, the increase in major companies that are currently suffering costly cyber attacks. This approach allows the prospect to discover the benefits and advantages of Lastline product or services in a softer, less direct manner. Have you seen any improvements so far? Lawrence: Already I have seen our sales volume increased three-fold over the last 2 quarters and the selling cycle has shortened. This is because customers better appreciate the needs to have our products and services to protect their internet facing network from an impending cyber attacks. Lawrence: My philosophy is that the best performing sales teams are led by managers, (or sales leaders) who can successfully coach according to varying challenges as they evolve. This is because if there s one thing that every sales team faces, it s change. This constant change includes new products, new competitors, new markets, new stakeholders, new assignments, new buying process and much more. To keep up with this massive amount of change, the best performing sales teams must leverage an agile selling ecosystem. This is where a sales leader like myself is able to see the bigger picture based on my past experience. I prioritise coaching on agile selling so that better sales results can be achieved sooner rather than later.

5 Lead Your Business to Accelerate Sales through Social Selling, Agile Selling, Sales-Marketing Integration and Predictive Data Analytics at: SALES TRANSFORMATION Main Conference: 15th and 16th September 2015 Post-Conference Workshops: 17th September 2015 Venue: Grand Copthorne Hotel, Singapore LEADING YOUR BUSINESS TO INCREASE SALES THROUGH CUSTOMER- CENTRIC STRATEGIES, NEXT GENERATION TOOLS & PREDICTIVE PROCESSES Asia s only strategic level sales event for sales leaders - introducing global concepts in the Asian context. Featuring speakers including: Peter Plaisance Commercial & Business Development Director (ASEAN + India) L Oreal Singapore Han Sin Chia Director Sales Operations, Asia Pacific and Japan Symantec Lawrence Ang Regional Vice President Lastline CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD BROCHURE