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The New World of Work | The Cultural Opportunity

6/11/2017

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The New World of Work | The Cultural Opportunity
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It´s 12 years ago that Bill Gates posited the New World of Work, where collaboration, business intelligence and prioritizing scarce time and attention are critical factors for success. It´s time to look into the progress we made on software enabled business productivity because it impacts each and everyone.
The innovation journey continues at amazing speed of technological progress but also adds new complexity for people who already feel the pressure of an "always-on" world and ever-rising expectations for productivity.
The need for change is even more pressing: Neuroscience found evidence why our good old flexible office work environment is not productive.
No matter where you start doing things differently it will be a journey without final state of perfection. My personal experience in software industry started with empowerment, trust, investment and an innovative environment - all invaluable assets to be successful and certainly something to secure to back your own digital transformation!
The New World of Work offers more than saving commute time and a better CO2 footprint for the individual. It´s certainly more than saving office space, reducing travel cost and increasing employer attractiveness scores. Optimizing work and life for more productivity means a  fundamental change of habits - professionally and privately.
The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem - Do you understand me?
Captain Jack Sparrow
Let´s not confuse, the digital transformation of our work- and lifestyle remains a cultural challenge, a social responsibility and it mandates innovation in leadership approaches. What may work on an individual- or team level requires a more systematic effort to organizational structures. Conventional Change Management is not sufficient to address the topic says Barbara Josef, Partner at 5to9. ​It requires general management attention to orchestrate the cultural transformation and realize the productivity potential. All functions from IT, Finance, HR and the Line Organizations need to be onboard and synchronized. Make sure, you keep it simple and rational in your approach to policies.
Transforming the organization means dealing with complexity in:
  • how to articulate business requirements and the definition of success?
  • how to become explicit on expectations?
  • how to renegotiate work contracts and revisit mutual agreements?
  • how to work inside and outside the office?
  • how to prioritize professional and private life?
  • how to individually and collectively organize collaboration?
  • how to interact online, offline and across desks, sites, cities, regions and time zones?
The World Economic Forum has provided a navigation system on the global transformation agenda to become systematic with Workforce and Employment of the future. You may also find some interesting perspectives there.
World Economic Forum - Workforce and Employment
Source: World Economic Forum, "Workforce and Employment"
"Now that it's definitely not cool anymore, it feels safe for me to start tweeting as well ..."
​Posted by my old friend, Prof. Ulle Endriss, 2017 ... or 25 years after we learned about Quantum Computing at University
During my career, I had the pleasure to work in mobile workplaces, use flexible- and drop-in offices, collaborate during intense travel, perform in international roles, manage remote teams, lead business in distributed environments and experience diverse cultures. Still, I keep exploring, learning, optimizing and innovating my environment - always aware that there will be no perfect time to try new things.
The next big transformation in sales is within reach. Therefore, I dive deep into Artificial Intelligence to further benefit Business Insight and, I look into seamless channel integration to imagine teamwork with our future colleagues, the AI Bots. If sales can add value to customers through well articulated procedures, repetitive activities and standardized offerings, than the combination of new technology with experienced sellers will lead to new exciting ways of customer experience.
Finally, I enjoy working in remote teams, managing distributed organizations but, I also learned that even the most sophisticated technology can´t do what a good cup of coffee can do - stimulate the creation of inspiring ideas when sitting together in person.​​
Technology can help you learn and follow-up on things in a structured way but it will not help you in cases where you even don´t know what you don´t know.
Conscious Knowledge
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Account Planning | Busting the Napkin Myth

18/9/2017

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A GOAL WITHOUT A PLAN IS JUST A WISH!
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One myth keeps following me during my two decades in direct sales: Best Account Plans fit on Napkins!
Wow, what a bold statement - it feels equally untrue like: brightest minds fit into double-digit IQs.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
​Albert Einstein
Despite all standardization efforts, enterprise business environments keep getting more complex. The ability to innovate simple and effective approaches in business practice has become a competitive advantage. Oversimplification, however, is tempting but remains an act of negligence.
Account Planning means planning for results. In a number driven world of sales, the decomposition of an aspired revenue goal is psychologically the first step to accepting the challenge. While SMART goals and respective objectives may well fit on a small napkin, they by no means are the plan. I would even argue that it is the wrong end to start with - relevant account plans are starting with the customer.
In recent years, Business-to-Business sales has evolved in various dimensions, redefining how we engage with customers:
  1. ​Sustainability - With Digital Transformation and the move to the Cloud, customer Business Models have embraced external vendors to become integrated part of the value chain. Continuously earning trust, adhering to ethical and legal standards, and delivering positive customer experience are non-negotiable foundations to sustainable commercial success. Yes, the definition of success is far more than transacting in the short term or "making the number" only.
  2. Customer Alignment - Cutomer Centricity is all about understanding the customers business priorities and translating them into strong and precise value propositions. As much as, I agree no Account Plan should be called complete without customer validation. Aligning with customer key stakeholders on the plan and finally signing off on a joint business roadmap is what makes a good plan a demand generation engine.
  3. Teamwork - Enterprise sales has become a team sport of specialized professionals, all working towards joint goals. It´s the heart of every effective Account Plan to ensure a common understanding and efficient orchestration with all stakeholders - internally (Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Consulting, Support, ...) and externally in the ecosystem (Partners, Advisors, Influencers ...).
Account Planning is a reflection on the evolution in sales but even more, so it is a yardstick on the sophistication of your teams work - what a great coaching opportunity or moment to personally benefit the customer relationship in form of executive sponsorship.
Imagine the business potential of getting the perception right by moving away from a necessary evil and abandoning the disrespect which a napkin implies.
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Selling Time | Time is Money?

21/3/2017

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Time is Money?
Source: Shutterstock
Let me today share some thoughts on a recently published article on Harvard Business Review: “It’s 10 AM. Do You Know What Your Sales Reps Are Doing?” [HBR.ORG, 2017].
The title is a wonderful invitation to reflect on the state of your organization, your approach to sales strategy, quantity versus quality and ultimately whether you want to manage activity or result. In any case, business acumen needs to be first!
The article itself is offering it´s own approach to sales management. Of course, sales leaders should rely on supporting data and take fact based decision. It´s also evident that Microsoft provides great products and tools to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. However, the way how data is used in this article and at which organizational altitude a certain tool like Workplace Analytics is applied remains unconventional.
For example, the authors are not asking why “CRM self-reported data maybe inherently flawed” but propose the approach “to analyze the digital exhaust of calendar and email metadata” instead.
We can be rest assured that it will be 10 AM again and that time will tell how many of their top performing sellers are willing to accept the proposed micro management approach to optimization.
It´s clear that maintaining business data in CRM is not the first thing a seller will fall in love with but why should metadata from calendar, mail or any other app maybe in better shape or even be more insightful than explicit business information?  - Data quality is about discipline but sustainability only can be achieved where relevant business conversation drives respective demand for it.​
Times of the Lone Wolves in sales are over and contemporary solution selling approaches mandate efficient teamwork. The better you coach this in every interaction with your sellers, the more you inherently drive demand for systematic alignment. This will make the case for efficient Time Management and, ultimately it shows the difference between a metering tool and CRM as a sales productivity engine.​
Selling into complex enterprises is a time intense endeavor, so let´s maximize selling time for your teams, e.g. balancing all internal work with the amount of time they need to spend properly serving customers. Time Management also remains a key enabling factor on seller level, requiring to systematically coach and develop every individual – probably starting with yourself!
​If you want to learn more on how to practically approach Time Management, Keith Rosen recently published his new book: “Own Your Day!”. It´s worth reading and opens eyes on why your calendar may yet not be the ideal starting point to conclude optimization from.
Either way, ​Coaching or Inspection - you decide but be aware: ​No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! 😉
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    Andreas Engel

    Andreas Engel


    ​is an experienced business leader working 20+ year in high-tech industry - leading, growing and transforming high-performance sales organizations, balancing short term results with long term strategy to drive new business growth.

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