• Pre-Sales
• Sales and SE Management
• Field Development
• Channels
• Training
• Services
• Products

The Research Institute of America reports that without reinforcement and practice, 85% of lessons are forgotten 3 weeks after a class.

Alignment of Sales and Pre-Sales Objectives

Traditional sales methodologies focus on acquisition of Business Closure. Pre-sales has a different objective – to achieve Solution Closure. This mismatch can be problematic for Field Development. "Flea dipping” SEs through sales training designed for sales reps is a recipe for failure.

An SE Skills Improvement Program needs to empower SEs to own acquiring Solution Closures. SEs can directly impact cost of sales and revenue by improving funnel quality, Solution Closure time, deals size, and solution win rate.

An SE-specific Solution Sales Process uses engineering skills that resonate with SEs. It can achieve efficient, scalable, repeatable, forecastable Solution Closures, and align with any sales methodology.

An SE Skills Improvement Program Outline --
Measureable Business Impact:

As Field Development knows through years of research, training alone is not enough to instill long term skills improvement.  A well designed program would make use of well known instructional design techniques to ensure best practices are reinforced, retained, and made operational by the pre-sales organization.

Evaluate: An on-line SE Improvement Assessment Service measures the team's current Solution Sales Process maturity and acumen.

Endorse: Gain executive support from Sales and SE Management. A one-day Management Workshop can identify specific program Training, Productivity Tools, and Improvement Services objectives and metrics.

Educate: Teach a Solution Sales Process using engineering principles. Use facilitators who are ex-SE Managers, not sales trainers.

Embed: Reinforce best practices. Operationalize field behaviors, procedures, policies, and SE Productivity Tools. Enumerate: Behaviors become internalized, the process is routine, and impact is measured. See measured Case Studies.

The SE Improvement Model

A well designed program is based on a model of pre-sales process evolution from an AS IS to a TO BE regarding process procedures, policies, roles, metrics, and tools. We can assist you in understanding your AS IS and TO BE through an on-line SE Process Maturity Assessment. The assessment uses a CMMI model of process maturity:

Level:

1) No Process: The SE informs and educates.  Demo Demon

2) Adopting: Defining policies.  Much resistance to change

3) Operational Process: The process becomes routine, but measurement is lacking

4) Repeatable Process: Behaviors are internalized, the process is routine, and improvement is measured

Contact Us to recieve a white paper for an indepth look at an SE Process Maturity Model.

Contact Us for further detail.

Successful Change:

Successfully making soft skills behavior change routine and operational requires a strict regimen of regular practice for at least 12 to 18 months.

Successful implementation requires that sales and SE management openly support the proposed skills changes and take an active role in enforcement of new policy and procedure.

Lastly, open an enrollment model for classes is generally not successful in implementing meaningful change. Instead, local courses with management participation is crucial to the success and adoption of behavior and skills changes.

Budget:

Soft skills training is rarely planned for since there is seldom a compelling need.

At the executive level, budgets are soft targets. Funding can almost always be had with a compelling business case.

For minimal impact on the quarterly income statement, treat your skills investment as a "Pre-Paid Expense", an asset that can be written down over a period of many quarters.

Alternatively, treat soft skills as an IP investment, amortizing it over several quarters or years.

The Bottom Line: Don't let budgetary issues prevent the opportunity to achieve long term meaningful results.