Going for growth
Neal Lillywhite, Sales and Marketing Director at Integralis,
has used both art and science to build a successful sales team “What was your route into selling?”
“My first job was actually in procurement with an IT company. I got to meet a lot of salespeople and came to some early conclusions: some of them were not very good, they didn’t listen and they failed to follow up on actions. However, my other observations were that they all had company cars, mobile phones and were earning decent money. As a 24 year-old with a desire to own a Golf GTi, a job in sales was an attractive career move.”
“What were the early lessons?”
“My first sales role was with a very small supplier. One of the first lessons I learnt was the importance of working for a company with a strong proposition – without one, you are lost. It has often been asked, “Is sales a science or an art?” A successful sales team needs a combination of the science – training, methodology and processes – as well as individuals with the freedom to use their drive, empathy and emotional intelligence.”
“Where did you move?”
“Moving to Intel in 1997 was quite a change. It was all about the ‘science’ with extensive corporate sales training and established processes. The proposition was rock solid, but there was little scope for personality. From there I moved to Nokia, where they struck a good balance with a people-centric approach to sales supported by a professional sales culture. I joined Integralis UK in August 2007 at a time when the company was building on its strong proposition and great market recognition.”
“Integralis is growing rapidly…”
“Yes, we’ve grown the company to become the largest UK provider of IT security. Since it was founded in 1988 it has moved from being a successful product – based IT security reseller to now offering managed security services and consultancy. As our customers, their businesses and the IT landscape have all changed, we’ve also adapted. Rather than selling IT products and talking about features and benefits, our salespeople spend a lot of time getting to know clients and understanding their business issues rather than the technology problems they are facing. They then work with them to create a managed security service with contracts being anything from one to three years. This is a step change for our sales teams and the way that they are work.”
“How have you organised the salesforce?”
“Our sales teams comprise about 65 people of whom 35 are frontline. They are organised so that each account team has a client director, with ultimate commercial responsibility for the sale. The salespeople working under that director focus on identifying the client, evaluating and qualifying the customer. One or more of our consultants with specific understanding of the target organisation’s business models will help evaluate the scope of the project. The presales professionals are the first people to engage the customer and establish their trust. In an environment where the focus is on continuous delivery of managed services to meet business needs, post-sales is about operational models and the functioning of an IT service within a broader business context.”
“What are the details?”
“We have established our own sales academy to train and equip our salespeople with the right skills to understand our particular sales environment. It is important that we invest in our teams to enable them to grow in their roles and operate at a higher business level. We also completely revised the compensation scheme to reward salespeople for winning and developing business for all the services we provide to the client. We want long-term client engagements rather than one-off projects, so our compensation model also rewards this. We look for salespeople to build a franchise where having won a client the salesperson will generally keep this relationship and an account team will be developed around them as the relationship grows.
Underpinning all of these points is trust within the sales organisation, so a salesperson knows that having won business we will honour their compensation plan. This is something that I feel particularly strongly about and can be one of the most divisive issues in sales.”
“What is the latest news?”
“I am enjoying using the sum of my earlier career experiences now to develop a salesforce that can meet the challenges of this highly competitive market. After a record year in 2010, we have been recruiting this year and will be looking for further additions to the team.”
Source: Winning Edge Article May 2011 Page 21