Conference ilbbak::us_sales_service

    From 15.0:
>>    From what I have read, the Account Manager is expected to drive all
>>    business for an account, regardless of geography, subsidiary status or
>>    whatever.      
    
    
       An Account Manager is not expected to drive all business for an
    account.  An Account Manager is responsible for developing the account
    plan for the account.  The plan defines where and what type of
    coverage,both sales and technical, the account will have assigned.
             
       The plan is developed with input from all sites that have customer
    contact within the account.  Most account plans call for many types
    of resources driving many different types of business, coordinated into
    a sales strategy that maps to the accounts business goals and
    objectives.
    
         1.  Again, the account plan communicates to the entire account
    team how buy decisions are made including procrument practices.  Our
    sales force and account teams number one priority is to deal with the
    users(probably decentralized) and provide reccomended solutions.
    Secondly, once the user has selected us as the company that can best
    meet their business goals, the procurment cycle can begin.
    
         2. Not sure what "high-level","low-level", means.  The basic
    support structure for our accounts is not changing. Various sales
    reps will continue to cover various sites and divisions as called
    for in the account plan.  If a site is only purchasing customer service 
    products/contracts from Digital, the account plan will most likely call
    for a Customer Service Sales Specialist to cover that particular site.
    
        3.  NMS is not a centrally driven account focus. It is of course
    a goal to give customers the service they want and more.  Individual
    customers do not need to understand Digital's internal practices, but
    Digital's account plans must be based on a thorough knowledge of what
    the customer's needs are.  There is not "one mold", but hundreds of
    customized account plans, each with a seperate distinct support plan
    to maxamize customer satisfaction. 
    

.1> There is not "one mold", but hundreds of customized account plans,
.1> each with a seperate distinct support plan to maxamize customer
.1> satisfaction. 
    
I dare say that when my customer discovers that should they desire to talk
to a sales person they have to call 2,000 miles and two time zones distant
as opposed to the local Digital sales representatives...well...gives a
whole new meaning to "customer satisfaction"?

Jerry

    re .1
    
    >   An Account Manager is not expected to drive all business for an
    >account.  An Account Manager is responsible for developing the account
    >plan for the account.  The plan defines where and what type of
    >coverage,both sales and technical, the account will have assigned.
    
    1) Ok, the Account Manager is our planning agent.  How is the
    "goodness" of the plan assessed?  Must we wait for "results", or are
    there criteria that can be applied to the plan itself?
    
    >   The plan is developed with input from all sites that have customer
    >contact within the account.  Most account plans call for many types
    >of resources driving many different types of business, coordinated into
    >a sales strategy that maps to the accounts business goals and
    >objectives.
    
    I'm sure you don't mean that we develop this plan without discussing it
    with the customer directly?  But it sounds that way.  Tell me how the
    customer is consulted in the process.
    
    >2. Not sure what "high-level","low-level", means. 
    
    In some situations, we sell Digital up front to top management and work
    out the details of what they want/need later.  That's high level.  In
    other situations, we sell directly to local sites with specific need,
    dealing with purchasing agents like any other vendor.  That's low
    level.
    
    I'm still worried that we are in an ivory tower syndrome.
    
    Dick
    
    
    
    

    FY'92 Account Plans and their associated budgets have not been
    finalized nor communicated as such.  FY'91 is still in gear and we need
    our entire sales force focusing on closing and shipping Q4 business.
    Levels of business will dictate levels of staffing that can be
    afforded.  It is premature to inform customers of any FY'92 plans at
    this time.
    
         Through the process of finalizing FY'92 Account Plans it is the
    responsibility of the sales reps calling on our customers to
    communicate effectively and accurately to the Account Manager the local
    needs of the customers at their site.
    
         It is the Account Manager's responsibility to develop the Account
    Plan based on that input, as well as utilize his/her own knowledge of
    the account including customer feedback/participation.  If any sales
    rep feels the Account Manager responsible for their customer site needs
    additional information perhaps a sales call is needed to further
    qualify and understand the local situation. This could be coupled with
    a Q4 closing call.
    
         Our customers overall are responding very favorably to something
    they have been requesting for years, which is to provide Digital sales
    and support resources where their business needs dictate, not where
    Digital's internal desires or measurement structure dictate.
    

      Reply to 15.3
    
    1. Criteria to assess "goodness" of account plan.  Customer Acceptance.
    
    2. How is the customer consulted in the account planning process?
       The answer to this question has been communicated to the Sales Force
       for over a year, as well as, been incorporated into all Sales Training,
       Account Planning Workshops, and various communications including a
       Video Tape of Bob Hughes dated April 19, 1990, entitled "Account
       Planning Presentation".  For those of you new to sales, the tape is
       highly recommended, takes only twenty minutes to view, and is
       available through VTX AV Catalog.
    
       The basis of any account plan is the customer.  The customer's
       company, the industry it is in, the competition it faces, and the
       internal goals and objectives it has developed.  Extensive
       interviewing and relationship building is the groundwork of all
       account plans.  AMS (Account Management School) was given to all
       selling levels within the Account Portfolios over the last twelve
       months.  The basis of the course is how to interview properly to
       obtain the information necessary to do an effective account plan. 
       Secondly, Bob Hughes has been very clear that once an account plan is
       written it is to be reviewed with the customer.  This point is
       discussed throughly in the previously mentioned video.   Not only
       reviewed with the customer, but agreement is sought on Digital's plans to
       pursue various projects.  Many times well-intentioned employees at remote
       customer sites involve Digital resources in a long, costly sales cycles
       only to find out corporate management had no intention of funding the
       project.  Finally, once the plan is written and reviewed with the
       customer, the customer is invited back to participate in an Account 
       Team Meeting where the account plan is updated and perhapes modified 
       based on new information.
    
    3. High level; low level calling.  
    
       Both types of sales calls have to continue.  A well integrated,
       communicated account plan will make both types more effective.
    
    
    

    I think the "hidden" concern here is that the APM model is driving
    Account Managers to focus too much on profitabilty and not enough on
    customer satisfaction. The fact of the matter is that it appears to be
    much more efficient to have two or three "dedicated" resources
    centralized at your customers major locations than two dozen
    "fractional" reps all over the country. In most cases I doubt that the
    customer would agree with the theory however.
    
    We have several account managers who are planning to cover large
    divisions (1000+ employees with millions of Digital installed products)
    from cities that are an airplane ride away. Hopefully, this will change
    before the plans are finalized, but I'm not certain with our focus on
    the APM model.
    
    Most customers I've talked to over the years are very sensitive to
    where thier sales rep lives. In fact I've had customers in Appleton
    (only two hours form our Milwaukee office) complain about not having a
    local sales rep. 
    
    This reminds me of the Frito-lay story about sending a truck out on a
    special trip torestock the one empty shelf in the supermarket, a
    clearly UNPROFITABLE decision, but one that has gotten them the largest
    share of business in their industry.
    

    I think this question can fit here nicely.  It came up at
    a meeting last Friday.
    
    What expenses are included when a CAM "funds" a local rep?
    
    Example: CAM holds meeting.  Attendance for local rep involves
    travel expense.  Who picks up the tab in a situation like
    this?
    
    Joel
    

    re 15.5 
    
    >The answer to this question has been communicated to the Sales Force
    >for over a year, as well as, been incorporated into all Sales Training,
    
    Sorry, I'm not in Sales.   But my success depends on the success of
    this company, and I want to know why we do what we do.  There are some
    very difficult to understand situations being described by some people
    I know, and I want (not necessarily need) to know.
    
    >Secondly, Bob Hughes has been very clear that once an account plan is
    >written it is to be reviewed with the customer.  ...
    
    This still sounds like we run the risk of developing a plan at
    considerable expense and then finding out that we mis-understood the
    customer's desires/needs.  I would have expected to hear something
    like:
    
    "The first draft of the plan is reviewed with the customer
    representative, who obtains feedback within his/her organization, and
    the final draft incorporates this feedback."
    
    While this kind of process puts the customer in the critical path of
    the Account Managers planning exercise, I suggest that it is essential,
    even if the planning cycle is extended.  Maybe it means we make a
    smaller investment in the first draft until we have more solid input
    from the customer.  I have had a number of years experience in
    planning, and the worst plan you can have is one which is not realistic
    because one or more of the interested parties was not consulted
    effectively.  
    
    regards,
    
    Dick Beldin,
    Sr. Systems Consultant
    Caribbean Operations Manufacturing
    

    reply to 15.8
    
      Please read note 14.  You can see there that an account plan is a
    living document and is updated at least once per quarter with new
    information gathered from the customer as well as other sources.
      
           The account plan will continue to gain importance in the
    years to come so please do share your experience with us.

    I think it's great that account plans will be updated every quarter. 
    Our customers need to be reminded about proper planning.  (Besides the
    obvious benefit to us)..
    
    Will we be allowed to update and change our budgets every quarter?  
    
    Traditionaly, making changes to individual goal sheets was taboo...Are
    we moving to a real time appraisal of our people, like we are with our
    customers?                            
     

    Not that it's the right way to do things, but it is not uncommon for
    IBM to adjust sales quotas in order for 90%+ of their sales force to be
    successful.
    
    The problem with that concept in Digital is that the Account Plan is now
    (supposedly) a real business plan that dictates up front the amount of
    Sales Support and other resources required to generate a certain profit
    margin.  If we are allowed to suddenly reduce the expected revenue 
    (suppose the customer has just undergone a major budget slash or leverage 
    buyout), then we, as a company, must do one of the following, according 
    to the plan:
    
    1. Reduce Sales Support levels = layoff employees
    
    2. Accept a lower expected profit from the account = unsuccessful
    Account Manager = job in jeopardy (won't happen if I'm the AM writing
    the plan!)
    
    3. Compromise the integrity of the Account Plan, in which case it
    becomes as useless as previous Account Plan models, and the concept of
    Account Managers becomes just as unnecessary.
    
    Since one of the original (since the beginning of time) ideas was to
    make Sales accountable for finding business and generating revenue,
    then it makes sense to keep budgets steady for as long as practicality
    allows, let the sales reps do their job, and reward/reprimand
    accordingly.
    
    This approach still puts the responsibility of close planning with the
    Sales Representative and Account Manager, and in many cases requires a
    honing of negotiating and committment-obtaining skills on behalf of the
    Sales Representative(s).
    
    Mark Landers
    Sales Representative

    Customer's purchasing plans can change suddenly and drastically due to
    totally unforeseeable events.  Whether or not the account manager is
    deemed to succeed or fail is IMHO not awefully important.  
    
    What does seem important is that we develop a mechanism for redeploying
    the resources that were "dedicated" to the account.  Surely, some other
    account team must have more business than they planned and be
    struggling to get the resources to close it.  The idea of laying
    support people off because of sudden disasters in a sinlge account
    strike me as the ultimate siliness.
    
    Business plans are a means to an end, not a religion.
    
    -dave

    The issue being addressed was whether or not we would/should change
    BUDGETS in the middle of a fiscal year in order to make everyone appear
    successful, in spite of the fact that the company may be failing
    (precisely our problem right now).
    
    Maybe laying off sales/sales support because the numbers don't add up
    right sounds crazy, but in case you haven't heard, that's exactly what is 
    about to happen in the U.S.  (Meanwhile, we have added ADDITIONAL overhead
    to implement the new Account Management structure).
    
    My point was that we need to maintain accountability at all levels, and
    that includes the Sales Rep and their red-line/blue-line managers.  If
    truly "empowered," then shuffling the resources at the local levels
    to make up for a single shortfall should be easy, and we should expect
    our managers to take such action, not give them an easy way out by
    allowing a re-write of the budget numbers.
    
    If an entire Corporate Account or National Account has suffered severe
    cutbacks, then the managers at that level should also take action to
    divert resources in order to make Digital successful.  (key word there:
    DIGITAL's success, not the manager's.  A diversion of resources may and
    sometimes SHOULD include the manager him/herself!)
    
    Mark Landers

    reply to 15.10
    
      Yes as we mature in our use of NMS and the systems capabilities
    it will provide for us, a goal is to include the flexibility to update
    our Personal Performance Plans, Account Plans, and budgets during the
    fiscal year.

    Reply to note 15.11 and 15.13
    
      Both responses received praise from Bob Hughes and Peter Robohm 
    as good responses to this subject.  Thank you for your contribution.

    REPLY TO 15.6 
    
    The APM model is a productivity tool that allows account managers the
    ability to "model" potential account plan scenarios.  It is one
    component of NMS.  Another component of NMS is the Account Management
    Structure (AMS).  It is AMS that causes our sales organization to be
    organized in FY92 by account versus geography, not APM.
    
    AMS is not a tool to increase profit.  AMS IS a process to increase
    customer satisfaction, as well as a tool to increase Digital's
    competitive edge.  Customers comments, in fact, have increased our
    urgency to implement AMS.  Many customers have vented their frustration
    at having multiple sales representatives across the country call on
    them with disjointed strategies and selling practices.  It is our
    customers who will benefit most from our dedicated Account Team
    coverage.
    
    It is the Account Manager's responsibility to plan for coverage issues
    first, and then, secondly, to implement the coverage in a profitable
    manner.  APM allows the account manager to look at multiple "what ifs"
    prior to submitting the account plan to more senior management for
    approval.
    
    Your suggestion of the Frito-Lay story is a good one; what is wrong
    with the analogy is the cost per person of a Digital end-user sales
    representative versus a Frito-Lay route driver, if the revenue does
    not justify the means.