• Focus your sales team's resources in terms of markets, products, processes and customers
• Structure an effective and efficient sales force
• Define your sales strategies for good and not-so-good customers
• Integrate planning levels--strategic, market, territory and account--to create a competitive advantage for your firm
• Identify and correct barriers to the success of your sales team
• Discuss current topics and tools pertinent to any sales organization
• Identify, increase and cultivate your strategically important accounts
• Learn the 7 stages of Strategic Account Management and the 2 stages of segmentation
• Understand the Value Creation Model

The Strategic Sales Leadership program is designed for experienced marketing managers, sales managers, and other managers associated with developing and evaluating sales operations. Managers who are involved in structuring, implementing and growing strategic accounts, as well cross-functional managers charged with creating organizational cultures focused on strategic accounts will find this program beneficial. Recent participant titles have included president, senior vice president, vice president of sales/service, general manager, director of sales/service, director of business development, national sales manager, district/regional sales manager, area sales manager, and global key account manager.

The dynamic, interactive and intensive 3-day Strategic Sales Leadership program focuses on developing sales organizations with the flexibility and efficiency needed to thrive in today's customer-oriented and turbulent environment. The successful sales manager has discovered that integrating the sales function with the company's strategic planning increases productivity and maximizes profits. The principles presented in this program for developing a strategically oriented sales plan are proven to improve sales performance in corporations of all sizes.

Participants in this program will learn to work more closely with marketing to define the specific role of the sales organization and identify profitable customer segments. How to access resources and information, and analyze the kinds of selling resources needed to effectively cover local and regional target markets is a key benefit of attending. Because sales executives must consistently find new ways to improve customer satisfaction and profits, they need to create fluid and dynamic organizational structures and support programs. This program focuses on developing sales organizations with the flexibility and efficiency needed to thrive in customer-oriented and turbulent environments.

We will also look at Strategic Account Management as a continuous process of planning, selling, and delivering. The practice of SAM is now of practical and tactical interest to companies seeking to survive in current economic conditions, achieve competitive advantage and create future growth. Preserving those customer relationships is of strategic importance to the firm's future financial well-being.

This program teaches sales executives to focus on the need for strategic integration of their efforts. If you want a better grasp of the impact of strategic planning on profits and long-term organizational success, this program will help you:

• Understand the critical interface between strategic planning and management at the market, territory, and selling levels
• Target markets and customers to create a sustainable competitive advantage for your organization
• Benchmark competitive strengths and weaknesses
• Communicate effectively with your direct and indirect customers to improve the return on your selling efforts
• Assess sales channel alternatives
• Execute the market plan at the territory level
• Initiate sales action plans and key account strategies
• Objectively negotiate the terms and conditions of success in individual sales territories
• Create a strong and meaningful interface between marketing, sales management, and the sellers in your organization
• Develop and deliver "win-win" business solutions through structured and value-generating strategic account plans
• Create a plan to manage Strategic Account opportunity

The Strategic Perspective

• Understanding the strategic intent of your firm
• Models and tools used in strategic planning
• The impact of "street smarts" in strategic thinking
• The role of the sales executive in the strategic process

The Market Plan

• The marketing/sales interface
• The purpose of the market plan: "Focus and Own"
• Understanding the market: Segmentation analysis tools
• Developing the go-to-market strategy
• Creating the comparative advantage
• Implications for the sales team

Building and Managing the Account Portfolio

• Initiating systems to identify key, target, maintenance, and "why bother" accounts
• Developing appropriate sales strategies for each customer category
• Allocating selling resources for maximum return on investment
• Understanding customers value orientation
• Creating customer/account value
• Building internal systems to support the value proposition

Structuring the Sales Team

• The drivers of sales success
• The "Balanced Sales Team:" Roles and functions
• Structural criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Adaptability
• Organisational options
• Understanding selling process models: Transactional, Consultative, and Enterprise for value creation
• Owning or renting the sales channel

Programming Sales Performance

• Sizing the sales team
• Assignment of responsibilities
  • Territory alignment
  • Workload/potential trade-off
  • Management of strategic accounts
• The hiring/training trade off
• Negotiating the terms of success--goal setting
• Reinforcing effort and accomplishment
  • Motivation
  • Compensation

Understanding Buying Behavior

• Purchasing models
• The one-to-one environment
• Organizational buying

The Seller's Planning Responsibility

• Market plans at the territory level
• Key account plans
• Target account plans
• The role of sales management
• Tools to facilitate: Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Retention Management (CRM)

The Sales Team Audit

• Contemporary literature
• Issues in a turbulent economy
• Barriers to success
• Strategies to overcome

Building the Strategic Account Portfolio

• Developing the situation analysis
• Assessing the competition
• Creating a meaningful value proposition
• Structuring the strategic account sales team

Developing the SAM Execution Plan

• Managing the tactics and implementation metrics
• Overcoming the barriers to successful SAM
• Take-away tools and recommendations for implementation

The program fee includes tuition, books, instructional materials, and coffee breaks. Fee is payable in advance in US dollars and is subject to change. See our Cancellation, Transfer and Substitution Policy

Asia Pacific Regional Office
Suite 1606-07
MassMutual Tower
38 Gloucester Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Tel: 852.2509.9088
Fax: 852.2509.9228
Email: Executive Education, Hong Kong