Summary
Salesforce has taken an innovative approach to sales development by putting the best of design thinking in the hands of sales professionals to transform relationships and accelerate revenue growth. The results have been mind-boggling with of over 100% gain in revenue within each team that has partnered with Somersault Innovation.
Testimonials
“Somersault broke the mold on sales training and the results have been incredible. The content was spot on, and the learning pathway over the 3- month period supportive and valuable. Our pipeline and revenue growth has surpassed any expectation as a direct result of your work. You have changed how we sell.” SVP, Enterprise Corporate Sales
“Next to a direct referral, we’ve found Sell by Design™ is our best way to crack into an account.“ Senior Regional Vice President, Enterprise Corporate Sales
“Somersault invites this idea that people can and should fall in love with their customer. I’ve found that I’ve been able to ask clearer questions that lead prospects down a path of understanding versus being sold to or at. My solution is now a customer solution.” Account Executive, Enterprise Corporate Sales
“My talk track used to be about our product, now it is based on my experience with the customer’s product.” Account Executive, Enterprise Corporate Sales
“We chose to take a chance and completely shake up our typical discovery process with Hallmark. By speaking to the team about our own customer journey with their brand, we gained the attention and trust of every executive at the table.” Account Executive, Enterprise Corporate Sales
Challenge
Seasoned sales executives at the firm were convinced that sales people were rushing to close with clients and were too often missing much bigger deals, leaving money and mutual gain on the table. As one said, “what keeps me up at night is that our people go too quickly for the close and miss the wider opportunity available to us and our client.” Not sure how to solve for this despite a suite of more traditional enablement offerings, they contracted with Somersault Innovation to take a more creative tact. The interest was to:
- Create more authentic curiosity and connection with customers/prospects
- Expand discovery to Increase the likelihood of uncovering bigger opportunities
- Increase sales productivity
Solution
Somersault partnered with various sales team to take them through a 3-month Sell by Design™ process to build their discovery capability and target two lack luster accounts per person to grow. They kicked off with an intensive face to face session to learn new skills and apply them in conversation with actual clients and then in various scenarios within the city around them.
“Curiosity is my job” is a design mantra, which for sales translates into asking “Why?” to your customer/prospect many more times than you might typically do in order to understand motivation and priorities. This is one of the muscles the sales team was building. The more one can understand and get close to each part of their customer’s value chain, the greater the opportunity will become. This was another lesson.
With this foundation under their belts, the sales professionals left the face to face event ready to try new approaches with their customers. Somersault coached pairs virtually to keep them focused on:
- Using their new skills
- Exploring continued application of innovative approaches to discover unmet needs of their customer’s
- Opening new conversations and deals
Results
The results have been extraordinary. Groups increased pipeline by over 100%, Annual Contract Value (ACV) increased to an all time high. Millions of dollars have been added to the pipeline and ACV. Results could easily be tracked, as each sales professional had to identify two accounts they were going to focus on across the program. Results were derived against only these two accounts per person.
100% pipeline increase and over $1.5 million of additional revenue closed
Number of touches to get to one meeting was cut by 50% (15 touches versus 30)
In their own words, team members and managers felt Sell by Design™ helped them:
- Grow revenue
- Generate a renewed sense of passion for customers and their business challenge
- Increase energy and confidence in finding bigger deals
- Retain talent
- Increase credibility with clients
- Revive accounts once deemed dead
Since this work, Somersault has been hired to build the new Discovery model for the Tech Giant, build a 1-day program to educate sales engineers and account managers on the model and train their trainers to deliver the program.