2. Nick’s Bio - Highlights
Career:
ComputerLand Canada
◦ 8 Years in Sales and Sales Management
◦ Director of Marketing
Softchoice Corporation
◦ VP of Sales
◦ VP of Marketing
◦ SVP of HR
◦ SVP of Business Development
CultureByBrand
Personal:
Volunteering
◦ Led teams to
Ghana, Rwanda, Bali, Sri
Lanka, Kenya, Uganda and
Guatemala
◦ Board Member for The Strongest
Oak
Fitness
◦ Master’s Swim Club member for 22
years
◦ Club President
Married with one daughter
3. Agenda
Context
Corporate Strategy Fundamentals
The Importance of Culture in Differentiation
Aligning Marketing Strategy and Sales
Landing Strategy in Value Propositions
Elements of Sales Strategy
Managing Leading Indicators
Conclusion
4. Two ways to drive company
financials:
Decrease
Costs
Increase
Revenue
10. Examples
Dell (circa 1990)
◦ Cut out the Middleman
◦ Low Cost
◦ Just in Time Manufacturing
Apple
◦ Beautiful design
◦ Revamp ecosystems
◦ Fun, Utility
Tim Horton’s
◦ Soup and Sandwiches
◦ Always Fresh coffee
◦ Homestyle lunches
11. What is your Strategy?
What is unique about what you offer?
Is there a unique focus that your company has?
Are your resources and processes aligned to enable your strategy?
15. Time to Practice
(strategycanvas.org)
Pick one of your companies
Inform the Group
What do you do?
Who are your customers?
What makes you different
Create the Factors of Competition for your industry
Plot your company on the Strategy Canvas
Plot at least one competitor
Pick a presenter
Time: 45 minutes
16. Groups
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
Patrick Graham Kristen Randall Cheryl Rose David Grinstead
Beth Gibbs-Bartel Francois Bosman Patti Anderson Marc Blanchette
John Connors Shaun Furneaux Stephen Miller Carolina Suarez-Maslanky
Craig Gleason Anthony Cianciotta John Cassidy
17. What did we learn?
Is your company differentiated?
18. Categories of Value
What We Offer
What Our
Competitors Offer
What a Customer
Wants
A
C
B
D
E
Airline Example:
A. Safety
Route Selection
Schedule options
B. Alliance Partners
C. Friendly Service
Speed
D. Frequent Flier Miles
Seat Selection
E. Car Rental Discounts
20. Four Actions Framework
Break the Trade-off Between Low Cost and Differentiation
Eliminate Create
Raise
Reduce
Which Factors
should be reduced
well below the
Industry’s standard?
Which Factors
should be created
that the industry
Has never offered?
Which Factors that
the industry has
long competed on
should be eliminated?
Which Factors
should be raised
Well above the
Industry’s standard?
New
Value Curve
21. Four Actions Framework
(Southwest Airlines)
Break the Trade-off Between Low Cost and Differentiation
Eliminate Create
Raise
Reduce
Which Factors
should be reduced
well below the
Industry’s standard?
Which Factors
should be created
that the industry
Has never offered?
Which Factors that
the industry has
long competed on
should be eliminated?
Which Factors
should be raised
Well above the
Industry’s standard?
New
Value Curve
Speed
Friendly Service
Seat Selection,
Lounges, Meals,
Frequent Flyer
22. Strategy AND Execution
95% of employees cannot
articulate their company’s strategy
2/3 of IT and HR initiatives do not
support corporate strategy
Strategy is not cascaded to
Marketing, Sales, etc.
Differentiated
Strategy
ExecutionC M
27. What is your Culture?
Is it Unique?
What are your Company’s Values?
What Behaviours do you manage?
When Sales People are destructive to your culture what do you do?
28. Group Work
(New Groups of 5)
Step 1:
Review the Values and Culture of your key competitor
◦ Careers section of their website or About Us
Step 2:
Identify where you sound the same and where you sound different
Step 3:
Share with your team how your culture seems unique and different
Step 4:
Get feedback from the team on making this more VIVID
29. What did we learn?
How does your culture help you to differentiate?
31. Marketing
What is the Role of Marketing?
What is the Role of Marketing in your company?
Your company has a finite amount of $$ that it is able to spend on
customer acquisition
◦ How much should be spent on marketing?
◦ How much should be spent on sales?
◦ What is the optimal mix for your industry? For your strategy?
32. •Revenue Growth
•SGA as % or
RevenueKPI
•Cost of Customer
Acquisition
•Business MixKPI
•Sales % of Plan
•Growth Rate
•Sales Comp as % of
Revenue
KPI
•Customer
Retention
•Customer
Satisfaction
KPI
Planning
Strategic
Plan
Marketing
Plan
Sales Plan
Customer
Plan
Vision
Overall Business View
3-5 Year Horizon
Financial Goals
Company Structure
Leverage
Investment
Market-Centric
- 1 Year Horizon
What Segments?
What Offers?
What Competition?
Differentiation
Marketing Spend
Execution-Centric
- 1 Year Horizon
Territories
Coverage
Sales Comp
Business Mix
Biz plan for each market
Customer-Based
- Quarterly or Annually
Customer Value Proposition
Growth Goals
Objectives
34. Marketing Strategy
What are
we Selling?
• Products
• Services
• Mix and Lifecycle
• Portfolio Analysis
Who do
we sell it
to?
• By Product
• By Segment
• By Geography
• By Channel
Value
Proposition
• Pricing Strategy
• Margin Objectives
• Angel Customers
• Demon Customers
How do we
Sell it?
• Sales Force
• Social Media Plan
• Website
• Advertising
39. Value Propositions
At our company we value ______________________________
This means we ______________________________
We seek to help Customers who ______________________________
Unlike our Competitors we ______________________________
Answering these questions:
Why should someone purchase your offering?
Why should someone purchase your offering instead of your competitors?
What is most worthwhile for someone to keep in mind about your offering?
40. Exercise - Workshop
Same Groups as before and Same Company
What are the Functional, Economic and Psychological areas of Value
Creation? (where is the primary focus?)
Compare Value Proposition areas to Differentiation areas on the
Strategy Canvas
Are there any key areas of focus? (Customer Segments)
Present the re-worked Value Proposition statement for your company
30 minutes
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
Patrick Graham Kristen Randall Cheryl Rose David Grinstead
Beth Gibbs-Bartel Francois Bosman Patti Anderson Marc Blanchette
John Connors Shaun Furneaux Stephen Miller Carolina Suarez-Maslanky
Craig Gleason Anthony Cianciotta John Cassidy
41. What Did We Learn?
How helpful was it to have people who didn't understand your industry
asking questions?
Can you drive a preference for your company?
Is every customer a good customer?
What can you apply when you get back?
43. What Do We Manage?
Sales
Management
Representatives
and Territories
Accounts Opportunities
Funnels and
Forecasts
44. Elements of Sales Strategy
Value
Proposition
Customer
Segmentation
Coverage/
Territories
Use of
Multiple Sales
Channels
Sales
Competencies
Activities for
Sales People
Sales
Management
Sales
Incentives
Efficiency
Productivity
Winning
45. Recommendation
1. Workshop all elements as part of your next fiscal year planning cycle
2. Work in tandem with Marketing
3. Plan changes well in advance
48. Examples of Lagging
Indicators
% of plan
Customer Satisfaction
On-time Delivery
Market Share
Win-Loss Ratios
Customer Retention
Customer Profitability
What do these
things have in
common?
50. Examples of Leading
Indicators
Number of Sales People Trained/Certified
Number of prospects identified
Number of customer appointments each month
Number of Demonstrations completed
Number of prospects touched in Seminars
Size of the Sales Pipeline
51. Sales Cycle
Does The
Rep know
how to sell
the
product?
Do we have
any
identified
suspects?
Have we
had
technical
people on
site?
Have we
done a
proof of
concept?
Have we
presented
an ROI
Analysis?
52. How about you?
“ When we get technical people onsite we win”
“ When we do a demo we win”
“ When we present ROI cases we win”
53. Group Work
Break into groups of four
Share your leading indicators
Discuss how you could measure at least one new leading indicator
effectively (Make sure it is Strategically Aligned!!)
20 minutes
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
John Cassidy Carolina Suarez-Maslanky Marc Blanchette Kristen Randall
Anthony Cianciotta Stephen Miller Patti Anderson David Grinstead
Craig Gleason Shaun Furneaux Francois Bosman Cheryl Rose
John Connors Beth Gibbs-Bartel Patrick Graham
54. What did we learn?
How do Leading Indicators help you to execute strategy?
55. Glancing Back
Context
Corporate Strategy Fundamentals
The Importance of Culture in
Differentiation
Aligning Marketing Strategy and Sales
Landing Strategy in Value Propositions
Elements of Sales Strategy
Managing Leading Indicators
Conclusion