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Growing revenue by optimizing sales models around the globe (MSFT)
Growing revenue by optimizing
sales models around the globe
Internet advertising is one business that's seen more than its fair share of challenges recently.
Actually, that's putting it mildly. Market conditions, consumer preferences, ad effectiveness, search technology, and business models in that industry have been morphing faster than most Internet advertising companies can keep up.
So what's an online ad provider to do when it's struggling to execute a global growth strategy while sales continue to slip, days sales outstanding (DSOs) lengthen, and customer satisfaction scores plummet?
Surely, no one could fault the management of such a company for concluding that dramatic changes were in order—the sort of changes that just might include the rollout of a single, uniform sales operating model worldwide, one that could bring some much-needed consistency to sales practices globally and reduce the local autonomy that appears to be hindering revenue growth.
But while no one could fault a company for coming to such a conclusion, what if the underlying assumption turned out to be wrong?
In fact, what if such an assumption—that a one-size-fits-all approach to global sales is what's required—was the very one being championed by the client company as it went about the search for a professional services firm to help design and roll out the solution it already had in mind?
That's precisely the situation Paul Lipinski, a PricewaterhouseCoopers managing director, and his team of business transformation consultants faced when they were asked to support a global leader in Internet advertising services.
The company asked Paul and his team to develop recommendations to respond to their "problem statement"—that is, the business hypothesis formed by the company.
The hypothesis called for consolidation of the range of sales approaches currently in use around the world into a single, uniform sales operating model. Simply put, the client's initial assessment of the problem-at-hand led them to conclude that such an approach was the most sensible way to go.
"While it was a logical hypothesis, once we came back to them with our thinking it quickly became evident there were issues they had overlooked that called for a different approach," says Lipinski. "After all, just because you put a brand-spanking-new model out there doesn't mean everyone will adopt it outright—particularly if it fails to meet the needs of the local market."
Applying a tried-and-true business transformation methodology, the team went back and revisited the client's assumptions about what was actually needed.
By more closely examining the potential consequences of the implementation of a single sales operating model globally, the PwC team was able to develop a more robust approach to achieving the client's objective. Importantly, the team was also able to identify roadblocks to successful implementation that the client had overlooked.
"While we gave a lot of credence to the client's own assessment of the problem," Lipinski says, "we still went ahead and applied our big-picture approach to issue-based problem solving. We couldn't go back to the client with a recommendation we could stand behind without first ensuring our team did everything it could to examine the issues at hand from many angles."
As it turns out, that extra effort at this early stage really paid off.
By using a global workshop-based approach across multiple continents, the team developed a solution that called for three separate sales operating models, each of them tailored to divergent regional business needs and market maturities.
The team was staffed with consultants in nine offices around the globe, servicing 40 different countries. Such geographic dispersion of resources made it possible for work to continue nearly non-stop. Not only was the PwC team able to quickly ramp up the firm's global resources, but it was able to engage client staff from around the world—getting them working collaboratively on the same set of issues.
"If we hadn't shared a common approach to issues-based problem solving, a common delivery methodology, and a common consulting language, we never would have been able to accomplish what we did in the first eight months," says Avynash Gersappe, the primary project manager. "Without that common problem solving approach, we would not have been successful. And we would have spent a lot of time, money, and resources coming up with the right answer to the wrong question."
Not only did the company's revenue increase upon rollout of the new sales models, but customer satisfaction scores soared as well. And improvements introduced in the sales process led to the elimination of significant waste as the organization grew organically within each market. In turn, better processes and less waste meant less time-to-market.
Typically a company looking to transform some aspect of its business can expect to achieve either operational excellence or customer responsiveness. In this case, the client was able to achieve both. And the improvements in customer satisfaction were hugely important to the client.
"Once you begin rolling out a new sales model," Lipinski says, "you can be sure that your customers will take notice nearly right away. And if you get it right, the customer is going to respond positively because the business is being more responsive to their needs."
Lipinski attributes the project's success to the effective use of an issues-based problem solving approach.
"The beauty of an issues-based approach to problem solving like the one we used on the engagement is that it allows us to 'dance around the campfire', if you will—to look at the problem from all angles, and come up with the right solution for moving forward," he says.
That involves more than just focusing on the client's apparent issue at hand. It means looking downstream so that once the business problem gets solved, there's a lasting benefit—a tangible "stickiness"—to the organization down the road.
"As simple as it sounds, most consultants focus on the problem at hand for the fees at hand," says Lipinski. "Our approach was to look broader and longer and take the client-for-life approach. We didn't want to be the solutions consultant only for the presenting problem; we wanted to be the consultant the client turned to over the long-term."
sales models around the globe
A global leader in Internet advertising achieves revenue growth by tailoring its sales approach to regional market conditions
Internet advertising is one business that's seen more than its fair share of challenges recently.
Actually, that's putting it mildly. Market conditions, consumer preferences, ad effectiveness, search technology, and business models in that industry have been morphing faster than most Internet advertising companies can keep up.
So what's an online ad provider to do when it's struggling to execute a global growth strategy while sales continue to slip, days sales outstanding (DSOs) lengthen, and customer satisfaction scores plummet?
Surely, no one could fault the management of such a company for concluding that dramatic changes were in order—the sort of changes that just might include the rollout of a single, uniform sales operating model worldwide, one that could bring some much-needed consistency to sales practices globally and reduce the local autonomy that appears to be hindering revenue growth.
But while no one could fault a company for coming to such a conclusion, what if the underlying assumption turned out to be wrong?
In fact, what if such an assumption—that a one-size-fits-all approach to global sales is what's required—was the very one being championed by the client company as it went about the search for a professional services firm to help design and roll out the solution it already had in mind?
That's precisely the situation Paul Lipinski, a PricewaterhouseCoopers managing director, and his team of business transformation consultants faced when they were asked to support a global leader in Internet advertising services.
The company asked Paul and his team to develop recommendations to respond to their "problem statement"—that is, the business hypothesis formed by the company.
The hypothesis called for consolidation of the range of sales approaches currently in use around the world into a single, uniform sales operating model. Simply put, the client's initial assessment of the problem-at-hand led them to conclude that such an approach was the most sensible way to go.
"While it was a logical hypothesis, once we came back to them with our thinking it quickly became evident there were issues they had overlooked that called for a different approach," says Lipinski. "After all, just because you put a brand-spanking-new model out there doesn't mean everyone will adopt it outright—particularly if it fails to meet the needs of the local market."
Applying a tried-and-true business transformation methodology, the team went back and revisited the client's assumptions about what was actually needed.
By more closely examining the potential consequences of the implementation of a single sales operating model globally, the PwC team was able to develop a more robust approach to achieving the client's objective. Importantly, the team was also able to identify roadblocks to successful implementation that the client had overlooked.
"While we gave a lot of credence to the client's own assessment of the problem," Lipinski says, "we still went ahead and applied our big-picture approach to issue-based problem solving. We couldn't go back to the client with a recommendation we could stand behind without first ensuring our team did everything it could to examine the issues at hand from many angles."
As it turns out, that extra effort at this early stage really paid off.
By using a global workshop-based approach across multiple continents, the team developed a solution that called for three separate sales operating models, each of them tailored to divergent regional business needs and market maturities.
The team was staffed with consultants in nine offices around the globe, servicing 40 different countries. Such geographic dispersion of resources made it possible for work to continue nearly non-stop. Not only was the PwC team able to quickly ramp up the firm's global resources, but it was able to engage client staff from around the world—getting them working collaboratively on the same set of issues.
"If we hadn't shared a common approach to issues-based problem solving, a common delivery methodology, and a common consulting language, we never would have been able to accomplish what we did in the first eight months," says Avynash Gersappe, the primary project manager. "Without that common problem solving approach, we would not have been successful. And we would have spent a lot of time, money, and resources coming up with the right answer to the wrong question."
Not only did the company's revenue increase upon rollout of the new sales models, but customer satisfaction scores soared as well. And improvements introduced in the sales process led to the elimination of significant waste as the organization grew organically within each market. In turn, better processes and less waste meant less time-to-market.
Typically a company looking to transform some aspect of its business can expect to achieve either operational excellence or customer responsiveness. In this case, the client was able to achieve both. And the improvements in customer satisfaction were hugely important to the client.
"Once you begin rolling out a new sales model," Lipinski says, "you can be sure that your customers will take notice nearly right away. And if you get it right, the customer is going to respond positively because the business is being more responsive to their needs."
Lipinski attributes the project's success to the effective use of an issues-based problem solving approach.
"The beauty of an issues-based approach to problem solving like the one we used on the engagement is that it allows us to 'dance around the campfire', if you will—to look at the problem from all angles, and come up with the right solution for moving forward," he says.
That involves more than just focusing on the client's apparent issue at hand. It means looking downstream so that once the business problem gets solved, there's a lasting benefit—a tangible "stickiness"—to the organization down the road.
"As simple as it sounds, most consultants focus on the problem at hand for the fees at hand," says Lipinski. "Our approach was to look broader and longer and take the client-for-life approach. We didn't want to be the solutions consultant only for the presenting problem; we wanted to be the consultant the client turned to over the long-term."
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