Products, services and business models are changing at a rapid pace, so salespeople are constantly being challenged to update their toolkit. Pipeline management has become more fact-based as there are more ways to measure forecasts. Sales recruiting is leveraging new personality trait analytics. Sales compensation models are undergoing scrutiny as business models evolve. In other words, it is not your grandpa’s sales profession.

No wonder many companies are radically transforming their sales operations and staffing. I found an interesting webinar (starting around 22.00 here) featuring Ken Powell, VP of Global Sales Enablement and Learning at SunGard, and then read more here about their sales transformation.

SunGard is a technology solution provider with a specific focus on the financial services market. After several acquisitions, SunGard grew in size , and faced three major challenges:

1. Channel conflict – multiple sales calls across products to the same customer
2. A tendency of the sales force to only sell to existing customers (typically in response to RFPs) versus prospecting for new ones
3. Customer clamor for newer products and services, especially given that some of the products were nearly 3 decades old.

While salesforce.com is the centerpiece of their transformation, the graph below shows the wide range of tools and services that SunGard utilized in its sales transformation.

Here’s how SunGard transformed their sales team and how you can too:

Recruiting and Compensation

Recruiting and training first-year sales representatives was a major aspect of SunGard’s sales transformation. In 2012, one-fourth of the sales force (or about 120 associates) had been at SunGard less than a year. Chally, a performance measurement firm, helped create new assessment tools for better sales recruiting for the changing environment. 

Sales Readiness Kit

Launch International developed an interactive Sales Readiness Kit that follows a defined map of customer buying patterns. SAVO then helped automate that kit to make it available inside the Salesforce platform.

Hiring

SunGard anticipates that the combination of better hiring, additional management support, and better new-hire training programs will help improve first-year sales productivity. They expect their salesperson's revenue to double and generate $30 to $40 million in additional sales. Better customer value propositions and lowered sales turnover from better recruiting will provide even more payback.

Yes, it’s a new world out there, and we expect to see many more organizations dramatically reshape their sales function like SunGard has.

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