World Class

Process
SALES
Context
• The focus is on creating World Class Process within Selling team
(sales/pre-sales/competency) right from the first call thru ongoing
interactions that lead up to proposal and closure.
• During the sales motion, each of us (sales) including our
competency/solutioning/delivery team (where applicable) team need to
REIMAGINE/RESKILL/REPOSITION our role and its IMPACT on the
customers.
• The role must have the underpinnings of creating a unique techno-
business relevance in the wake of our STRATEGY to lead with
Platformation and IPs.
Sales Motions : Initial Sales Call

• Since Platformation is going to be our leading agenda in many of our

interactions, it is imperative that we must know the Digital Agenda of
our client. And hence CDAT becomes mandatory (to get a good grasp
of our client/prospect) to start the INITIAL interaction with the
Client/prospect. While the sales leaders educate and help the sales
teams to capture the CDAT information (L template information could provide
help), it is critical that this becomes a start of the sales motion of
prospect/customer engagement. The primary owner of creating the
CDAT is the front end sales person, Competency and Research team
( Amit T) will help. CDAT helps in planning the sales call better in
articulating our POV and key messages given the context/objective of
the meeting.
Post sales call/meeting:
• Assuming we share minutes of meeting after every client meeting and
underscore the “value prop”. The sales person (and their manager if
it’s a complex, large bid) also should brief the “solution enabling”
team (composing of the right team of competency/architects/delivery
must be done at this stage with preferably ONE owner) discuss the
‘content’ and the activities in furthering the sales motion.
Nurturing/creating velocity:
• In order to continuously make IMPACT thru the sales motions, we
need to clearly articulate the strategy of how to credibly/
meaningfully engage in a potential initial engagement. For this to
happen, we may need more than one level of engagement with the
customer. Who should be interfacing at different level needs to be
thought thru so that the “intensity” remains constant across the
levels and thru the sales motions
Requirements Gathering/Solutioning..
• Discussion on Requirements (where it is not a RFP situation): As we get into the scoping stage, having a
domain/business process understanding helps in the assimilating requirements and “asking” the right
questions to clearly understand the requirements hugely. Hence having “competency/solution expert as
relevant in the discussions would be critical. As we progress thru this stage, it is also essential for the sales
team to gather details on budget/timelines/evaluation criteria. We need to co-opt the right member of the
“team”.

• Designing/Architecting/Solutioning: While we may not have engaged actively in the past, the expectation
NOW is for the FRONT end team to stay engaged and pressure test the “solution” with business outcomes
that the customer would have shared/articulated along with the pre-sales team and iterate with solutioning
designing team

• Establishing Executive Relationship: As a run up to proposal (around this time), the sales person/manager
must get executive relationship working. Not just setting up meetings, but the key concerns/issues that may
be raised. It is at this “level” the hidden/untold concerns need to be addressed explicitly. As a thumb rule, it
is safe to assume that the buyer is “concerned and not fully convinced”! We have to EARN the business at
every step.
Proposal/Orals..
• Proposal: While various team members collaborate in making the proposal, it is absolutely CRITICAL for the
sales team to not just review but to “own” the messaging and the value that it is articulating once the
proposal has been finalized. If it is not creating the right impact, we will need to iterate with the team to get
it right. This is the document that gets shared across the “executive/decision making circle” of the client.
And therefore the Exec Summary has to be crisp/concise/and should deliver the value. The EXEC SUMMARY
needs to be OWNED by the sales team. Another section that needs to be closely co-owned along with the
solutioning/competency team is COMMERCIAL section. While the commercials need to get benchmarked
against the budgets/market intelligence of the competition, we need to strive to create COST-BENEFIT
ANLAYSIS (CBA) or ROI in the commercial section. We would rather be engaged in Value Based Selling and
focus on TCV centric commercials. Managed services ( post implementation) MUST be included as part of
the commercial section.

• Orals/Proposal presentation: As a practice the sales person should get prior info about all the attendees,
their roles and relevance to the decision making, and their backgrounds. Work with the COACH to tailor the
messages. It is absolutely mandatory to have a dry run with blocking (objections/concerns) and
tackling(response to those objections/challenges/limitations) team. Its preferred to get our EXECUTIVE
commitment to the customer/prospect before this stage.
Closure..
• Run up to closure/convergence: One cannot over emphasize staying in
close touch during the last mile, with the client. Especially when we have
competition which has better connects at the top/CEO/Board level!
Platformation deals are typically dealt the C suite and above.
• Post Sale: While LAND and EXPAND has been the simple mantra on which
all the pure plays have thrived, for whatever reason we seem to have
missed on this very fundamental step. Hence it is mandated that we work
on the CDATs for the accounts upfront as we start the journey and clearly
strategize on how we expand the relationship/business. While
platformation led accounts could have a better runway for expansion, the
project centric may not be as clear. Hence it is absolutely necessary to get
the CDATs done.