Reading this week’s Barron’s – part of my regular Saturday morning ritual – Sandra Ward’s story Sounds Like a Dinosaur, but It’s No Small Brainer about data mining and warehouse systems company Teradata caught my eye. It reminded me of a conversation with a Teradata sales operations executive I had about two years ago during a business development project for a major sales training company.
The half-hour call was intended to initially qualify Teradata as a prospect for my client’s sales effectiveness improvement services. At the end of the conversation, I remarked to my client’s Sales VP, “These guys have a sales training program that should be the model for every company selling big-ticket complex technologies. There’s nothing we can teach them, but I think they could teach us a lot.” He agreed.
Looking back; I wondered why the executive even scheduled the call. Perhaps he thought he could learn something new from my client’s company. After the call I’ll bet he felt pretty good about Teradata’s sales conditioning program. If he didn’t, he should have. My client was among the best in the business and these guys were ahead of us!
Thirty years ago Teradata launched as a collaboration between CalTech and Citibank. It was one of many Silicon Valley garage ventures. Their products quickly won industry accolades. In 1989 the company partnered with NCR to develop a next generation database computer. NCR acquired Teradata in 1991 and the division was NCR’s most consistently profitable until they spun it off in 2007. Mark Hurd – currently the CEO of HP – headed NCR’s Teradata division before being named President of NCR.
I mention Mark because he is credited with promoting Teradata’s strong sales culture and commitment to sales execution excellence. He has a reputation as an easy-going guy equally at ease with engineers and executives. I regard Hurd as one of the smartest people in the room – especially when it comes to making sure his sales team is empowered, equipped and trained.
Process and Professionalism
Teradata’s sales conditioning program (my term) impresses me on multiple levels. While many other companies are good at linking technology solutions with business value, Teradata excels.
The company has developed a sales process to ensure that sales teams understand their prospect’s business. Teradata sales executives can walk into any executive’s office and discuss the bottom line business issues facing that executive. Then, coupled with product knowledge, prove how some of these challenges are reduced or eliminated using a Teradata solution. Teradata’s sales process doesn’t sell technology. It sells lower costs, higher margins, new business opportunities and bigger bottom lines.
Teradata’s sales process is dynamic. A feedback loop monitors changes in marketplace and competitive landscapes and incorporates them into the sales process. It nearly guarantees that the company’s sales and marketing efforts are a step ahead of the competition and tightly aligned with the prospect’s pains and buying process.
But one aspect of Teradata’s model impressed me above all others – the Buyer’s Council.
Role Play Encounters of the Fourth Kind
All new salespeople are required to pass the Teradata Buyer’s Council sales training workshop. I don’t know if recurrent training is required, but knowing the company, I’ll bet it is.
The Buyer’s Council simulates the real-life environment that the company’s sales teams encounter. The company retains group of retired executives representative of senior management, sales, financial, marketing, operations, manufacturing, distribution and information technology functions of a typical prospect company. The council members bring real world experience buying complex and costly information technology solutions that just can’t be reproduced any other way. Sales team members must meet with the council members, discuss important business issues, determine their needs, design a value solution and then present a proposal to the council. Sales people must navigate the council’s political landscape and overcome objections and competitive prejudices just like in the real world. It is truly the sales conditioning equivalent of a military live fire exercise.
Meetings and presentations are recorded and analyzed. Sales team members learn what and what not to do and say; what does and doesn’t work. They also learn how to work as a team.
And, it seems to work. Teradata wins all day long against formidable competitors like IBM and Oracle (both of which are Teradata customers).
Although role plays are nothing new to sales conditioning, the Buyer’s Council concept took role playing to an entirely different level. It was such a good idea that we couldn’t resist using it, too.
Sales Performance Associates has assembled a similar group of executives to simulate the environment facing media technology companies. We deploy this group for specialized training, but clients have also used the group to game specific sales opportunities. It amounts to getting a second or even third chance at a critical sales opportunity – something most sales teams only dream about and usually only after loosing a major deal.
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