Sales Training Success: CustomerCentric Selling® helps VersionOne achieve significant results by more than doubling its sales in one year. 

Business Problem
VersionOne offers its software development project management tools through a sales organization of now 26 people, including sales representatives, product specialists, sales operations and executives. VersionOne had several sales challenges which it sought to overcome by implementing CustomerCentric Selling®. For example, the sales organization needed a process for ramping up new sales people quickly to reduce the time from hire to first sale. The sales team sought a common language or way to effectively describe capabilities. Additionally, they needed a best practice to adequately process inbound requests from prospects. VersionOne also wanted to address the following concerns:

• The marketplace was state and county governments. An initial analysis uncovered the following barriers to achieving his goal:
• How do we adequately train and coach our existing and new sales force when we are running around growing the business?
• If we are going to grow personnel and sales, we need to codify our best practices and learn how to repeat them and coach them. When are we going to do that?
• Are we saying the right things at the appropriate time in the sales or recruitment process?
• Many of our leads are inbound, so they are either already looking at someone else like us or we are the first on a list - how do we distinguish ourselves and conduct appropriate discussions?
• How well are we tracking our opportunities?

Solving these combined challenges would directly impact VersionOne's revenue potential.

 

The CustomerCentric Selling® Solution
VersionOne's sales and marketing team began working with Adam Shapiro, CustomerCentric Selling® (CCS™) Business Partner by building an initial sales-ready messaging kit of scripts, success stories and conversation prompters. Later, they held three CCS™ workshops, all led by Shapiro. With Adam's help and the CCS™ methodology, VersionOne immediately saw positive results.

The sales people were able to arm themselves with messaging tools that they could then utilize throughout each step of the sales process. These tools are especially helpful in knowing how to effectively qualify or disqualify a prospect early in the process. CustomerCentric Selling® was also able to help VersionOne define a common language for how they can discuss opportunities as an organization. Most importantly, the new methodology helped VersionOne create a process for working through opportunities that honors what buyers need in order to make a purchasing decision, while also setting them apart from competitors. The net results of this CustomerCentric Selling® implementation have been remarkable - VersionOne more than doubled its sales in just one year.

Richard Fuller, Vice President of Sales for VersionOne states, "Demand for our products were clearly ahead of our sales capacity prior to CustomerCentric Selling® (CCS™). We needed a process that recognized the value of consistent messaging, the demands of a consultative sale and the realization that our buyers are well-educated and well-informed. With CCS, we received all of this in a highly effective, repeatable process that helped us quadruple our sales team in less than one year."

VersionOne CEO, Robert Holler also credits the hands-on guidance they received throughout their implementation by stating, "Adam is one of the few I have met with truly exceptional insight into sales messaging and the sales process. As we scale, it is beneficial to have someone to turn to for assistance with training and messaging. We subscribe to the CustomerCentric Selling® sales methodology and Adam just happens to be one of the best I have seen at helping teams reach their potential through the associated best practices."

"The CustomerCentric Selling® methodology drives a much more collaborative experience between sales and marketing. It definitely gets you 180 degrees away from selling on price and into consulting with customers on solutions to their issues or challenges that match up with the key strengths of our product. The methodology helps you clearly articulate and deliver your value proposition to the customer."
-- Denise Grey, VP of Marketing for VersionOne

Benefits to VersionOne:

• Doubled sales in just one year by codifying best practices
• Common language and defined sales process to navigate throught opportunities
• Shortened ramp-up time of new sales reps and greater time optimization
• Messaging tools to guide through each step of the sales process
• Better qualification of prospects

Using VersionOne, all project stakeholders - project managers, developers, testers, product owners, customers and software executives - can work together to easily coordinate project plans, priorities and progress.

More information on VersionOne can be found at www.versionone.com

For any questions about this client, please contact CCS™ Business Partner Adam Shapiro at ashapiro@customercentric.com