A3 Deal Coaching Experience Re-Design
In 2016, IBM invested in a series of sales tools and trainings for North American Sellers. The program promised great outcomes, but adoption was low. The America Deal Squad requested help evaluating the program’s slow adoption rate, and asked how we might deliver an experience for sellers to engage the deal coaching team in future pursuits.
Role:
Design Lead/UX Designer
Design Lead/UX Designer
Team:
| • Kelly Renfro – Design Lead |
| • America Deal Squad – SMEs |
Process
To understand the current experience, I shadowed multiple coaching sessions between the America Deal Squad and Pursuit Teams.As-Is
Revenue Storm is a global sales consulting firm that helps clients implement processes and disciplines to drive revenue acceleration. IBM Purchased rights to the process and accompanying tools.A1 – Deal Qualifier + Pursuit Profiler
The goal of the A1 is to reprioritize low-qualified deals so the sales team can focus on ones with better probability to win. The Deal Profiler tool evaluates six common areas of risk/vulnerability. This objective assessment helps proactively identify risks, areas of weakness, and gaps in understanding. Deals under 47% are considered low priority in terms of what to chase.
A2 – Relationship Barometer
The Relationship Barometer tool evaluates the strength of relationships at the client level, as well as the degree of influence and authority different stakeholders have within an opportunity. Determines key relationships for messaging refinement in A3.
A3 – Workshop for Deal Refinement
America Deal Squad leads an in-person 2-3 day workshop. The goal is to apply Revenue Storm techniques and select Design Thinking activities to craft an effective, story-driven proposal for the stakeholders identified in the A2.
User Needs:
I then interviewed Sellers involved with Revenue Storm to understand their mindset, expectations, and overall experience with the process.Insights:
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Teams need to want coaching. When not dedicated to the process, outcome is poor. We identified 68 deals as “under qualified” in our A1 sessions. Of those, all went to bid and none signed. The objective feedback from the tools was extremely accurate, but teams felt over-confident in their abilities to land a deal.
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Teams need runway to make actionable changes. Sessions done while a deadline was looming were unsuccessful, because the team was
preoccupied. They resorted to old habits, rather than embracing constructive feedback from the process.
- Sessions are a waste of time. Many Sellers could not get past a frustrating barrier to entry, so they couldn’t gain value from the sessions. They needed a better understanding up front of what they were doing and why it was worth the time and effort to participate.
- Clearer action items/activities to make changes. When open to receiving feedback, some teams got stuck on how to move forward. They needed extra guidance to actualize gaps in their current deal strategy. Most common areas were: IBM differentiation, user value, and storytelling.
Quick Wins:
In response to the above insights, we were able to come up with “quick wins” to prototype in on-going sessions. A series of custom activities helped sellers refine targeted areas in their deals.Solution Component Mapping allows us to articulate the following questions around our overall deal: Who is the user? What need are we addressing? What part of IBM’s proposed solution meets those needs? What are our differentiators from other competition on the market?
Win Themes communicate what offering we can provide the client that our competitors can not deliver. This activity helps position our message into a user-centric value statement that is compelling, clear, measurable, and achievable.
The Deal Summary Canvas helps teams align on high level topics. It also points out questions, assumptions, and areas of weakness that need to be improved in order to mitigate risk.
Client Says/Client Needs helps teams capture client feedback relevant to their current activities. It allows everyone to remember what outcomes and opportunities they should be striving towards.
Communication Essentials is 101 on storytelling, user experience, and communication design. It showcases “best in class” experiences IBM has delivered to clients in response to deals.
“The output of the A1 and A3 helped shape the deal, embed innovations
in the RFP response and helped prep/coach the team for the Orals.”
– Naveen H, Global Account Leader, Google
in the RFP response and helped prep/coach the team for the Orals.”
– Naveen H, Global Account Leader, Google
Outcomes:
- $74M in deal revenue in 2017, directly related to involvement with A3 re-design.
- Greater interest in the deal coaching program, via word of mouth and testimonials.
- Future proposed changes to IBM + Revenue Storm process as a whole (currently being iterated on.)