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Spring has sprung – and 2008 has started with a flourish at Fusion Learning. We’re out the gates faster than ever – and we have our Clients to thank for such a robust start to the New Year. We look forward to supporting your sales performance improvement efforts from our New Offices at 272 Richmond Street East in downtown Toronto.

The theme of this edition of insights! is Sales Force Alignment – “up” to your organization’s strategy; “across” for cross functional collaboration; and “down” to engage the hearts and minds of your sales people. It’s a term that’s getting a lot of airtime these days. Perhaps the Spring is an ideal time to “Check your Alignment”.

I’m confident you’ll take away a few great, practical ideas!

Scott Gilmore and
The Fusion Learning Team

Insights! is one in a series of publications from Fusion Learning to promote the understanding of sales performance best practices. We thank our Clients for assisting us in the development of these ideas.

If you have any feedback or contributions, we would love to hear from you! insights@fusionlearninginc.com
EXECUTIVE BRIEFING UPCOMING SESSION - JUNE 26, 2008
Driving Predictably Positive Sales Results

Best Practices shared by Sales and HR Executives from Clients including:
CBC, Canadian Tire Financial Services and Sony of Canada.

At this event, you will learn about best-in-class approaches to implement sustainable change within your sales organization. Fusion Clients will share insights, practical approaches and tools, including:

  • Prospecting techniques to dramatically improve your chances for getting appointments with decision makers
  • Powerful ways to ensure Strategic Account Management builds strong and productive ties to your most valuable Clients
  • High Performance Coaching to create more ownership and accountability in your people
Attending this Executive Briefing will provide you with proven successful approaches to enabling and embedding sales performance from Sales and HR Executives who have sponsored, co-designed, and measured the impact of their initiatives.

Arrive: Thursday, June 26 @ 7:30am (breakfast served)
Session: Presentation & Discussion 8:00am – 9:30am
Location: Royal Ontario Museum (Bloor and University)
The Glass Room

RSVP: Please confirm attendance by contacting
Scott Gilmore at (416) 424-2999 ext. 26, or scott@fusionlearninginc.com

BEST PRACTICES
Tim Magwood,
Founding Partner, Fusion Learning

During our recent Executive Briefing, we engaged the audience in the “Top 10 Ways to Achieve Alignment”
Here’s what was shared and some best practices that were generated:
10 Sales Force Strategy Alignment Best Practices

  1. Develop simple, balanced, measurable, 3 year sales strategy and capture it on 1 page!
  2. Link sales strategy to corporate strategy, vision, imperatives - ALIGN UP
  3. Communicate urgency, need for direction – what is the “burning platform?”
  4. Involve other key functional leaders in development of sales strategy (i.e. Marketing) - ALIGN ACROSS
  5. Collaborate with other key functional leaders to align sales structure to sales strategy
  6. Cause individual sales contributors to develop simple, measurable, 1 year sales strategy and capture it on 1 page! - ALIGN DOWN
  7. Have a meaningful variable compensation element to incent individual contributors
  8. Implement a disciplined, ongoing approach to strategic review to instil accountability
  9. Celebrate short-term, small wins
  10. Involve Client/Customer/Consumer in sales strategy development process

Reflect on this Top 10 list.

How is your sales organization doing against these top 10 Best Practices?

What’s one core strength you can celebrate and determine how to further leverage?

What’s one clear opportunity you must address, and what are your next step actions?

Use this list to generate some dialogue among your senior sales leaders, or as a thought starter in an upcoming sales meeting.
EXECUTIVE BREAKFAST
DELIVERS VALUE!

On February 28, 2008 Fusion Learning hosted an Executive Breakfast at Rosedale Golf Club called “Aligning Sales Force to Sales Strategy”.

Over 60 Senior Executives registered from organizations including: Aviva Canada, BBM, CBC, Corby Distilleries, D&B, Grand & Toy, ING Direct, Kelly Services, MasterCard, Microsoft, Molson Canada, Panasonic, Scotiabank, SONY of Canada, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, to name a few. Their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Real insights into Sales Strategy, not just theory”

“Extremely valuable session – interactive, simple and engaging, sharing of ideas, practical tools I can use”

One of the key messages and “ah ha” moments for the audience (especially HR Executives) was the realization that Fusion’s Individual BluePRINT process is applicable and powerful, regardless of function or responsibility. In other words, HR Managers, Marketing Leaders, Operations folks – could all see the benefit of crafting an Individual BluePRINT.

If you were unable to attend the event and would like to receive session material, please contact Scott Gilmore at scott@fusionlearninginc.com or call him directly at 416-424-2999 ext. 26

Please contact us if you’d like to receive information on Strategic Sales BluePRINT or Individual Sales BluePRINT – two unique sales strategy processes that Fusion is currently implementing with some of Canada’s leading sales organizations.

THOUGHT PROVOKING ARTICLE

“Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?”

Can you summarize your company's strategy in 35 words or less? Would your colleagues express it the same way? Very few executives can honestly say yes to those simple questions. The thing is, companies with a clear, concise strategy statement--one that employees can easily internalize and use as a guiding light--often turn out to be industry stars. In this article, Harvard Business School's Collis and Rukstad provide a practical guide for crafting an effective strategy statement and include an in-depth example of how the St. Louis-based brokerage firm Edward Jones developed one that has generated success.

HBR Article Link >>

The concepts and approaches detailed in “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” are consistent with Fusion Learning’s unique process for creating a compelling vision for sales organizations and individual sales contributors called BluePRINT.
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