Executive Insight

The Route to Sales Excellence

The Route to Sales Excellence

For over 20 years PLAYER MAP has been the sales process of choice for thousands of salespeople and hundreds of companies worldwide.

But sales mastery takes more than a world class methodology. It takes sales professionals with the capability to build enduring client relationships, skillfully position products and services to advantage and out-compete rivals. Recognizing this, PLAYER MAP and Charlesmore Partners International have created a Sales Certification Process to provide a systematic and sustaining route to competitive sales excellence for sales professionals and sales teams.

Based upon the proven principles of PLAYER MAP and best practices of professional development and learning, sales professionals and sales teams engage in an intensive, experientially-rich development process that builds the 10 core competencies of sales excellence.

Sales excellence can be readily validated by the consistent achievement of stretch sales targets set by companies and consistently achieved by the best performers. But to reach this level of achievement and to sustain these results year-on-year takes more than effort, it takes a highly developed skill set.

Over the last two decades we have worked with and studied successful sales people in some of the world’s best and most prestigious companies.

Consistently the most successful sales professionals role model a series of discernible and definable core competencies:

• They excel at sales skills, sales strategy, sales process management, and customer relationship management
• They possess deep market knowledge, strong industry relationships and comprehensive product and/or service knowledge
• They are emotionally intelligent, serve as peer leaders within their own organization and with customers, possess outstanding communications skills and consistently hit their numbers

We’ve codified and distilled these capabilities into their core elements so that we can help sales professionals understand the DNA of sales excellence.  From this knowledge base, we have created an engaging, intensive and experientially-rich development process to help guide and catalyze accelerated progression to sales excellence.

PLAYER MAP certification can be earned at three professionally demanding and progressive levels. Each level requires developed and validated competencies in the 10 dimensions of sales excellence. It is a long-term professional journey of competency development and accreditation that is designed to help sales people excel and win more. We also offer a certification process for sales managers charged with orchestrating the development and performance of intact sales teams.

PLAYER MAP certification works for professionally-ambitious individuals, intact sales teams and at enterprise-level. Companies can private label the certification methodologies and embed into their core talent development practices. It can be self-guided, sales manager guided, trusted advisor-guided or PLAYER MAP coach guided and really depends on needs, circumstances and preferences. The intention is to provide a robust and practical development platform to help sales professionals significantly and more rapidly improve their competencies.

For more information contact Edward Ferris or Scott Leland.

CEOs Embrace a More Connected Culture

A new IBM study of more than 1,700 Chief Executive Officers from 64 countries and 18 industries worldwide reveals that CEOs are changing the nature of work by adding a powerful dose of openness, transparency and employee empowerment to the command-and-control ethos that has characterized the modern corporation for more than a century.

The advantages of the fast-moving trend are clear. According to the IBM CEO study, companies that outperform their peers are 30 percent more likely to identify openness – often characterized by a greater use of social media as a key enabler of collaboration and innovation – as a key influence on their organization.  Outperformers are embracing new models of working that tap into the collective intelligence of an organization and its networks to devise new ideas and solutions for increased profitability and growth.

To forge closer connections with customers, partners and a new generation of employees in the future, CEOs will shift their focus from using e-mail and the phone as primary communication vehicles to using social networks as a new path for direct engagement. Today, only 16 percent of CEOs are using social business platforms to connect with customers, but that number is poised to spike to 57 percent within the next three to five years. While social media is the least utilized of all customer interaction methods today, it stands to become the number two organizational engagement method within the next five years, a close second to face-to-face interactions.

Coming after decades of top-down control, the shift has substantial ramifications – not just for the CEOs themselves – but for their organizations, managers, and employees, as well as for universities and business schools, and information technology suppliers. IBM’s research finds that technology is viewed as a powerful tool to recast organizational structures. More than half of CEOs (53 percent) are planning to use technology to facilitate greater partnering and collaboration with outside organizations, while 52 percent are shifting their attention to promoting great internal collaboration.

Greater openness is not without risks. Openness increases vulnerability. The Internet – especially through social networks – can provide a worldwide stage to any employee interaction, positive or negative. For organizations to operate effectively in this environment, employees must internalize and embody the organizations values and mission.  Thus, organizations must equip employees with a set of guiding principles that they can use to empower everyday decision making. Championing collaborative innovation is not something CEOs are delegating to their HR leaders. According to the study findings, the business executives are interested in leading by example.

By the Numbers

CEOs regard interpersonal skills of collaboration (75 percent), communication (67 percent), creativity (61 percent) and flexibility (61 percent) as key drivers of employee success to operate in a more complex, interconnected environment.

To build its next-generation workforce, organizations have to actively recruit and hire employees who excel at working in open, team-based environments.  At the same time, leaders must build and support practices to help employees thrive, such as encouraging the development of unconventional teams, promoting experiential learning techniques and empowering the use of high-value employee networks.

The trend toward greater collaboration extends beyond the corporation to external partnering relationships. Partnering is now at an all-time high. In 2008, slightly more than half of the CEOs IBM interviewed planned to partner extensively. Now, more than two-thirds intend to do so.

Other Findings

The IBM study found that a majority (71 percent) of global CEOs regard technology as the number one factor to impact an organization’s future over the next three years – considered to be a bigger change agent than shifting economic and market conditions.

Across all aspects of their organization – from financials to competitors to operations – CEOs are most focused on gaining deeper insights about their customers. Seven out of every ten CEOs are making significant investments in their organizations’ ability to draw meaningful customer insights from available data.

Given the data explosion most organizations are facing, CEOs recognize the need for more sophisticated business analytics to mine the data being tracked online, on mobile phones and social media sites. The traditional approach to understanding customers better has been to consolidate and analyze transactions and activities from across the entire organization. However, to remain relevant, CEOs must piece together a more holistic view of the customer based on how he or she engages the rest of the world, not just their organization. The ability to drive value from data is strongly correlated with performance. Outperforming organizations are twice as good as underperformers at accessing and drawing insights from data. Outperformers are also 84 percent better at translating those insights into real action.

Source: IBM

Selected Charts: Flickr

 

New Tech City – New York’s Rise as a Technology Hub

Riding a wave of start-ups, New York has emerged a national leader in fields that leverage the Internet and mobile technologies—a development that has provided a key economic boost and left the city well positioned for future tech growth.

According to a new report from The Center for an Urban Future, in just a few short years, New York’s tech sector has emerged as an increasingly powerful economic driver for the city. At a time when few other industries were growing in New York, more than a thousand new tech start-ups were formed in the city. This burst of tech company formation has created thousands of good paying jobs in the five boroughs, attracted large amounts of capital from outside the city, pumped new life in the city’s entrepreneurial economy, and lured some of the world’s smartest and most innovative people to New York at a time when the most competitive cities are the ones with the best human capital and greatest capacity for innovation. 

The flood of digital start-ups in recent years has also transformed the city from a second-rate tech center to literally the nation’s second leading hub for technology companies. And as this report shows, there is ample evidence that what’s happening in New York’s tech scene today is no flash in the pan. Though a number of the recent Internet start-ups will ultimately fail, New York appears to be building a sustainable tech sector—one that is benefiting from a much stronger local tech ecosystem than existed in the city’s first wave of tech growth in the 1990s and taking advantage of several big technology trends that play to New York’s natural strengths.

Key Findings:

• In the past few years, there has been an explosion of tech start-ups in New York City, most of which are companies that leverage the Internet and mobile technologies.
• Although it is still well behind Silicon Valley as a tech hub, New York City has the nation’s fastest growing tech sector and has surpassed Boston as the number two tech center in the U.S.
• More and more New York-based tech start-ups are achieving significant growth.
• The city’s tech sector has created thousands of jobs in the past few years, giving New York’s economy a much-needed boost at a time when few other industries have been growing.
• Unlike the fleeting dot com boom in the 1990s, New York now appears to be building a sustainable tech sector that has significant potential for future growth.
• The city lacked a strong tech ecosystem during Silicon Alley’s first wave of tech growth in the 1990s, but that couldn’t be more different today.
• Until four or five years ago, tech entrepreneurs in New York struggled mightily to access investment capital, but that has changed in a big way, particularly for early stage companies. 

Read the Report

Crisis Communication Workshop at NIRI Annual Conference 2012

Wed - Jun, 6 | 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Location: 6B (Convention Center 6th Level)

Category: Conference Workshop | Secondary Category: Communications

Join us for an interactive case study on crisis communication. The case study combines immersive participant engagement, effective simulation including media and analyst interface as well as subject-matter expert commentary. The setting: WidgeCo management is in a spin! We won't tell you why, but there's a crisis and they are ill-prepared. Using action-learning techniques, participants are plunged into the role of an investor relations officer on-point to advise on how to regain control of a rapidly escalating crisis. It is a roller coaster with plenty of twists and turns.

Moderator/Lead Speaker:
Edward Ferris, Managing Partner
Charlesmore Partners International

Panelist(s)/Co-Speaker(s):
Sydney Rosencranz Isaacs, Senior Vice President
The Abernathy MacGregor Group

James Lucas, Managing Director
The Abernathy MacGregor Group

John Palizza, Lecturer in Management & Consultant
Jones School of Business, Rice University & Three Part Advisors

Rachel Posner, Senior Managing Director & General Counsel
Georgeson

Andrea Rose, Managing Director
Joele Frank, Willkinson Brimmer Katcher

Taylor Thoen, CEO - Founder, Executive Producer
BTV Business Television

Scott Winters, Vice President Corporate Planning & Research
Plains Exploration & Production Co.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how an IRO can and should respond during a crisis
• Learn what IROs can and cannot plan for in terms of a crisis
• Give IROs enough confidence and knowledge of the core principals to be active participants and leaders in their company's process in planning for and responding to crises
• Understand the differences in dealing with the various constituent audiences during a crisis --media, analysts, suppliers, employees and more

Why Now?

Seasoned IROs will have the opportunity to test their response skills and thinking processes against the decisions reached by the other teams. It will be an excellent starting point for individuals new to their roles to understand the core fundamentals around crisis communications planning. Knowing the key principals in crisis communication is also always a relevant topic.

Actionable Takeaway Documents

The WidgeCo case study and associated documents, including mock 'news' video reports

Are you prepared for a Crisis? Checklist.

Crisis Communications: four questions to start the planning process.

Crisis Communications Resources for today's IRO/Corporate Communications Professionals

Event URL

Total Realized CEO Pay Increases 15%

A new report on CEO pay by corporate governance firm GMI Ratings details a second straight year of double digit pay increases in the Russell 3000.  

The report, released today, examines pay changes in the Russell Index as well as the S&P Index. In addition, it provides a look at the ten highest paid CEOs of 2012 thus far and the details of the executive pay packages. Key findings of the preliminary survey include: 

• Second consecutive year of double digit total realized compensation increases at the median and average for the Russell 3000 
• Total realized compensation in the Russell 3000 saw a median increase of about 15 percent
• The highest paid CEO so far is Michael O. Johnson of Herbalife Ltd. at $89, 419,474
• Three of the ten highest paid CEOs thus far in 2012 are from the software Industry

Download the full report.

Source: GMI Ratings

CEO and Company Reputation Inextricably Linked

A full two-thirds (66 percent) of consumers say that their perceptions of CEOs affect their opinions of company reputations. Executives, like consumers, also do not overlook the importance of a leader’s reputation – they attribute nearly one-half (49 percent) of a company’s overall reputation to the CEO’s reputation. Executive leadership is critical to burnishing the overall reputation of organizations today, particularly when it is estimated that a large 60 percent of a company’s market value is attributed to its reputation.

This second installment of Weber Shandwick’s global research, The Company behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust – CEO Spotlight, explores the importance of executive leadership and communications to helping reverse the tides of waning trust in companies. The first segment of the study, released in early 2012, reported on the growing interdependence of product brand and corporate reputation in this new see-thru, nowhere-to-hide global marketplace. The findings alerted marketing and communications executives to a tectonic shift in communicating the voice of the “enterprise” to key stakeholders. The survey among 1,950 consumers and executives in two developed (U.S. and U.K.) and two developing markets (China and Brazil) was conducted by KRC Research in late 2011.

“Gone are the days when purchases were made solely on product attributes. Today’s consumer is savvy, well-informed and privy to a plethora of purchase options. Decisions are now increasingly based on additional factors such as the company behind the brand, what the company stands for and even the standing of its senior leaders,” said Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick is quoted in its release.

Executive Leadership is on Consumers’ Radar Screens Worldwide

Nearly three in 10 consumers (28 percent) report that they regularly or frequently talk about company leaders with others. When consumers are asked what influences their perception of companies, approximately six in 10 (59 percent) say they are influenced by what top leaders communicate. Corporate leadership communications are important across the globe, but to an even greater extent in emerging markets. Nearly two-thirds of Chinese consumers (64 percent) and nearly three-quarters of Brazilian consumers (72 percent) rely on executive communications when learning more about a company.

Respect for Leadership Differs Widely in Developed vs. Emerging Markets

Respect for corporate leaders – CEOs and other corporate leaders – has taken an especially large hit in developed markets – 72 percent of U.S. and 71 percent of U.K. consumers have lost respect in the past few years. In emerging markets, Chinese consumers are evenly split on their changing opinions of corporate leadership (35 percent lost respect vs. 38 percent who increased respect). Brazilian consumers are more likely to have increased their respect for top executives than decreased their respect (33 percent vs. 21 percent, respectively).

As seen in this research, CEO and company reputation are inextricably linked – corporate reputation is not isolated from the public views of a company’s top leadership. Together, company and CEO reputation make a solid contribution to a firm’s market value.

Read the Executive Summary

Source: Weber Shandwick

The Next 10 Female CEOs

The ranks of female chief executives remain thin—with women in the top spot at just 35 Fortune 1000 companies.

In this article by Joann Lublin and Kelly Eggers, 10 female executives are profiled – women whose operational expertise and track record make them likely picks to lead a Fortune 1000 company within five years. The lineup was compiled from an informal Wall Street Journal poll of 15 U.S. search firms, executive coaches and women's organizations. Human Capital News, a newswire owned by market research firm HSZ Media, also surveyed 75 human-resources executives for the Journal.

In the video, Ms Eggers talks about the selections.

Source: Fins

Choosing How to Compete

Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s not just a matter of being better at what you do - it’s a matter of being different at what you do. Increasingly, market leaders will be those companies that don’t just optimize within an industry, but actually transform it.

This requires executives to think differently about their business and to devise and stake out a unique and valuable strategic position involving a competitively differentiated set of activities that integrate and compound to create a value proposition that is difficult, if not impossible, to imitate. A comprehensive, coherent, integrative and evolving portfolio of initiatives is then required to drive value and long-term performance. This includes a balance of adapting the core business to meet future challenges, shaping the portfolio in an ongoing way to respond to a changing environment, and building the next generation of business growth.

 Read more…

 

Achieving and Sustaining the Strategic Logic of the Merger

Following a merger, management is under intense pressure to address challenges such as defining integration priorities and quickly identifying and capturing synergies. In addition, special attention has to be paid to addressing cultural change and controlling business risk in the new organization.

Key considerations include:

• What is the best way to most quickly realize the strategic objectives of the merger?
• What must be integrated quickly, and how to draw down on synergies?
• How to best integrate two different cultures and deal with conflicts between them?
• How to retain key talent during and beyond the integration process?
• How to keep employees focused on business and customers during the integration process?

It is widely known that roughly half of all mergers and acquisitions fail to create shareholder value and that about one-quarter actually destroy it. It is also no secret that there are tried and tested methodologies for successfully integrating companies. So why do so many deals—especially those that appear to offer substantial cost and revenue synergies—produce such disappointing results?

Read more...

The Connected Consumer Era is No Longer on the Way; It Has Arrived.

A new IBM study of the media and entertainment market reveals that as consumers adopt an increasing number of digital devices, four distinct new "digital personalities" are emerging. This shift is compelling companies to adopt more innovative business models that deliver personalized experiences.

The "Beyond Digital" study paints a portrait of a rapidly changing audience that is adopting a wide range of digital devices at a dizzying pace. And, contrary to popular belief, most are not college students. For example, sixty-five percent of respondents aged 55 to 64 report surfing the Web and texting with friends while watching TV. Of those over age 65 watching TV, 49 percent surf the Web and 30 percent are texting. Eighty-two percent of surveyed global consumers aged 18 to 64 are embracing connected digital devices.

Moreover, consumers in China and the U.S. are moving away from traditional forms of media, with more than 50 percent using online sources for breaking news.

The New Personalities
Today's connected consumers demand instant access to personalized content on their own terms. With the growth of digital devices, one-way communication and distribution of content is no longer feasible. According to the IBM study, most users fall into one of four emerging personality categories:

Efficiency Experts

With 41 percent in this category, these respondents use digital devices and services to simplify day-to-day activities. Efficiency experts send emails rather than letters, use Facebook to communicate with others, access the Internet via mobile phones, and shop online.

Content Kings

Are generally male consumers, who frequently play online games, download movies and music, and watch TV online. This audience represents 9 percent of the global sample.

Social Butterflies

Place emphasis on social interaction – they require instant access to friends, regardless of time or place. Fifteen percent of consumers surveyed reported they frequently maintain and update social networking sites, add labels or tags to online photos, and view videos from other users.

Connected Maestros

35 percent of those surveyed take a more advanced approach to media consumption by using mobile devices and Smartphone applications to access games, music, and video or to check news, weather, sports, etc.

According to the IBM study, media and entertainment companies' payment infrastructures need to be flexible and scalable to allow a variety of innovative pricing approaches to attract consumers with different preferences to their content. The need for payment option flexibility, even for the same set of consumers, is apparent by looking at those most active in adopting new devices. This group's preferred mode of payment to watch a movie on a website is by viewing advertising that is included with the movie (39 percent of this segment chose this option), while they prefer to see movies on a tablet by purchasing a subscription (chosen by 36 percent). But to watch movies on a smart phone, they prefer to pay per use (the payment choice of 36 percent).

IBM surveyed 3,800 consumers in six countries – China, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States for this study, and also met with global representatives in broadcasting, publishing, as well as media service agencies, and telecommunication providers, to evaluate digital consumption behaviors.

Read the study

Source: IBM