Key Stakeholders
-
Sandra Moran, Vice President, Industry and Product Marketing
-
Ron DeBlis, Senior Vice President, Global Sales
Industry
E-commerce platform for the ocean shipping industry.
implementing a
customer-focused sales message
situation
INTTRA’s technology platform was serving both carriers and shippers within the ocean shipping industry. These customer segments faced very different challenges and INTTRA did not have a defined message and value proposition for each. Additionally, the sales team as a whole was not equipped to sell an overall solution. The company was in need of messaging based on the unique needs of each segment —speaking directly to the customer’s business needs and INTTRA’s unique capability for the respective market segments.
“INTTRA’s salespeople faced a steep curve in learning how to engage more effectively around the customer’s world. They lacked the necessary confidence and competence to speak at a conceptual level about business issues and tended to focus at the tactical level around their products and services.”
Scott Presse, Consulting Principal, DSG
objectives
-
Update the company value proposition
INTTRA chose to start with sales enablement vs. high level branding to create a refreshed value proposition to take company wide. -
Create a consistent message for both customer segments
The company identified the need to develop consistency in the messaging delivered by the sales team to both carriers and shippers. -
Equip the global sales team to lead insight-focused executive level conversations
The global sales force had different perceptions about how to sell and whom to engage. INTTRA leadership was committed to insight-focused sales conversations at the executive level, but most of the sales team had never taken meetings with executives.
“We’re very geographically dispersed, and when a new employee comes on board I send them to our vPlaybooks. Our salespeople can use this tool to self teach themselves the material and prepare for customer conversations. The vPlaybook brings the content to life and puts it in the hands of people regardless of where they are in the world. The feedback from our sales organization is that they love it.”
Sandra Moran
approach
DSG worked with INTTRA to equip the sales team in four areas:
-
Insights into the world of the customer that connect a company’s challenges and business needs to INTTRA’s unique capability
-
INTTRA sales messaging customized for leading conversations with the company’s two distinct segments
-
Assessment methodology to provide a value-added service to clients and link their requirements to INTTRA’s solutions
-
An interactive digital playbook approach (vPlaybook) that integrates videos and related sales messaging content to provide just-in-time training on how to deliver the INTTRA story and lead an interactive whiteboard conversation
“DSG facilitates and extracts information from the company, but it is the way that they go about doing it, the way the information is organized and presented back to the sales force that is unique. It’s proven. It eliminates so much of the risk from a sales enablement program.”
Sandra Moran
DSG insight
Specific contributions by DSG accelerated the transformation at INTTRA:
-
Crossing cultural divides with tools that work in multiple languages: DSG developed sales enablement tools to help team members across the globe present the same INTTRA value proposition. This included translating the whiteboard executive conversation into 14 languages.
-
Developing confidence and competence in speaking about business issues: DSG worked with the team to raise the sales conversation from product-focused to insight-focused.
-
Improving the effectiveness of coaching delivered by sales managers: DSG helped create the playbook, methodology and language used by managers to build the skills of their team members.
-
Expanding the reach beyond IT contacts: Through playbook content, sales team training and post-launch coaching, DSG helped the sales team identify and approach a broader range of call points in a company.
impact
When a company works with INTTRA today, a difference exists. Everything being communicated by marketing and sales is now integrated – from the first introduction to INTTRA through the marketing channels all the way to what a sales rep says in the various selling conversations. As a result, INTTRA has demonstrated an increase in revenue per sales rep globally.
“We knew we would have a more immediate market impact if we got 100 people around the world speaking the same way in literally hundreds of conversations that are happening each week. By focusing on sales enablement vs. starting with a website refresh, we saw faster impact to revenue by launching the messaging at the sales level first.”