CRM - June 2008 - (Page 12)

THE TIPPING POINT BY LAREINA YEE, TOM STEPHENSON, AND SCOTT BEARDSLEY Innovation Can Be Scaled Game-changing evolutionary insight may be sitting right under your nose geography, etc.) to identify significant variability. These analyses reveal pockets of opportunities to spotlight good ideas that are already in limited play. By doing this analysis with a statistical bent—and by looking at internal (not external) benchmarks—companies can see where they are already doing disproportionately well and build on that. Shape: Create teams led by “Young Turks” from the field, with strong executive sponsorship. Use the most talented, energetic, and hungry people to quickly generate plans and get front-line support for the ideas. These plans must quantify the upside and define very specific initiatives to test the ideas for broad applicability. Test: Execute a set of pilots (led by the same “Young Turks”) to prove and refine the ideas. Create and track short-term metrics to measure success and showcase results. Scale: Use initial success, secondary adopters, and institutional buy-in to build to the next order of magnitude. Ensure discipline regarding GOOD IDEAS ARE OFTEN EMBEDDED IN EXISTING PRACTICES THAT JUST metrics and institutional infrastrucNEED TO BE IDENTIFIED, TESTED, AND SCALED ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION. ture to support continuous scaling. One advantage of this methodology is that you can actually achieve scale existing practices that just need to be identified, tested, much faster. For one high-tech company, where projecand scaled across the organization. These ideas have a tions for sales to the health-care industry called for roughly tendency to sit idle within companies that look at inno- a 20 percent rise in bookings, within a year this approach vation as a separate activity for a separate group of cre- led to more than 40 percent annual bookings growth. ative or strategic people, producing changes that are Another benefit is that this approach can be replicated neither expected nor sought by the front-line sales force. and staged through multiple innovation waves. A comThis must change. Companies should employ a method- pany can easily have one or more ideas in each phase ology to create a regular, executive-led process that can at any given time, resulting in a constant stream of inidentify latent ideas that work; bring people from the novations to drive growth. The SSI methodology is also front line to test, refine, and evangelize the ideas; and a terrific catalyst for changing the mindset of a field deploy those ideas. organization to one in which each front-line sales team The endgame is to make this innovation process a part proactively seeks revenue- and productivity-innovation of the company’s DNA and to continuously be main- opportunities. With this approach it is possible, even in streaming the ideas by involving the field early in the difficult times, to grow revenues faster than the overall process and during the scaling phase. We refer to this market and to beat market expectations. process as the Scaling Sales Innovation (SSI) methodolIn McKinsey & Co.’s High-Tech Sales and Marketing Practice, Lareina Yee ogy. The approach consists of four distinct phases: (lareina_yee@mckinsey.com) is an associate principal and Tom Stephenson Scan: Analyze distributions of performance across (tom_stephenson@mckinsey.com) is a principal. Scott Beardsley is a direcmultiple dimensions (product, sales-rep achievement, tor and co-leader of the firm’s Global Strategy Practice. N T O D A Y ’ S challenging economic climate, I creating a process to scale up innovation offers each sales organization the opportunity to be a critical driver of competitive advantage, particularly in B2B markets. The trick is to find the innovations, select the ones that will make the greatest growth contribution, and rapidly scale those ideas across the organization. Innovations can be either revolutionary (the iPod) or evolutionary (streamlined ordering processes); companies need both to remain competitive. The technology sector often focuses on revolutionary big bets, which are relatively rare, expensive to create, and extremely risky. Home-cooked evolutionary innovation—capturing existing practices— often has a greater chance of success and, if scaled, enormous payoffs. These evolutionary innovations are likely sitting right under an organization’s nose. Most companies have a multitude of good ideas embedded in 12 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2008 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - June 2008

CRM - June 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Making Mashup Masterpieces Trouble in the Air CRM on Twitter Is SaaS Ready for Its Contact Center Close-up? CRM: In the Public Interest Required Reading Lollipop Loyalty Best Practices Series: CRM & eCommerce eGain NetSuite Infor Longwood Software Vovici The Second Coming of 2.0 Believe the Hype About Hosted Contact Centers All Talk So Hot It’s Cool Linksys Gets Shaken, a Community Is Stirred The Risky Risk Business Awana Hears a SaaS Sermon Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - June 2008

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