Sales & Marketing Management - May/June 2008 - (Page 18)

cover story same industry. That’s because EDS is a best-of-breed systems integrator, which means that some companies will end up with hardware from IBM while others get hardware from Hewlett-Packard or Dell. “As a systems integrator, we need to be agnostic in regard to the technologies we use,” Grisham says. “Sure, we have our preferred partners in an alliance structure. But we are partners and customers of all of these companies, and we decide which one to use on a case-by-case basis, based on the value it provides to that particular EDS customer.” that values outstanding sales performance and rewards the extra effort we need from our sales team.” Every year without fail, Grisham says, companies send RFP requests in mid-December and need them back in 30 days. The depth and detail required in an RFP vary from one deal to the next, but completing one at a company like EDS is a very large task, often totaling hundreds of pages. With only a month to turn them around, that means salespeople spend a lot of nights, weekends and even holidays in the office. And the stakes are high. No matter how big the project or short the deadlines, the response needs to be impeccable. Sloppy work or less than 100% effort could cost the company millions of dollars, because there’s no other opportunity to make up for a poor first impression. “Every year, at least one EDS field team ends up working over Christmas and New Year’s Eve on an RFP, and if that first response isn’t of the highest quality, it’s over. We blew the only chance we had and we’re out of the running.” That’s why, in the last couple of years, the company reinstituted the Inner Circle program. The next time a member of Grisham’s team needs to put in that extra time, it will be a little easier to do it, Creating the culture Creating a culture that is conducive to successful selling is a difficult process, and worse, it can be a fragile one. A single poor decision can hinder a sales organization for years, as Grisham knows all too well. “Our sales culture hasn’t always been as good as it is today,” he acknowledges. “A previous chairman of the company decided to eliminate the Inner Circle program, which rewards salespeople who reached 125% of quota with a three-day, all-expenses-paid trip. He thought it was just an expensive party, because he didn’t understand the importance of having a culture

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - May/June 2008

Sales & Marketing Management - May/June 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Brian Tracy University Smart Sales Sales Strategy Smart Marketing Marketing Strategy Smart Management Management Strategy The Minister of Culture Become a Value Merchant Incentives/Motivation Streamlining Business Travel Book Excerpt The Way I See It

Sales & Marketing Management - May/June 2008

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