Frank V. Cespedes

Bill MacLeod se sintió aliviado cuando la reunión de la junta por fin terminó. Fue una de las sesiones más duras que podía recordar en sus seis años como CEO de Fusilier Technology. Pero no fue de extrañar, dado el punto principal del orden del día: analizar por qué la empresa había perdido la cuenta de Chase Dynamics.

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Reprint: R0607A
Fusilier Technology is in disarray. Its vice president of sales is leaving, the company&#8217;s new growth strategy to sell customized business solutions has stalled, and sales have been flat for five years.
Bill MacLeod, Fusilier&#8217;s CEO, has to choose between two very different candidates for the top sales job: a veteran sales director who has excelled under the old order and a brash outsider who has experience selling solutions but doesn&#8217;t know the industry. With an outside board director pressuring him to accelerate the pace of change, MacLeod ponders which candidate can best help the company make the transition.
Fusilier&#8217;s new solutions strategy has made the decision that much more difficult. Under this model, the company must revamp its incentives, training, and processes for deploying the sales force. Historically, compensation has been based largely on an individual rep&#8217;s results, and sales training has focused on product features and cost-performance advantages, not on the business issues facing customers. Now salespeople need to understand, promote, and select from an entire portfolio of products and services offered both by Fusilier and by its business partners. What&#8217;s more, they need to collaborate with Professional Services, the new consulting unit whose mission is to jump-start the solutions-centric approach.
Whom should MacLeod hire for the top sales job, and what should he do to put Fusilier back on a growth track? Four experts comment on this fictional case study: Alston Gardner, founder of OnTarget, a sales training and consulting firm; Steve Kerr, a managing director and the chief learning officer of Goldman Sachs; Randall D. Kelley, a partner of the executive search firm Spencer Stuart; and Andrea L. Dixon, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati.

Old Hand or New Blood?

Reimpresión: R0607A La tecnología Fusilier está desorganizada. Su vicepresidente de ventas se va, la nueva estrategia de crecimiento de la empresa de vender soluciones empresariales personalizadas se ha estancado y las ventas se han mantenido estables durante cinco años. Bill MacLeod, CEO de Fusilier, tiene que elegir entre dos candidatos muy diferentes para el puesto más importante de ventas: un director de ventas veterano que ha sobresalido en el antiguo orden y un descarado forastero que tiene experiencia en la venta de soluciones pero no conoce el sector. Mientras un director externo lo presiona para que acelere el ritmo del cambio, MacLeod reflexiona sobre qué candidato puede ayudar mejor a la empresa a realizar la transición. La nueva estrategia de soluciones de Fusilier ha dificultado mucho la decisión. Según este modelo, la empresa debe renovar sus incentivos, formación y procesos para el despliegue de la fuerza de ventas. Históricamente, la compensación se basaba en gran medida en los resultados de un representante individual, y la formación en ventas se centraba en las características del producto y las ventajas de rentabilidad, no en los problemas empresariales a los que se enfrentan los clientes. Ahora los vendedores tienen que entender, promocionar y seleccionar entre toda la cartera de productos y servicios que ofrecen Fusilier y sus socios comerciales. Es más, tienen que colaborar con Professional Services, la nueva unidad de consultoría cuya misión es impulsar el enfoque centrado en las soluciones. ¿A quién debería contratar MacLeod para el puesto más importante de ventas y qué debe hacer para que Fusilier vuelva a crecer? Cuatro expertos comentan este estudio de caso ficticio: Alston Gardner, fundador de OnTarget, una firma de consultoría y formación en ventas; Steve Kerr, director gerente y director de aprendizaje de Goldman Sachs; Randall D. Kelley, socio de la firma de búsqueda de ejecutivos Spencer Stuart; y Andrea L. Dixon, profesora asociada de marketing en la Universidad de Cincinnati.

&iquest;Mano vieja o sangre nueva?

Reprint: R0607A Fusilier Technology is in disarray. Its vice president of sales is leaving, the company’s new growth strategy to sell customized business solutions has stalled, and sales have been flat for five years. Bill MacLeod, Fusilier’s CEO, has to choose between two very different candidates for the top sales job: a veteran sales director who has excelled under the old order and a brash outsider who has experience selling solutions but doesn’t know the industry. With an outside board director pressuring him to accelerate the pace of change, MacLeod ponders which candidate can best help the company make the transition. Fusilier’s new solutions strategy has made the decision that much more difficult. Under this model, the company must revamp its incentives, training, and processes for deploying the sales force. Historically, compensation has been based largely on an individual rep’s results, and sales training has focused on product features and cost-performance advantages, not on the business issues facing customers. Now salespeople need to understand, promote, and select from an entire portfolio of products and services offered both by Fusilier and by its business partners. What’s more, they need to collaborate with Professional Services, the new consulting unit whose mission is to jump-start the solutions-centric approach. Whom should MacLeod hire for the top sales job, and what should he do to put Fusilier back on a growth track? Four experts comment on this fictional case study: Alston Gardner, founder of OnTarget, a sales training and consulting firm; Steve Kerr, a managing director and the chief learning officer of Goldman Sachs; Randall D. Kelley, a partner of the executive search firm Spencer Stuart; and Andrea L. Dixon, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati.

¿Mano vieja o sangre nueva?

Resumen.

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