Leading Practices in Solution Sales: An Overview of Accenture ...

Solution
transformation
Sales alignment
Sales behavior
Sales capabilities
These leading practices constitute
the detailed components of an overall
program that can set your company
apart from the competition in creating
deep capabilities in solution sales.
These can be grouped according to the
“ABCs” of successful solution sales:
alignment, behaviors and capabilities:
Leading practices to enable
sales alignment
• Sales organization. Guidance from
Accenture can help establish an
effective sales organization structure,
one incorporating both internal
and external sales teams.
• Sales support structure. This leading
practice includes benchmarks
from key communications and hightech
companies with strong sales
support organizations. These practices
also address key issues for
pricing, quoting and configuration.
4 Accenture Communications & High Tech Solutions
Solution sales core capabilities Solution sales is a broad set
of sales alignment, behavior
Sales organization
Sales support structure
Cross-organization alignment
Learning and development
Knowledge management and collaboration
Incentive compensation management
Customer information strategy
Customer insight and sales analytics
Service sales
Solution sales to small and medium businesses
Solution sales to global accounts
• Cross-organization alignment. To
effectively sell and deliver solutions,
many functions of the organization
must coordinate their activities and
collaborate effectively. A number of
leading practices provide guidance
in this area.
Leading practices to promote
the right sales behaviors
• Learning and development.
Traditional classroom training, and
courses focused primarily on product
specifications, are not sufficient to
enable a sales force to achieve competency
in selling solutions.
Performance simulation training and
other new techniques help sales
people develop the behaviors that
lead to success.
• Knowledge management and
collaboration. Solution selling
depends on new knowledge management
processes, sales portals and
and capability components
that enable a company to
sell to its customers value
propositions. By following
leading practices in these
areas, companies can propel
themselves faster toward
high performance through
their solution sales
capabilities.
collaboration tools that enable sales
people to find the information needed
and to work together to serve
customers more effectively.
• Incentive compensation management.
To deliver solution sales, the
sales force must be appropriately
incented and compensated. This
leading practice addresses how to
create the infrastructure to translate
strategy into delivering effective
compensation into the organization.
Industry leading practices in this
area are based on Accenture experience
in sales compensation and
related rewards strategies.
Leading practices to create the
right sales capabilities
• Customer information strategy.
Understanding your customers is
critical to effectively sell solutions.
This leading practice outlines a
number of effective methods to help