Scaling New Heights Craig Saphin

Executive Summary:


It used to be just the purvey of the larger corporations to hire graduates and then use well-developed onboarding and talent development resources and processes to get the new recruits ready and skilled up.
An estimated 90,000 young people (Australian tertiary graduates) who have successfully completed 15 to 16 years of education, cannot get a full-time job within 12 months of graduating.
Clarify the unique selling points which make your business exciting to join.
Young graduates are agile and move quickly.

Executive Summary


Develop a personal development program for all staff – new and existing.
A training program will be a subset of the talent development strategy.
Talent development is a set of initiatives that creates the opportunity for organisations to succeed through the development of employees assisting them each to achieve their full potential.
Developing a purpose-designed talent development strategy will differentiate your small or medium enterprise from the many talent competitors you are up against.
The “development” component needs to be bespoke.

Executive Summary


The “human resource” function should be an integral participant in the company strategy.
Elevating the lead people and culture function to a strategic company position such as CHRO speaks clearly on the culture and intent of the organisation.
The scope for the People and Culture role has become more complex.
A competent people and culture lead can put in place the necessary agreements and talent acquisition process, which can help to differentiate your organization from the competition.

Nick Johnston is a serial entrepreneur, a leading sales professional and a successful business owner. He started his career in London’s competitive financial sector before being lured to Hong Kong by a business acquaintance. Using his financial services experience, the recruiting company, Wall Street Associates, was established with his business partner in Hong Kong before Nick decided to go it alone and focus on the Japan market.

In 2010 Wall Street was sold to en Japan, and Nick moved to Singapore to start the next phase of his life. Nick is now a private investor and business advisor and has a keen interest in HR technology solutions and HR business processes. 

Craig: Can we start by talking about your experience as a sales executive; when you were an individual contributor and also when you owned a business. 

Nick: I was a recruiter, and I set up a recruiting business, but a lot of the sales practices apply in many sales strategies, especially B2B. I learnt from an early mentor who told me: “Talk to decision-makers”. It’s the most common sense and logical piece of advice, however, it has been a challenge through my whole career in managing sales teams. 

Getting sales professionals to talk directly with decision-makers is more difficult than it should be. People forget its importance. The decision-maker is in the best position to understand the requirements and the subtleties required to close the deal. For example, in the recruiting process, the decision-maker or hiring manager is in the best position to identify whether the candidates are technically strong or a great fit for their business. As well as this, some candidates undersell themselves. Therefore, my job was to get a great candidate in front of the decision-maker. This gave the best outcome.

Executive summary:

• Competent strategic sales executives are the “20%” in your team that contribute 80% of revenue. 

• From your client list, establish the top 20% based on the potential opportunity (not historical opportunity because it is “history”). Develop an account plan for each. • The Key Competencies of a Successful Strategic Account Manager include commercial awareness, communication skills, ethics, results-oriented and problem-solving. 

Over the years, I have had the great opportunity of working with groundbreaking companies who valued strategic selling and encouraging their best key account representatives to achieve the highest level of relationship with clients. 

In the 1980s the American academic and researcher, Neil Rackham, established the Huthwaite Institute, published “SPIN Selling” and “Major Account Sales Strategy” and developed a close relationship with IBM and Xerox. These collaborations established the foundation for modern strategic account management methods and processes.

At the same time, both IBM and Xerox invested heavily in the development of their people. Around this time, I was participating in a training program at Xerox’s University, situated on a spectacular campus on the banks of the Potomac River in Leesburg, VA. Such was the commitment to training by the large leaders of US corporations.

Executive summary: 

• The best sales professionals are outstanding at intensive farming of a territory. 

• The best sales leaders apply a comprehensive territory management plan across their team. • Have a communicated rule on how often key accounts need to be engaged. 

• Have communicated criteria on how accounts are graded.

 • Insist on account management plans from the front-line account managers.

 • Have multiple account managers working for large clients.

 Who owns the relationship with your biggest clients? 

If one of your key account managers leaves tomorrow does the relationship also leave the business?

Are new members in your sales team given a warm set of relationships or starting from the deep freeze?

What are your criteria for sales activity in your top 20 accounts? 

Many years ago, I studied agricultural science at the University of New England in the northern tablelands NSW city of Armidale. As part of my studies, I learned the stark difference between the intensive farming that is found in horticulture or pork manufacturing compared with the broadacre requirements found on some beef properties in central Queensland. In the latter, the stocking rate could be where one beast requires 10 or 12 hectares on which to graze. 

Related to this, I have found that the best sales professionals are outstanding at intensive farming of a territory. The less skilled requires a broad acre approach. This is also akin to “picking the low hanging fruit” without too much sweat or application.