Case Study - How to Build a Winning Sales Force in the 21st Century

Building a winning sales force takes more than a strong captain and great players. It also takes a strategy, coupled with the drive and enthusiasm of a strong coach working together with the team captain to train, motivate and encourage success.

Such was the case with ArchivesOne, the 4th largest documents and records storage company, where a unique and robust A-1 sales strategy and team building effort produced a motivated sales force of eight professionals in less than a year. Driving the strategy were President A.J. Wasserstein, who made an early commitment to building an organic sales growth engine, and Jon D’Elia, senior vice president of sales and marketing, who recognized the importance of building an organized, smooth running sales engine.

The third member of this team was Nicholas “Coach Nick” Papadopoulos brought in by Jon D’Elia in the summer of 2003 to help craft the strategy that would ultimately make the ArchivesOne sales force successful in a highly competitive arena.

Here is the history behind this success story: When Jon D’Elia joined ArchivesOne, he inherited a non-structured sales program and he knew that if the company was to build a winning team he would need to implement processes and grow the sales force at a pace equal to the company’s acquisition plan. He also needed immediate buy in from President and Founder A.J. Wasserstein, who was building that acquisitive organization, which consistently faces the challenge of blending different cultures with the ArchivesOne philosophy and business model.

D’Elia started with a sales team, where most of the professionals were not trained in the records management industry, but wanted to achieve. “My team needed tools, a game plan and systems in place to help them play like a winning team,” D’Elia said. “Strong companies provide those things to their sales force to create an environment where they will succeed.”

D’Elia also realized he couldn’t execute by himself. He needed to go outside for an objective, experienced sales trainer and coach who was a team player to build his team of successful professionals. He identified Nicholas “Coach Nick” Papadopoulos, a trainer, sales coach with more than 17 years of hands-on sales and management experience across several industries.

D’Elia brought in Papadopoulos to help him build the sales and customer centric team he needed and create the A-1 sales strategy. In the summer of 2003, they completed an extensive 50-hour "Sales & Discovery Audit" of materials, processes, company positioning and most importantly, people.

The sales audit, which included questionnaires and personal interviews with sales and marketing professionals and customers, produced the sales plan that would drive the team-building program.

Within six weeks after the sales audit, D’Elia and Papadopoulos initiated monthly team training sessions and weekly coaching sessions, developed prospecting and presentation materials along with instituting an innovative sales person’s score card. In addition, Coach Nick conducted cold-calling sessions, as well as field work with prospects – another innovation that has worked well.

D’Elia pointed out that the company’s visions and values credo has been an excellent guideline for the success of the sales program. “Particularly in the hiring process, I seek professionals whose visions and values blend with ArchivesOne,” D’Elia pointed out.

Papadopoulos credits the success of the A-1 sales strategy and team-building program to motivation and ownership. “Only a few companies I am aware of are conducting this kind of program,” Papadopoulos said, “and most sales management executives generally aren’t interested in taking the time that ArchivesOne did, up front, to achieve results.

To jump-start the sales plan, D’Elia implemented Salesforce.com, an online, customized CRM and lead tracking management program where his sales team could begin to see their new business opportunity pipeline. By the second month, the sales team had already accumulated 100 opportunities.
 

Unique Innovations

“Coach Nick also created a unique self-management system in the form of a "Sales-Person’s Score Card" to be used in tandem with Salesforce.com,” D’Elia said. “The scorecard is designed to help each team member self manage and focus on at least seven critical sales behaviors needed to be successful. This card could be likened to the score card used in a golf game and enables the sales professional to compete with himself or herself to achieve the maximum results.

“For added incentive, we also created a "Sales-Person of the Month" program based on the score card and actual production a person achieves. There is no single winner, and all or none of the team can win A-1 dollars, depending on actual results."

Salesforce.com has freed D’Elia from time-consuming administrative work. Now, with a simple log in, he can see, professional-by-professional, how his sales team is doing. “I can look at one or two reports and know where we need to work harder to fill the pipeline or close more business,” D’Elia said. “This was definitely the right investment and the system has actually saved the company thousands of dollars, because I have been able to postpone adding sales management overhead.”

What has been the bottom line for the A-1 sales strategy effort at ArchivesOne? "In a year’s time, there has been great enthusiasm and buy in from sales associates and a hunger to work within the company’s visions and values," D’Elia pointed out. "Some have even applied for a company-wide taskforce focused on critical intra-company processes," he said.

"Our senior management team has been very supportive now that we’re beginning to see results behind the investment,” D’Elia said. “They recognize that this program will cost upward of seven figures annually, but they also know that without a committed, motivated sales force we won’t be able to achieve our growth objectives.”

Papadopoulos added that ArchivesOne has learned how critical it is to plan and to be patient. “Change doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. "We’re implementing a performance review process next and Jon is moving toward better segmentation of markets, which is currently being done geographically.

“We’re also offering quarterly work shops for the team and more one-on-one help with cold calls, follow-ups with customers and preparation for sales calls. Overall, I couldn’t be more comfortable with how much this sales team has grown in a short time.”

In addition to Wasserstein’s, D’Elia’s and Papadopoulos’ team effort with the sales force, the Company has developed several initiatives to strengthen its customer relationships. One program, "Road Day", has been extremely successful and involves all of ArchivesOne’s 11 markets.

"Each summer, led by our senior management team, operations managers and sales associates, we join our drivers to deliver and pick up boxes, meet customers and hear how we’re doing as a company,” D’Elia said. “There were well over 50 team members at all levels at the most recent "Road Day" in July and for fun the we distributed hundreds of rubber replicas of ArchivesOne vans to our customers for stress busting.

“In addition, our customer development team with the help of business intelligence has implemented regular phone calls to all customers and a preferred customer communications program called ACE for a select-group of ArchivesOne's largest clients.

"We are also expanding our training program with the goal of making it the leading team-member training program in the nation. Knowing our associates, we’ll get there rapidly," he pointed out.

D’Elia would be the first to say that the work to build a winning sales team and strengthen ArchivesOne’s base of satisfied customers has just begun. But with the top-down support he has received and the scaleable structure in place, D’Elia is convinced that sales will increase substantially over the coming months. ArchivesOne has given his sales team the tools they need for success by bringing in resources needed to win the ongoing battle with competitors. The A-1 sales strategy is working effectively on all levels in order to succeed in the 21st century.

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