Presales, Solutions consulting turnaround and realignment - Stats and Win/Loss analysis feedback

It was a difficult decision to move from #TCS. I live in #Solihull, #UK. @TATA is everyday news here ever since #TATA bought #JaguarLandRover. My children had an opinion. They literally cried and even today, they both shout in unison “TATA” when we pass the #JLR gates in Solihull. I still chose to change.

I had become quite used to introducing new offerings, solutions and proposals when at TCS. I had to engage customers, analysts, advisors and align with internal stakeholders and strategic partners. If I was successful at new stuff, I should be able to transform and enable success in a well-established organisation surely. I realised my ambition to demonstrate a different change leadership when I joined #HP in 2015 - #HPE in Nov 2015 - as the EMEA North cluster leader for Sales Solutioning and Enablement.

Alongside the immense functional responsibility, I had the mandate to change by the Cluster management team. I had to effect this change in the context of a hyper-matrixed organization. But first things first, what needs to be changed? Interview #stakeholders or check the process first? Look into workflow tools for information or assess # people, #skills and #competences first?

I chose to look at #data with #analytics and use the #insights to ask the relevant #inquiry questions in #consulting style to stakeholders. Key insights, some of them obvious, such as:

- Win: Loss ratio; when do we win, when do we lose, what led us to a win, why did we lose

- Was it a New Logo / New Business? What was our Deal shaping with the customer? What was our Client Solution Strategy? What was our competitive sales & solution strategy?

- How many were associated with traditional services Vis-à-vis #digital #offerings? #Cloud vs. #Apps vs. #Digital vs. #BPO vs. #IoT vs. #Analytics?

- What was the breadth and depth of our early #sales stage engagement? What was the customer perceived quality of this early sales stage engagement?

- How many pursuits? Size and complexity of pursuits? At what Pursuit stage?

- Was it a renewal? What was the #NPS? How well were we positioned as a Digital transformation partner?

- What were the Solutions, proposal, orals, and client engagement quality? Had we aligned to customer business outcomes? What was our Minimum viable product, costing and pricing?

- In which #service offerings were we winning. What was the general differentiated positioning vs. pursuit specific positioning? How well were we aligned to the customers’ industry specific service alignment?

- How are the teams structured? How are the Pursuit team structured? What is the contribution from Solution consultants vs. Practice advisors vs. Practice Solutioners vs. Delivery on critical deals?

- Were the deals well qualified? Was there the right balance of Demand vs. Supply? When were the peaks and when were the troughs? Were there delayed pursuits? Who or what caused the delay?

The good thing is there were enough tools and data to gather insights. The findings opened my eyes.

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. -Saint Francis of Assisi

To be continued….

About the Author

The author had first published the article on #LinkedIn on June 12, 2017

Jagadish is a Strategic Board adviser, senior Executive leader with specialisation in reimagining business models; who has been successful at building and/or turnaround Practice advisory, Presales, Sales enablement, Solution consulting capabilities for: - Applications & Enterprise applications- Modernising and Transformation to a secure hybrid Cloud- Service Integration and Management in a multi-cloud environment- Digital workplace solutions- Digital transformation using IoT, IIoT, Big Data, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Drones and Robots- IT Infrastructure services More recently, Jagadish has influenced re-imagining a digitally enabled business model for a leading enterprise#IoT, #IIoT, #Bigdata, #Analytics, #artificialintelligence, #drones, #robots, #RPA, #cloud, #hybridcloud, #sales, #presales, #salesenablement, #strategy, #managementconsulting, #boardadvisor, #nonexecutivedirector, #applications, #digitaltransformation, #mixedreality, #integration, #collaboration, #API, #microservices, #marketplace, #solutionconsulting, #servicemanagement, #governance, #riskmanagement, #cybersecurity, #saas, #CRM, #ERP, #customerexperience, #customersuccess