Sales Force Restructuring for HP-Cisco Alliance

An element that was absent from the HP- Cisco alliance in both companies was a dedicated alliance sales force. This was an essential lever for success of the alliance. The integration of sales force faces the task of integrating two large, diverse sales organizations. The companies had large sales forces consisting of generalists (account managers) supported by specialists (product line experts). The alliance needs to organize the go-to-market efforts along the customer segments: IP Telephony, Service and Network Management, Mobility/Wireless and Utility Data Center, HP’s brand of data center networking solutions. Throughout countries and regions around the world, the sales force must be organized around these customer segments. The organization can be done in a way such that there are Account managers as primary customer contact (one for each customer segment) and specialty sales forces that provide specific expertise in product areas. The Sales Forces in each segment can be complemented and supplemented by additional sales channels such as indirect channels of distribution; call centers and web based selling.The primary area of concern was the product overlap and competing objectives between account managers. As a solution to this, the account managers from both sides need to meet together and jointly address this issue. They must define which salesperson (HP or Cisco) would retain each account. Customer Input can be used for this purpose in the case of larger accounts. For smaller accounts, the team can analyze data and solicited sales force input to make decisions. This should be in-line with the objective of increasing the reach and coverage of the sales force. The Sales People that lose accounts can be given accounts that were not previously covered by either company.Actions (in priority order):

1. Joint Committee Meeting to develop an integrated sales planning process for account managers calling on the same accounts

2. Identify the larger accounts and use customer input to decide who would retain each of the accounts (which company)

3. For Smaller Account, use sales force input and sales data to arrive at the above decision

4. Sales People that lose accounts must be given accounts that were not previously covered by either of the companies

5. Organize the Sales Force in the dimensions of Generalists and Specialists – Generalist being the large account managers in direct interface with the customer base

6. Develop a Sales Engagement Model for each target market and included in any formal contract

7. Define Roles And Responsibilities for the Lifecycle of Sales Engagements8. Develop a Unified Sales Compensation Plan in alignment with mutual benefits for

both parties

9. All members to receive the required cross-product training

Metrics:

1. Value of Lead Stream: Total Number and Value of Leads introduced by each side and

total number and value converted by each side

2. Gross Contribution: Profit Contribution of each sale

3. Number of Issues escalated

4. Customer Retention Level (in %)

5. Ratio of Current Product and Service Revenues to Before-Integration Product and

Service Revenues