Success Story: Local Telecommunications Company

(All company and individual names changed)

 

Project: Jackson/St. Francis Hospital – Barnesville, NC

 

Solution:

 

·        A Nortel Option 81-C and Option 61-C with Multiple Remotes

·        Call Center and IVR Capabilities

·        Total Sale: $1.447 million

 

Jackson/St. Francis Hospital: Again…The Power of the Team!

 

Marla Jones’ strong relationship with Jackson/St. Francis Hospital in Barnesville, North Carolina – nurtured over 8 years – was deep and wide, extending from the VP level on down. And all the account executive’s efforts were about to pay off when the hospital issued an RFI for a major PBX system. Why? There were several key factors:

 

·        Two competing hospitals – Jackson Hospital and St. Francis – with different systems had merged, creating the need for consolidation.

 

·        A new and uniform system would address Y2K concerns, and

 

·        The new system would be a solid platform for future growth. 

 

 

“In-The-Loop”

With her ear close to the ground at the hospital for many years, Marla was not only aware of all that was coming down but was acutely aware of all the politics inherent in the organization. Consequently, she had anticipated the bid and began assembling the resources.

 

The solid relationship also allowed for a steady flow of information to her throughout the process from her ‘champions’ in the organization. This “in-the-loop” access and open, on-going dialogue with her customer was especially critical at the many points along the way when the complexion of the deal changed dramatically and reliable information was more crucial than ever.

 

Once XYZ AVP John Jillson heard of the hospital’s interest, he tapped a SVP contact of his own within the JSFH organization and invited him to lunch. Jillson, along with his sales rep, made it clear that XYZ wanted their business, explained the value that XYZ could deliver and that they intended to demonstrate that value over the next few months. The lunch meeting proved fruitful as the SVP provided the account with additional contacts within the organization.

 

The Power of Targeted Account Selling

Over the following few months, the account team went to work. Throughout our interview with them, both Jillson and Tim Shanken, XYZ Sales Manager, repeatedly emphasized the textbook success of the Targeted Account Selling process in this situation. With a goal to impact overall business operations of the hospital, the account team, in contrast to their competition – Lucent and Siemens – approached all levels of the business, not just the independent consultant hired by the hospital to review all bids.

 

In order to quantify exactly how the XYZ offer would impact JSFH business operations on many fronts, the team met with the IVR organization, the head of telecom, the CIO and even the client’s on-site technicians – in addition to the consultant. In these meetings with many players from many departments, the team established the XYZ value proposition throughout many levels of the JSFH organization. This was all in advance of the RFP, so once the deal progressed to that stage, the team was well-positioned.

 

“The upshot of all this,” noted Shanken, “is that when it came time to respond to the RFP, we were doing so much more than just selling a certain number of sets at a certain price. In the minds of the different players in the organization, we were offering a richer, more robust solution that not only talked about features but bottom line benefits as well.” 

 

Rocky Road

While the team had numerous obstacles to overcome enroute to their triumph, several stand out. The independent consultant hired by the hospital had -- in a prior career as a Siemens sales representative -- actually sold the hospital their Siemens system. Consequently, the XYZ Business account team anticipated and planned for a bias toward the Siemens offer. As Jillson recalled, “We worked very hard with the consultant and the RFP team, brought them down to our sites as well as to one of our successful healthcare client sites, and ultimately built and cultivated in them a solid understanding of the XYZ system capabilities.”

 

Probably the most significant challenge faced by the XYZ team occurred six months into the process when a new individual, with a clearly unfavorable opinion of XYZ, was thrust into the key decision-making role at the hospital. He made it very clear that he wanted to do business with another vendor. As Shanken recalls, “We had two jobs to do. The first was to work with this individual and show him that we were good for his business. Just as importantly, we needed to enlist all the team members to work their organizational contacts and help us move things forward. And obviously, we were successful in doing that.”

 

Crucial Decision-Drivers

Key to the success of the endeavor was identifying and addressing important decision-drivers: Training and Support.

 

Training:

In order to win the business, the account team had to customize a training program over three years to get the customer’s technicians up to speed. The program included some free training and created a plan that would gradually transition from XYZ personnel to the client’s own staff as they became more comfortable and proficient with the equipment. 

 

Support:

Just as important to building customer confidence in XYZ was the account team’s plan for technical support. And in an offering unique among all the competitive bids, XYZ included in their proposal an on-site technician for the first 12 months.

 

CIS as Strategic Differentiator

One of the team’s main strategies was to position the CRS (Customer Relationship Services) organization as a differentiator to impact their business operations. In this way, XYZ could show value well beyond the commodity PBX purchase. Part of that involved discussions with the customers about their Wide Area Networks (WANs) plans and how it related to this particular large piece of business.

 

Shanken noted another positive by-product of this communication process: “As a backdrop to these discussions, and certainly something that didn’t escape the customer’s notice was the extremely efficient collaboration that took place between our two teams. This just set the stage for future business by demonstrating graphically the benefit of working with one vendor for their business.”

 

Throughout both the data gathering and business-value development phases, all the team members continued to work their contacts – and not just once. They stayed in communication with them and made sure they were updated. Charles Rollins with C&AE was positioned at CEO level, while the account team could be found at multiple levels, vertically and horizontally – with the CIO, the Senior VP, the consultant – and everyone continued to deliver the XYZ message.

 

Constant Communication

Jillson underscored the on-going shoulder-to-shoulder nature of the team effort: “Throughout the process, all of us stayed in pretty constant communication with each other and regularly discussed where we were, what we’d accomplished and what we needed to do -- and just as importantly, not do -- over the next set period of time, in terms of both actions and communications with our respective contacts.” 

 

The Future is Bright

While this PBX sale was significant in many ways by itself, it opens the door to plenty of future business, some of it very soon, and especially in the network arena. As Shanken explains, “We are negotiating with the customer to upgrade existing service as well as install additional PRI service as a result of the PBX sale. Additionally, this has invigorated ongoing discussion about a Smartring that would provide business continuity for all the major sites in the Barnesville area.”

 

In summary, what were the keys to success? According to Shanken, “First and foremost, the teamwork we all demonstrated was the most important factor in winning this deal. It really was a very unselfish process. No one was focused on their win but what was best for XYZ and for the customer.”

 

Jillson echoed that sentiment and added another key, “In a nutshell, we maximized all the resources we had at our disposal - from our Account team, PR people AND external affairs folks to corporate allies on both sides of the table. Just as importantly, the development and management of the Focused Account Selling [the sales master for XYZ Business now] process was extremely effective. When we do these two things right, our chances of winning are far stronger.”

 

END