Strategy implementation at scale

Client Need

A cloud-based software company was experiencing rapid growth, marked by multiple acquisitions, thousands of high-performing sales transactions, and rising expectations. As a result, the company needed a more consistent go-to-market approach and customer-engagement methodology.

To meet this need, the organization’s leaders designed an immersive, simulation-based program that would cascade this new approach to all 29,000 of its sales, solutions, and customer-success group members. The organization partnered with BTS to design a simulation-based learning experience to deliver the training at a global scale in a simple, immersive modality.

If executed successfully, this program would be the single largest training program in the company’s history, ensuring organization-wide adoption of its bold new go-to-market strategy, tools, and practices.

Solution

To reach the organization’s 29,000 employees, the program was launched worldwide both virtually and in-person. The two-day experience comprised 300 sessions facilitated by 900 of the company’s sales leaders. In addition, 150 people from BTS offered supplemental support during the sessions.

Prior to starting the program, BTS held a series of workshops to equip the program facilitators with extensive resources and training to ensure a seamless experience for participants. The program was closely modeled after participants’ day-to-day work, but designed as a gamified experience that would shift mindsets.

In cross-functional teams, participants assumed crucial roles within a simulated account team. Together, the team made collective decisions, responded to critical moments, and advanced customers through the sales cycle, competing against other teams to drive customer success and run the best simulated account team.

The competitive aspects of the program kept engagement high, but—more importantly—enabled employees to interact and cooperate, prompting them to break out of silos and gain a better understanding of how to collaborate.

A virtual dashboard created by BTS tracked participants’ choices, the resulting outcomes, and kept score. The team best aligned with the new go-to-market and customer-engagement methodologies would win the competition.

A team’s overall score was measured by three metrics that captured participants’ abilities to collaborate across all functions:

• The likelihood of a deal closing.
• The value that the team delivers to its customers.
• How well the team works together.

Throughout the program, participants gained a greater understanding of:

• What it looks like to support great customer success throughout the entire account engagement process.
• How to leverage the new methodology to accelerate deal cycles and share this knowledge with the extended team.
• How to balance short- and long-term goals to maximize customer success and company growth.

Results

• 30 days after the completion of the program, the organization reported a 54 percent increase in pipeline generation and a 40 percent increase in tool adoption.
• Based on the results of the initial program, the company plans to make this program the standard training for all distribution employees.

Testimonials

• “The exercises working in the group helped me think through the methodology and apply it to my everyday work.”
• “The [program] was a great way to immerse myself in the methodology and learn from a variety of my peers across different roles.”
• “It was a genuine thrill to see how completely the [simulation] captured EXACTLY what we were looking for, and what our teams need to be successful.”