Jonathan Farrington interviews Sam Reese, CEO of MHI Global, the newly formed company which, after a very active 12 month acquisition strategy, has seen five companies joining forces in the sales performance space, forming the global company MHI Global, and pioneering the customer-management industry. The proven methodology, expertise and measurable results of Miller Heiman, AchieveGlobal, Huthwaite, Impact Learning Systems and Channel Enablers come together as MHI Global, to provide businesses with an expanded approach, strategy and holistic view of the customer lifecycle.
JF: If you had to pick one thing that companies are missing and that’s standing in the way of growth, today, what would it be?
SR: Companies that are not committed to helping their clients achieve their goals and objectives will fail to thrive. Growth comes from building a customer base of successful interactions, which will then lead to new wins. Word spreads quickly about things that are done right, therefore leading to additional exposure and, ultimately, more opportunity. Companies that focus on working closely, both internally among their teams as well as with their clients, will achieve growth.
JF: What are the behaviors that you believe drive world-class sales performance?
SR: We actually know what the behaviors are that drive world-class sales performance, based on the research that we conduct. Essentially, there are three themes that underlie top performance.
- Provide Perspective – Go the step beyond merely providing a sound solution and leverage all of the internal information that you have within the organization to help clients get results. Bring value to your clients by offering opinions and advice based on your organization’s knowledge and experiences. Learn as much as possible about the client’s context and then provide perspectives specific to the client and their strategic issues.
- Collaboration – Use a common framework and language to work closely with your customers, as well as your internal teams. Go beyond sales and operations, to include all parts of the organization, to create a winning customer management strategy. Use the collective knowledge of the organization to provide a far greater impact on the customer than that possible from a singular point of view.
- Performance Accountability – This serves as the foundation for the customer management strategy and drives world-class performance. Being held accountable and as an organization holding you accountable, measuring customer results, and providing objective measureable outcomes are behaviors that are observed in the very best organizations.
JF: What does it mean to have the customer at the center of the Sales System?
SR: All strategies need to emanate from the requirements of clients. The definition of client success should be the touch stone of company strategy. Being customer centric is not just a platitude or trite phrase. It is an action and is operationalized in all aspects of the organization. The customer should be present in every decision that an organization makes.
JF: Please describe the value proposition of MHI Global – what’s the differentiator?
SR: The value proposition is to be the key resource to sales leaders around the globe. The differentiator is in the collective expertise, the products, the global footprint, the research and the extensive network of expert practitioners who can provide perspective. Based on this, MHI Global is able to provide deeper and wider capability to the marketplace; a holistic sales system.
JF: How will MHI Global support organizations in the areas of customer and business management—most specifically in creating and managing opportunities, and in managing relationships?
SR: MHI Global’s expertise is in understanding what drives sales excellence. From the research that we do, the clients that we’ve had the privilege to work with, and experiences and results, we’ve identified the behaviors associated with top performance and then package this in solutions for clients. These areas of expertise provide the tactics and skills that organizations need to master to be world-class. MHI Global is able to provide companies with strategies and expertise to more successfully access their clients.
JF: What does it mean to “empower growth” and how will MHI Global support organizations in achieving this business outcome?
SR: Empowering growth is all about the point of view that the customer is at the center of all sales strategy. The key is to help sales leaders to optimize their effort in managing customer relations. MHI Global will equip companies with the solutions and perspectives they need to grow, but we will not/cannot do it for them. This is a team effort. We will bring the expertise that we’ve codified from our research and experience and partner with them to achieve customer management excellence.
JF: And finally Sam, I perceive that we are likely to witness further expansion and acquisitions, can you summarize MHI Global’s perspective?
SR: Through MHI Global, CEOs and sales leaders finally have access to the world’s most extensive knowledge base on how to drive customer-management excellence and growth. After all, customer experiences are steering the success of individual companies, both domestically and globally, and driving the business world today.
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To find out more about the most successful and indeed the most significant sales training organization in the world, visit www.MHIGlobal.com