Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference Speaker Interview: ADP

Eryn Del Castillo

Director of Sales Effectiveness

ADP







Q.  What is your role in your sales/marketing organization?

I am the director of the sales effectiveness team, which is inside the centralized sales operation unit at ADP. In sales effectiveness, we focus on two major areas: sales tools and sales messaging.

Sales tools could include a proposal generator, ROI calculator, or sales presentation. We are currently looking at all the different presentation apps for the iPad.  On the messaging side, we make sure the messaging is incorporated into everything that touches our sales force and everything that they use.  If there’s a phone script, we make sure the messaging is correct; if it’s a client-facing document or some sort of marketing material, we weigh in on that, too.

Q.  Why did ADP make the decision to have a sales effectiveness team and what are the results?

The sales effectiveness team was created about 18 months ago.  We wanted to make sure our sales people are equipped with the most state-of-the-art, up-to-date, market-forward sales tools in the industry. We also wanted to make sure that there’s someone who not only represents the voice of the field saying “yes, this is something we’ll use and use well,” but also looks externally at the trends and new tools in the marketplace so that our sales people are equipped with the best of what’s out there.

Over the last year and a half we’ve created some of the highest-quality sales tools and messaging that the company has seen in a long time.  We’ve had really favorable feedback and we’re also reaching out more and more to the different business units saying, “have you considered XY&Z?” This year we created what we call “Field Readiness Kits” that were so well received we have business units reaching out to us for input on solving other challenges to help move the needle on the close ratio and deal advancement.

Q.  What are the three biggest sales/marketing challenges your company has faced/is facing?

Speaking from a sales effectiveness viewpoint, one of the biggest challenges is competing against the status quo.  Though we go head-to-head against competitors just like anyone else, the status quo is our biggest competition. That’s one of the reasons why I think the Corporate Visions methodology aligns so well with our sales process. We spend a lot of time focused on the tools, scripts and training our sales people need to loosen or unhinge that status quo.

The second challenge is adoption.  Our sales force is 6,000+ people in business units organized by market segment or product.  We produce what we think are really valuable sales tools and sometimes our sales force has a hard time keeping up with the volume and sorting through which are the most appropriate tools to use.  Occasionally they get stuck in their own status quo, where they’re using the same things and following the same process over and over again.  When a new tool is introduced, we want the quickest adoption and as many people as possible using the tool.  There are only so many hours in the day, so we want to make sure their sales efforts are hyper focused on the things that get them the best results.

Lastly, when we’re talking to a company, we want to make sure we’re selling to the specific strategic goals of that company or decision maker. That means having our sales people do their due diligence and a thorough analysis of what those issues are and then tailoring the talk track, script and presentation specifically to that message.  Since that’s not a process that comes naturally to a lot of people, we’re always trying to find different ways to equip them with tools that they can use to help them better do that.

Q.  What does your company do well to align marketing and sales?  What needs work?

We work with marketing in three different ways. We have marketing that’s inside our sales operation function and we’re directly aligned, with a VP who oversees demand generation and sales effectiveness inside our sales operations.  We also work with the higher-level corporate marketing group.  We communicate with them on a biweekly basis to make sure we’re all in synch. Lastly, we have our digital or Web marketing group and we’re in touch with them on a weekly basis, making sure we work together in areas where it makes sense.

We’re really just beginning to look at how we communicate and how well we’re aligned. It all comes back to the communication and there’s a lot of opportunity there.  But the first step is to make sure there are weekly touch points, because corporate marketing is putting out incredible content that we really could leverage in the sales process and we’re not doing it well today.

Q.  What can attendees expect to learn by attending your presentation ?

Sales tool creation is really the meat of my presentation.  I’m going to talk about how we take messaging a step beyond marketing or training.  I’m going to show how we make it actionable, relevant and easy for a sales person to use so that the messaging becomes cultural.  We have really taken Power Positioning and POV integration to another level.  Our Field Readiness Kit is completely embedded and grounded in the conversation road map that we created in partnership with Corporate Visions.  It’s a dynamic, navigable tool that parses out the important pieces of the messaging road map so that the sales people can use it.  We’ve aligned this tool with our sales process so that no matter where the sales person is in the process, they can go in and find the most relevant and effective tools. Every item that’s in there, whether it’s a script, talk track, elevator pitch, etc., is inventoried in this dynamic tool with the same Challenger Methodology and Corporate Visions messaging embedded.

Q. What are you looking forward to most at the Marketing and Sales Messaging conference?

I’ve been before and I really enjoy hearing from the thought leaders.  This is a unique opportunity to get like-minded folks in the same room and understand what it is that they’re doing that has made them successful.  I like to hear from other market leaders so that I can learn from them and continue to improve and incorporate new ideas into our processes, and I also like to hear about what they’re doing as it’s a good benchmark for us.

Q.  What was the biggest surprise when it came to your new message and Point of View development?

We first engaged with Corporate Visions about five years ago and I would say the biggest surprise was how well the Power Positioning was received and what a strong impact it has had on the organization – it has spread rapidly throughout the company.  We have every sort of business unit/product line/segmentation all wanting their own POV pitch and their own Power Positions.  I thought at some point we would have created enough to meet everyone’s needs, but there never seems to be an end to the demand for this type of messaging inside of our business.

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If you’d like to meet Eryn and some of the other brilliant minds that have broken the status quo, aligned marketing and sales, and spearheaded lasting change in their organizations, please join us for our Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference, taking place in Chicago, IL, Sept. 18-20, 2012.  Register now!

Filed under: Business-to-Business, Deploy Tools that Get Used, Marketing, Sales and Marketing Alignment, Sales Readiness Tagged: ADP, Eryn del Castillo, Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference