SUCCESS STORY: SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS
Leveraging digital sales transformation to strengthen customer focus
As a leader in the medtech industry, Siemens Healthineers wanted to evolve its sales process to prepare for market changes, accommodate shifting buying patterns, and accelerate sales performance.
The challenge
Leading a digital sales transformation across different teams
Siemens Healthineers has always been a technology-driven organization. But with a rapidly changing market and buying process, the company recognized that it needed a high-velocity, customer centric process that empowered its sales teams.
Though it was a market leader in nearly every category, the company needed to prepare for the future. As Terry Coutsolioutsos, the company’s Senior Vice President, Sales Operations, Marketing, and Communications, says, “It was about moving forward, accelerating performance, and improving and growing the business. We had to remind the team that what got us here wasn’t going to help drive us toward the future.”
Partnering with Korn Ferry
A consistent, integrated methodology
The solution
"Siemens Healthineers wanted a sales methodology partner that put its customers first."
There was a big pitch on the table in New York, and they were determined to win it. After a successful 2-hour opportunity coaching session, having a sales methodology came into focus for them. They wanted to test it to see if it could streamline and focus their pitching process. The team started working on employing our sales methodology to this pitch. They spent 90 days working on the presentation, compiling data, and planning their approach. It paid off. They won the business, and a new focus on the value of sales process and strategy was born.
Having seen the triumph of the New York pitch, the organization was keen to press on and pilot our sales methodology in two markets. The success of those pilots was enough for the initiative to be rolled out throughout the US sales force.
A more unified, collaborative, and customer-focused
sales approach
The results
Six months in, the digital sales transformation is still ongoing. “This is a big lift, but adoption is growing every day,” says Coutsolioutsos. “The integrated solution is forcing people to use our CRM in ways they didn’t before. We’re doing things differently, and it’s helping us have conversations about what support our sellers need to be successful with our customers.”
With multiple business areas in the enterprise, there might be 15 to 20 Heathineers in a hospital at once. Now, Coutsolioutsos says, “They’re acting more as one company. They’re following a similar methodology and using a common language, so everyone has a better understanding of each other.”
This common language makes it easier for sellers and sales managers to collaborate and communicate internally about their customers, particularly on key accounts. “When working on challenging deals, more people are involved to solve customer issues, because they can share information readily on the digital platform,” says Coutsolioutsos. “In turn, sellers are able to ask better questions, identify gaps in the deal, and offer more complete solutions.”
"The firm's customer support underwent a remarkable transformation."
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More consistent language aligned to the customer journey
Better collaborations facilitated by easy-to-use digital tools.
The return on investment
Background
Deployment of our sales methodology as part of an end-to-end sales transformation delivered a
increase in top-line
revenues and a win rate increase to over
Siemens Healthineers wanted a sales methodology partner that put its customers first. That’s what Coutsolioutsos liked so much about our Strategic Selling® with Perspective and Large Account Management Process® (LAMP®) sales methodology.
There was one problem: the company also needed to automate the selected sales methodology. For too long,
its sellers had been using Excel spreadsheets stored on their desktop to record sales data. To prevent this siloed capturing of information, sales leaders wanted to integrate the methodology into their newly built CRM. It knew that if sellers had to operate in two distinct systems, the transformation would fail.
Home Insights Featured Topics Sales Transformation
The digital sales transformation project specifically focused on Siemens Healthineers North America, which includes the U.S. and Canada and has 900 salespeople representing two distinct business areas: medical imaging and laboratory diagnostics.
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That’s when our team started a major redesign project. First, we met with Siemens Heathineers sales leaders to understand what was and wasn’t working well for them. Then we worked with them to improve alignment across the business areas, bringing in stakeholders from both groups to ensure the approach was inclusive and cross-functional. Together, we set expectations and obtained buy-in for the deployment and use of sales tools.
Using this foundation, the Siemens Healthineers team rethought the entire end-to-end commercial sales process.
We created definitions for each stage of the process, including seller actions and buyer actions, and minimum required actions, adding rigor and discipline.
Next, the developers went to work. Based on Korn Ferry Sell’s methodology and technology, they crafted a custom solution that reflected the new sales process and meshed seamlessly with the company’s CRM.
Finally, we rolled out the solution, all during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company started with sales leaders, who attended the virtual training twice, first to learn and second to coach their sales managers. Then they cascaded the training throughout the sales organization.
Better collaboration facilitated by easy-to-use digital tools.
More consistent language aligned to the customer journey.
Stronger insights into potential
sales opportunities
Deeper customer relationships
Better collaboration facilitated by easy-to-use digital tools
More consistent language aligned to the customer journey
The return on investment
Partnering with Korn Ferry
"Siemens Healthineers wanted a sales methodology partner that put its customers first."
Walter Towarnicki, Director, Laboratory Diagnostics & Point of Care Sales, notes that automating the sales methodology has clarified the selling process. “It’s like truth serum. When you’re honest with yourself, it helps you bring out the red flags, the things you don’t know about an opportunity. It also helps you bring out the strengths, the things you do know about an opportunity, and what you have to do to be successful.”
Over the next year, Siemens Healthineers plans to continue implementing Strategic Selling® with Perspective and LAMP®, training sellers and sales leaders, and measuring their results. Later, it will roll out the solution across the organization, bringing customer experience and customer success into the fold.
"This is a big lift, but adoption is growing every day."
More consistent language aligned to the customer journey
To successfully transform the sales process, the company had to overcome several challenges. First, it needed to drive alignment across the buying process. Although the customer accounts were often the same, the two business areas worked separately, with sellers using four or more different selling methodologies. That meant that few sellers spoke the same language, even when they were selling to the same market.
Next, the appetite for change differed between the two teams. One recognized the need for more consistency; the other preferred to maintain the status quo.
Finally, the company had recently developed a new CRM system using Oracle, and sales leaders didn’t want to run multiple sales platforms just to layer in the sales methodology.
"The company
had to overcome several challenges."
Better collaboration facilitated by easy-to-use digital tools
Stronger insights into potential
sales opportunities
Deeper customer relationships
Stronger insights into potential sales opportunities.
"It was about moving forward, accelerating performance, and improving and growing the business."
82
NPS scores jumped to
52%
First Call Resolution rates rose from 29% to
95%
Service quality scores increased from 88% to
98%
Annual Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) between 96% and
381%
Increased revenue from closed-won opportunities by
475%
Increased the number of sales opportunities identified and closed by
The return on investment
Partnering with Korn Ferry
Siemens Healthineers has always been a technology-driven organization. But with a rapidly changing market and buying process, the company recognized that it needed a high-velocity, customer centric process that empowered its sales teams.
Though it was a market leader in nearly every category, the company needed to prepare for the future. As Terry Coutsolioutsos, the company’s Senior Vice President, Sales Operations, Marketing, and Communications, says, “It was about moving forward, accelerating performance, and improving and growing the business. We had to remind the team that what got us here wasn’t going to help drive us toward the future.”
"It was about moving forward, accelerating performance, and improving and growing the business."
"The company
had to overcome several challenges."
Six months in, the digital sales transformation is still ongoing. “This is a big lift, but adoption is growing every day,” says Coutsolioutsos. “The integrated solution is forcing people to use our CRM in ways they didn’t before. We’re doing things differently, and it’s helping us have conversations about what support our sellers need to be successful with our customers.”
With multiple business areas in the enterprise, there might be 15 to 20 Heathineers in a hospital at once. Now, Coutsolioutsos says, “They’re acting more as one company. They’re following a similar methodology and using a common language, so everyone has a better understanding of each other.”
This common language makes it easier for sellers and sales managers to collaborate and communicate internally about their customers, particularly on key accounts. “When working on challenging deals, more people are involved to solve customer issues, because they can share information readily on the digital platform,” says Coutsolioutsos. “In turn, sellers are able to ask better questions, identify gaps in the deal, and offer more complete solutions.”
