(acoustic guitar melody) - [voiceover] welcometo the sbi podcast. offering ceo's, salesand marketing leaders ideas to make the number. (upbeat music) - good morning, good afternoon,good evening everybody. this is gregalexander, ceo of sbi, a b2b sales and marketingconsulting company, dedicated to helpingyou make your number.
you're listening to theweekly sbi podcast series. and today i'm joinedby jim wetekamp, who is the ceo ofbravo solution. a leading provider ofsoftware and services, that help procurementprofessionals, in the areas of spendanalysis, sourcing, supplier performance management, and a few otherprocurement-related processes. bravo is differentiated,because it has
over 65,000 procurementprofessionals in 70 differentcountries, leveraging it's technology and services. which gives the companyunmatched domain expertise. jim has over 20 yearsof business experience. all in the procurement/supplychain area, highlighted with a 15year run at vertical net, which is now a partof bravo solution. during his tenure,jim spent time leading
product management,software development, finance, and general management. he's very well-rounded. and he received his educationfrom indiana university. jim, welcome to the show. - [jim] thank you. - ok i just read thatat the end of 2014, you guys reported your14th consecutive year of revenue growth.
is that true? - had a pretty good yearof growth, year over year. a lot of that comingfrom a business that's quiteglobally diversified. so as you mentioned, it'sgot quite a large scale. about 25% of ourrevenue coming from the americas, and75% coming from europe and rest of world. - 14 years in a row of growth?
even a little bit of growthis pretty impressive. that's a consistenttrack record. what i find really fascinating, we think 14 years ago to today, it was a tough timeto make that happen. we had the dot-com crash,we had a severe recession, we went througha couple of wars, and yet you continued to grow. so, how did you do it?
- [jim] you know i thinkthat bravo solution has proven to be an organization that's been agile towhat the market needs. so one of the key strengthsof our business has been the individuals leading it inall of the different markets, and the folks on theground, operating from a commercial standpointapt to what their different marketsneeded in terms of procurement solution provider.
over that 15 yearperiod, that's been in some markets beingmore consultative, or services orientented,and in other markets, being more technology driven. and being able to adaptto the different demands in the market over that period. the one thing that'sbeen consistent through that economicperiod has been the need of the requirementfor a solution provider
that'll put savingson the table. what's changed overthat period of time has been capital budgetsversus operating budgets, the need to be morecreative around how you drive savingsand potentially tie yourself into thesuccess of that savings, or how creative you canbe with a business case to get the solutionoff the ground. - yeah. ok.
you know i wasexcited to have you on the podcast todayfor this reason. when i was looking at your bio in preparationfor the interview, i cited your historicalcareer, history. at least how youhave it represented on your linkedinprofile, and what it says on your company website. and it cites product management,software development,
finance and general management. what it didn't cite,was head of sales, vp of sales, or chiefmarketing officer. i just wanted tomake sure before i go in to my nextline of questions, because that's distinctiveand i want to probe on that. you're a ceo who put 14 yearsof revenue growth together. your company's strong. 14 years of revenuegrowth, back to back,
and yet it's led by aceo who, traditionally, didn't come up throughsales and marketing. which is very unique,and i'm curious as to how that happened. so before i leap there,is that a true statement? have you ever beenthe head of sales or the head of marketing? - [jim] i've neverbeen the head of sales. for a brief period oftime in vertical net,
i was head of marketing. when you look at thattrajectory of growth for the company andhow we moved along, and again, certainly onthe backs, for the effort of the combined teamthat's been a part of this organization since2000, when it was founded. when you look atthe timeline of that progression and whatwe're seeking to do here, bravo solutions hashistorically been a business
that when you look back in time, was isolated a little bit in its impact from focused, and additionally abusiness that has traditionally beena little bit more professional services orientedthat it had been technology. it's been a balance it's beenmaintained just above 50%. what we're seeking todo now, and where we're focusing our businessfrom a growth standpoint,
is to grow thattechnology aspect, and really look to,again, see the shift or a change in the market. it's becoming moreself-serviced. it's becoming moredemanding of easy-to-buy, easy-to-implementsolutions, and really look to now push that growthmore on the technology side. so my role cominginto ceo last year, the background that ihave on the product side.
so in the areas ofproduct management and solution strategyserved well in that aspect of the next elementof transformation. - ok, got it. you know we have a lot oflisteners to our podcast. people that consumeall our content, that are ceo's of companies of similar size asbravo solutions, especially in thetechnology industry.
and many of them,many of those ceo's are trying to grow likeyou're trying to grow. they have a very similarbackground that you have. thus they're drawn toa sales and marketing consultancy like sbi. it makes sense. they're augmenting their own expertiseand leadership skills. with some specialtyexpertise, externally. the reason why i wantto probe on this,
is because your leadership,either at the functional level, or now at the ceo level hascontributed to this growth. and without this laser focusedon sales and marketing, which means you'regrowing through an integrated strategy. there's a product strategy. there's a services strategy. there's a finance strategy. you mentioned in yourintro when i asked you
how your company wasso successful so long, you specifically said it. the team, the keyleaders, the regions. so there's obviously a wellthought out talent strategy. so this is the area ireally wanted to probe on. and i wanted to get yourperspective on this. we just did a really quickback-of-the-envelope study, and we looked at thebiographies of the ceo's and the fortune 100.
now granted, verysmall sample size, but we were just tryingto do some quick math. and only two of theceos in that sample became ceos directly fromthe the sales leaders chair. one just recently got announced. chuck robins at cisco systems. the other, mark herd at oracle. everybody else eithercame from finance, general management,or engineering.
it was surprising tome that so few ceos rose up throughsales, and even fewer have rose up through marketing. why do you think that is? - [jim] i don't knowthat i've done enough analysis on thesubject to be able to answer that from aglobal standpoint. what i can say is thatmy experience in working with sales leadersfrom different
organizations is thatyou definitely have a dna makeup thatorients a lot of those individuals towards a very focused and strategic elementof the business. and those areindividuals that are hugely goal and objectiveand number oriented. they're very verymuch about delivering to the commitment thatthey have oriented
towards the businessas far as what the expectations are for growth and how they'regoing to achieve it. and that's just a particularmakeup of somebody of commonly into thatsales/leadership standpoint. it's not always the case. i think that thosesame individuals are motivated to be ina position that requires more operationaloversight, more general
management oversight, morefinance oversight, or hr. it's better. i guess the equivalentthat i'll use for that is, folks that i've seen, thegeneral manager aspects. i think some taketo it and enjoy it, and like that increaseddiversity of experience. and others don't, and preferto be at the tip of the spear. oriented towards thegrowth of the business. interaction with the customers,
the accumulation ofthe commercial side. so i think it's lessaround the competencies and capabilitiesof those people. because when you lookat sales leaders, and many of them iknow, that ones that i've had the benefitof working with. the most senior salesleaders that i've worked with in thepast, i wouldn't see any reservation in working
in a company wherethey were ceo. i think it more hasto do with the desire of what motivates them to get up in the morning and whatthey want to do every day. so that's myobservation, but again i haven't done a lot ofanalysis on that subject so. - and that's all i wanted,was your observation. i certainly wasn'texpecting you to do any analysis, andi didn't give you
any other questionsahead of time. it's an interestingthought though. i hadn't considered that. here i am thinking that,maybe just the people that hire ceos,boards and investors, maybe they think there'ssomething lacking in the competency,but you gave me a different perspective,which is the other way. maybe sales leaders enjoybeing sales leaders,
and they don't want totake the job as ceos, so that's interesting. we're gonna take ashort break here. when we come backfrom the break, we're gonna kick aroundsome practical ways to get these two differentpeople, these ceos who didn't rise throughthe sales ranks, and classic sales leaders,to get them on the same page of what we call strategicalignment and pursuit
of this top line revenue growth. so stick around after the break. if you're enjoying this podcast, you're gonna love sbi tv. and this is our monthlytelevision program. you might not befamiliar with it, so here's someinformation on sbi tv. (rock music) - you are watching sbi tv.
this is a monthly web tv show, featuring guests just like you. executives trying togrow their revenues. each month, you canpeak behind the scenes, and watch your peersdiscuss their strategies for how they make their numbers. you are not going towant to miss this. - ok, welcome back everybody. before the break, jim and i were
discussing how the ceoand the sales leader can get on the same pageof strategic alignment. in going after topline revenue growth. and i'm gonna use asimple framework here to shape our discussion today. and the key here isgetting the ceo strategy, and the sales strategy together. so for the purposeof our very short interview today, let me justlay some things out there.
you know in a classicsense, strategic planning. and many of arelisteners are heading into the strategicplanning process right now. you have thissequential process. and i'm not suggesting thisis the right way to do it, but this is one ofthe textbooks, so tospeak, the theory. we start with some marketresearch that says: understanding of the marketsthat we're gonna compete in. that progresses to acorporate strategy,
which is a resourceallocation effort. we're gonna allocatepeople money and time in the following ways. that usually progressesto a product strategy which says: theseare our products that our customers are gonna buy, because here aretheir set of problems. that progresses to amarketing strategy. says here we're gonna drivedemand for these products,
which leads to a salesstrategy which says here's how we're gonna convertthat demand into revenue. and then of course, underlyingat that is a talent strategy, which says here's howwe're gonna build a team capable of thoseprevious five steps. so as we can see with this. granted, overlysimplified explanation. there sits a lot between theceo and the sales leader. there's marketresearch that maybe
the sales leaderisn't looking at. there's a wholecorporate strategy which is a massivething in and of itself. there's product strategy,which he might not be classically trained on, aswell as marketing strategy. so jim let me turn my attention and ask you someunfair questions. but your observationswould be very helpful. especially thinking of itfrom the ceo's perspective.
so how should a ceodrive the output of market research,specifically? and i'll get to the otheritems here in a moment. into the creationof a sales strategy? how do we make surethe sales leader is being outwardin'd, so to speak. - [jim] well i guessi'll relate it to how we do it at bravo solutions. it has a little bit froma different direction.
so certainly from my standpoint, i'm standing backwards andbehind the corporate strategy. in working acrossthe major functions of our corporatestrategy, our marketing and our salesleadership to devise and orchestrate that. and really it's the salesleader's responsibility and accountability to take that, map that against theirexperience with the market.
develop that into themarket penetration plan and the sales strategy. how that rolls out acrossour different markets. so that's reallythe sales leader, at bravo solutions anyway. the sales leader's responseto the corporate strategy, is looking at thatintegrated view of, this is the problemwe're seeking to solve. this is the solution we'veput on the table to solve it.
these are the keydifferentiated aspects of it. there was a certain evolution of a market view thatbuilt to that. now as i survey theareas of opportunity across that market,how do i segment that, attack it, and reallylook to see to get that solution outinto that market? and then it becomesa cyclical approach of re-evaluating theresponse the markets had
to the solution, howdoes that then in turn, turn around to influencecorporate strategy, product strategy, et cetera. but really, the salesleadership at bravo solution is taking that element froma strategic standpoint, versus just responding to a sheet of paperthat's been handed. - yeah, ok. well, that's encouraging.
that you encourageyour sales leader to take it from there, anddrive it into his plan. very often we see theopposite happening. the sales leadergets the corporate strategy from theceo, and his or her response is: "thenumbers you have in here "are based onfaulty assumptions, "and i can't hit this." "so next time you developa corporate strategy
"boss, make sure i'mpart of the process, "cause this thinghas no chance." so what do you say to that? - [jim] our orientationof the three year plan, that we have, and howwe keep that rolling, is something that wasbuilt collaboratively. - ok. - [jim] across corporatestrategy, sales, and marketing together.
as we orchestratedthat, there were puts and takes as we developedthat three year plan. our sales leadership issitting around the table and acknowledgingall the elements of that as we devise it. - ok, very good. so there's a longrange plan, not just the annual plan. and the sales leadersare a key member
of the team thatcreates that plan. if i heard you correctly. - [jim] yep. - ok, great. the next thing,obviously is part of that long range plan, which is great that we just stumbled into that, is the product strategy. so there's a set of assumptionsagain regarding that.
the product roadmapis the output of that. a release schedule,a launch schedule. and it's the salesleader's responsibility to drive those productsinto the market, and make sure that theassumptions in that plan, particularly marketshare, and revenue by product line,etcetera, is obtained. i'm assuming based onyour previous answer, that the salesleader is involved
in setting product strategy. is that correct? - [jim] yeah, definitely. from a strategicleader standpoint, that product strategyis put on the table for sales leadership. and open for feedbackand influence certainly around the standpoint, isthat of product strategy or product roadmapthat's going to serve
the sales plan, orthe growth plan, that the sales functionis accountable for. so there's aninfluence aspect that's quite heavy from the sales side, along with the influencethat's coming from customer market, andour corporate strategy. we're going to take aquick break right now. when we come back,we're gonna pivot a little bit towards marketing.
which will be aninteresting conversation based on how this has gone. what we're learning frombravo solution today, specifically jim, fromthe seat of the ceo, is how collaborativethe process needs to be, and how involved people arein the long range planning. which is somewhat unique. if you like hearingdirectly from ceos like jim, you may want to subscribeto the sbi magazine.
we feature articleson ceo best practices. they tell you what they're doingto try and make the number. so if this the type ofcontent that you enjoy, but you want to putsomething in your briefcase when you'regetting on a plane, subscribe to the magazine. here's some moreinformation on that. - [voiceover] makingyour number is hard. your problems are complex.
complex problems needcomplex solutions. introducing the sbi magazine. read in-depth stories writtenby award-winning journalists, about how yourpeers have overcome their problems tomake the numbers. when you need more than a tweet, social post or blog article,turn to the sbi magazine. go to salesbenchmarkindex.comto subscribe. - welcome back everybody.
before the break, jimand i were speaking about the three year,long range planning, and how the functionalgroups are integrating their activities underjim's leadership. to make sure that we'reresponding to the market in the most agile way we can. and this was a key contributor, to their long, successfultrack record here, in being responsiveto the market's needs.
and up to this point,we've been talking about the relationship between theceo and the sales leader, which was very productive. and then we just gotinto the conversation between the product leaderand the sales leader. which was really interesting. that, there's reallyno king there. it's two peopleworking together in pursuit of a common goal.
and that is very rare. we normally see an organization fall into one or two categories. one is the productleader is the king, and he tells the sales leader: "these are the greatestproducts in the world, "and if you can't sellthem, you're an idiot." and the other side of itis, the sales leader says: "i'm the greatest salesperson you've ever seen,
"and your productsaren't very good." the fact that your twoguys are working together, your team is working together,is really insightful. let's inject marketinginto the equation now. their job is to drive demand. in your market, specifically whatit is your doing, what's the relativeimportance of marketing? maybe relative toproduct and sales?
is it like what we're seeingin a lot of other b2b worlds? where it maybewasn't as relevant in comparison to aconsumer based business, but it's relevancyis on the rise today? - [jim] i woulddefinitely equate it to something that's ofgrowing importance. to put a little context, to bravo solutions from aglobal marketing standpoint, that's a relativelynew function for us.
so when i talkedabout the growth over the past 14 years,those have really been growth stories thathave been con-- basis and what you ended up withwas the bravo solutions, that wasn't one bravo solutions, but it was really twelve. from a marketingand go-to-marketpresence standpoint. over the past 10months, we've been on a journey to makethat one consistent
global brand and message. and really take the thought that we're better togetherthan we are apart. how can we takethe best elements of bravo solutions andput them on the table? consistently, globally, tohelp accelerate our growth? and the marketingfunction has been a huge enabler around that. pulling together thatmessage and that brand.
getting a concise promiseto the customer developed. and then taking thatinto an execution plan on how we can carryout that go-to-market messaging on a marketby market basis. so something thatwe weren't doing on a global basis thissame time 12 months ago, is something that we definitelyare putting a lot of now, in terms of globalmarketing, product marketing. that integration ofproduct marketing
into product strategy,r&d and sales. so it's a huge focusfor us right now. - so what drove it? a year ago you weren't doingit, now you're doing it. you realize that onebravo being driven consistently into allthese different parts of the world thatyou're competing in was an advantage for you. so what happened in the market
that made that a priority? - [jim] i thinkthat our customer is getting increasingly global. our competition is gettingincreasingly global. and we ourselves,despite ourselves, were getting more integratedon a global basis. as you start workingwhere these different markets need to startcollaborating on things like global account strategy,or playbooks against
common competitors,or a consistent brand to market analysts, and how that gets evaluated by global 1,000companies, et cetera. just kept getting tothe part where our investments in local marketing activities weren't beingleveraged on a global basis. so we had a lot of inefficiency. an additionallythat inconsistency
we thought, was slowing ourprogression in the market, and negatively impacting us. so we decided to make a change. - interesting. the way that thebuyers were engaging in the responsesthat were coming from your competitors,drove the new strategy. which is anotherprove-point that you guys are doing a great job.
listening to the market. and that's one ofthe reasons why you've done so well oversuch a long time period. some of my client base, whichmight be listening today, they're rejecting this concept. they're saying in the b2b world, marketing's reallynot that important. branding for example,is not that important. consistent messaging.
i'd rather havehighly customized regional group of people, versus consistency across geos. and they're resisting this. and they're saying that "mybuyer isn't changing as much." sometimes we getengaged to evaluate. if that's true or not. and when the findings come backthat says that's inaccurate, the buyer is changing,and you need to do
what you've already done. they're resistingbecause they don't think the organizationwill receive it well. so you're abouta year into this. how has bravo solutions receivedthe new marketing approach? - [jim] well i think we'restill quite young in the stages, but i think the reactionhas been positive. so as far as that kindof comparison you made, i think for bravo solutionsit's about achieving a balance.
already extremely strongin the individual markets, but certainly missing so acrossthat from a global basis. that this global marketing focus we think will make our message more focused andmore consistent. and add consistencyto that other element of the transformationthat i mentioned earlier on in the discussion. around a shift from to more of
a technology base inthe profile of our solution in the market. so marketing is gonna bea key element behind that. we're providing valuefrom the standpoint of the customer base. i don't think from acustomer standpoint really looks and evaluates you purely based upon the marketing, but it is certainlyan important element
around how you'redeveloping prospects and moving themalong the process. it's how you're gettingnoticed in the first place. once our folks are in the room, and once those individualmarkets are operating, with potential clients,our team and certainly what we're learning overthese past ten months is that marketingcan be a huge enabler to increasing the pipeline.
getting attention of themarket, and having them better prepared toreceive the message we want to put on the tableonce they're in the room. - yeah. and that's a greatway to summarize it. marketing can helpthem get in the room, but once their in the room,they gotta take over from there. and that's a reallyinteresting way to look at it. when your companymade a decision
to shift more towards products, and less towards services, as that balancechanged a little bit. did that cause you rethinkthe marketing strategy, or was that an eventthat was independent of what we just talkedabout, regarding marketing? - [jim] it certainlyplayed a role in it. professional servicesand consulting sale is very much, you're selling
the person on thetable in front of you. the summation oftheir experience was their role andtheir contribution in the team that you seein the room around you. and the focus that we have is certainly one that bravosolutions will continue to have. a strong differentiation,and the expertise and the people on the team. and that'll be important thing
about what we wanted to do. but we wanted toincrease in proportion the technologyaspect of what we do. that's more aroundthe positioning and robustness ofthe technology. what are it's capabilities? how does it drive valuein an organization? that's somethingthat's more consistent on a global basisthan something that is
from an impact standpoint is talking at a more senior level of the organization often times. so marketing was a hugeconsideration in that shift. to be able to drive thatconsistency of messaging, and be able to drivemarketing campaigns and programs that wouldget us in the door to the right personat the right time. so for thoselistening out there,
if you're in theprocess of shifting your balance fromservices to product, even a little or a lot. that should be themoment that you pause and say "hey, what does thisdo to my marketing strategy?" and take the lead here from jim. my compliments toyour marketing team. when i was preparingfor this interview, i went out to your websiteand some social media
websites to try and understand you guys as much as i could. and the messagingwas super crisp. i understand who youwere, what you did, who you did it for andhow you were different, in less than five minutes. so please send mycongrats to your teams that crafted that messaging. - [jim] great.
thank you, i appreciate it. - alright, we're gonnatake one more break. when we come back,i'm gonna ask jim to summarize whatwe spoke today. there's some action items youcan get working on right away. if you enjoy this interview, you should subscribeto our blog. each day we publisha best practice that can be read inunder five minutes
right off your mobile device. what we're doing todayis a 30 minute interview. it's called long form content. if you prefer yourcontent in more digestible chunks,the blog is for you. so here's how to get somemore information on the blog. - [voiceover] each day, youreceive hundreds of e-mails. tons of text messages. countless telephone calls.
and sit in too many meetings. how do you find ideasto make the number with all this noise? the sbi blog filters allthis nonsense for you, and presents only first-rateideas to make the number. simplify your life. subscribe to one blog,and read the best content. go to salesbenchmarkindex.comand subscribe today. - ok welcome back everybody,
this is gregalexander, ceo of sbi, and i'm joined todayby jim wetekamp, ceo of bravo solutions. we've been talkingabout ceo strategy and cascading andintegrating with all the differentfunctional strategies as we get right ahead into 2016. and we learned a lot. that's the problem.
we learned too much. so let's try to turn this intosome action items if we can. we're running out of time here, so jim i'm gonna ask youto bring this home for us. if you would speakdirectly to the audience and maybe give themtwo or three things that they can do immediatelyfollowing this show, from the ceo's perspective. try to set themselvesup for next year
as it relates to creatingthat annual strategic plan. what would those twoor three things be? - [jim] as we lookat the plan for us, and again it's specificin our context, a lot of our plan for thenext two or three years is oriented withthis change in focus, or a bit of this transformation. so what we did inorder to get ourselves firm on the plan and how wewere going to achieve it is
we spent some timeand established a specific function or aprogram management office. the fact that a lot ofthings we were doing were asking us to changeinternally and externally and we needed to have achange management plan oriented with how wecommunicated internally on why change and why now. so when you think about, and you've mentioned in severaltimes, 14 years of growth.
it might ask you, withinthe organization or outside, why are we doingthis and why now? to make some ofthese modifications. so that's an importantquestion that you've gotta make sure you're answering along the way to all the folksthat are with you every day. so that they're alignedand understand the strategy and why we're changing. that they're gettingcommunicated to
in the right intervals andat the right level of detail. that was a hugeaspect of what we did. and it's that samevehicle that we're using to keep strategyaligned with sales, aligned with marketing,so that we're all headed in the same direction. so for those in theaudience that might not be familiar with apmo, can you just briefly describe what that is?
- [jim] sure. it's a process wherewe've basically taken all the strategicinitiatives that we think are key to the achievementof the three year plan. and we've as a management team, assessed them from a risk, a change, and afinancial context. as far as what thebudget is gonna impact, what we think it's gonnahave on the end result.
we use that to prioritizethose activities. and then we're usingthat same vehicle to keep ourselves accountable onthe timelines to achieve it. so all these aspectsthat we're talking about. introducing globalmarketing where there wasn't global marketing before. driving a shift oran increased focus on technology whileat the same time maintaining our past successes.
all these things need to be done in a way that are clear,communicated well, and managed in atransparent way, so all the folks have a senseof what's happening and why. and that projectmanagement office is a steering commitee,and a set of activities around accountabilityand communication associated withthose initiatives. - excellent.
appreciate the definition. i'm a big believer in it myself, but i wanted them to hearthat directly from you. ok, i'm gonnadirect audiences to two helpful resources. first is sbi's annualresearch report. this is titled "how tomake your number in 2016." which just came out. and in it, you'll find waysto make your number next year,
and lots of tools and processes and exercises to putyourself through. so if you want a copy of that, go tosalesbenchmarkindex.com/2016-re. 2016-report. the next thing i wouldpoint you to is that if you read this report,and you need some help getting yourself throughit and doing the exercises and maybe gettingyour peers together
to think through these things, we've built a half-day workshop. where one of ourexperts can come on site and help you through that. so if you want toschedule a workshop with one of our strategists, salesbenchmarkindex.com/2016-workshop. so jim, in behalf ofeveryone who is listening in my firm, i want to thank you
for giving us yourtime and discussing this tricky challenge thatwe talked about today. you guys are doing alot of the right things and you're a goodmodel for us to follow so thanks for giving usunselfishly of your time. - [jim] thanks alot forhaving me, i enjoyed it. and to my audience,thanks for tuning in. i wish you muchcontinued success as you try to make your number.
take care. - [voiceover] this hasbeen the sbi podcast. for more informationon sbi services, case studies, the sbiteam and how we work, or to subscribe toour other offerings, please visit us atsalesbenchmarkindex.com.
