January 18, 2011 – The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service have announced the 2011 finalists for their prestigious annual awards. Ken Revenaugh is named in both categories for which he was nominated: Sales Operations Leader of the Year and Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year.(In 2010, he was a finalist for both Sales Process of the Year and Sales Coaching Program of the Year, and a winner for Sales Process of the Year.)
Revenaugh notes, “This is a tribute to the entire team at Oakwood. This has been a journey that started with a focus on listening to our customers and adapting to their rapidly changing needs. Being chosen as a finalist is yet another sign that we are doing the right things for our customers.”
Sales Operations Leader of the Year
Ken initiated a sales transformation at Oakwood Temporary Housing using a seven-stage model that included client research, segmenting customers, improving the value proposition, instituting new sales processes, determining best performer profiles and human capital requirements and adding new incentive programs and transparent metrics to drive accountability.
By early 2010, the playbook was in place, and Ken focused on driving performance and developing skills in large account management while further developing the sales force’s questioning skills.
The new playbook gave the sales team clear and concise dashboards to measure performance, which drove stronger partnerships between sales and other departments. This and other initiatives Ken led resulted in:
- Retained customers and a 14% revenue increase for strategic clients, which grew into a new large account management process used across the enterprise.
- Teaching sales reps an investigative mindset, resulting in sales closing 20% faster.
- A government-focused sales team growing at 30%+ a year.
Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year
Ken recognized the need to shift the sales mind-set to an investigative approach. He and his team created a murder mystery/detective coaching program that dramatically changed the reps’ attitude toward questioning and resulted in shorter total sales cycles and larger deal sizes. The Corporate Executive Board highlighted this program as a best practice.
To ensure that lessons from the coaching program continue, the training includes regular sales huddles with sales leadership to foster creativity. The results were significant, including:
- Managers now share a common language for orienting salespeople toward gaining a questioning mentality.
- The game changed people’s mindsets and improved their skill sets.
- The SVP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing hosts a weekly huddle that is so popular there is a waiting list.
- Since implementing the detective workshops, management has observed reps to be better prepared and to ask more thoughtful questions in sales huddles.
- Average deal size increased 50%
Stevie Award winners will be announced at the 5th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service awards banquet at the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida on Monday, February 21st.