Is a focus on productivity more important in a difficult economic climate?
Productivity is always my top priority. That has not changed. But today’s climate is certainly sharpening the focus. In a more robust environment, everyone tends to enjoy the results. But a down market really forces you to focus on the inputs. Demand generation is tougher for everyone in this market. At the same time, we need to do more with fewer resources. That means we have to optimize what we have to work with and correct where we are suboptimized. And the only way to optimize is by intensely measuring and managing productivity. How do you define sales force productivity? We measure and manage productivity in three buckets—coverage, demand generation, and sales execution. In terms of coverage, we look at the ability of our selling teams and channels to get into every account and every market in their addressable universe. This is definitely my first priority. I want to make sure that our selling teams leverage all of their resources, including partners and other sales constituents.
