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‘Miller Heiman provides holistic solutions on sales and marketing’ — Spears
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What is the background of Miller Heiman?
Miller Heiman has a global presence in about 23 countries and currently the only African country where it has operations is South Africa. We provide complete solution to company problems. Worldwide, we have very large clients. Our name is not unusual. The clients take our services to their working environment and we become part of their operations.
Miller Heiman and its sales systems actually work across many sectors. We work in finance, banking and insurance, pharmaceutical, engineering, etc. For example, Pepsi and Coca-Cola use Miller Heiman services in their sales. We are not particular to any industry; what we do is applicable to anyone using business-to-business (B2B). One of the things we have seen in Nigeria is the market potential and with the partnership with Profiliant Development Resources, we believe can understudy the market better.
How are you able to assess company’s performance?
The actual measurement of an improvement is to know the environment, measure the average staff with their productivity and how well the organisation is considered in the market place. When we come into any organisation, we expect our measures to be there and if they are not, we recommend them. This involves us diagnosing the situation and then prescribing the necessary actions to align objectives and build commitment for optimal channel partner relationships.
What do you set out to achieve with your training module?
Our training programme is designed to put people on a higher pedestal. If everybody is on the same level, then you have no differentiation. And if you want to differentiate yourself in the market, you need the professional skills of people to move on. It is about getting upgraded. It revolves around what to do with customers that is, create opportunities, manage relationships and opportunities.
Why the training in Nigeria?
What we do is to give lectures on our research. It is our Nigerian affiliate that gives the local cultural context. I don’t know what Nigeria economy looks like, but I know selling, the way people can manage their accounts.
From the research we have done, we discovered that what is important is to give our clients the spirit and Profiliant Development Resources adds the local colour into it. For example, In China and Japan, it is almost unheard of or impossible to talk to a senior person in an organisation. So you need someone who understands the Japanese mentality to transfer the message in Japan. We need exactly the same thing in Nigeria. That is why Profiliant organised the talk.
The time we worked with South African Telecoms, we were able to significantly change the way customers perceives them. They were able to hold on to their market share. We also improve the sale forecasting of Gotech, a German manufacturing company. They attributed their 70-80 percent improvement on their sales to Miller Heiman.
When you talk about sales force performance, what do you mean?
One thing that any organisation has is the asset of its people. Those people need to be working as effectively as possible. So what we do is to either look at how these people are positioned perhaps in the right job. We also look at what they do and how they do it. Does the organisation have a good prospect order? Is it finding the right opportunity?
We also look at how people do their jobs in terms of making sure that they are talking to the right people about their decisions or they are making interface between two organisations. It is about looking at the number of people around you in terms of how they are spending their time. Are they closing as many deals as possible? And if you are going to lose, it is better to lose quickly. Don’t hang around because you want to be on to the next opportunity.
I have learnt how the customers say yes to what is not good for them. All our reading materials are available in the universities. In fact, we provide our books free of charge in many countries and they are being used for MBA programmes. As your transaction improves so you are going to find people who will take your business away from you if you can’t handle it. That is why you need to watch out for organisations that can poach you. We are a world-class company with a world-class product.
I have some experiences in telecoms. What most companies find is the group rate. Voice is a wonderful tool to get presence in the market, but data is the one that can actually bring the revenue. And data is business-to-business sale. One thing that everybody recognises is, if you compete on price or in a commodity then you are going to suffer badly. So you have to differentiate your company.
You can get the commodity differentiation through the price delivery. The more an individual knows about the customer he is working with, the more he knows about the business modules better and succeed in sales. The most important thing is to know the business environment, understand whether it could be sold, how it is going to be sold and what the consumer will gain from it.
How is your programme of talents recruitment /retention?
At Miller Heiman, we have means through which we analyse what the best people are doing. What they are doing better and what makes them the best. We recruit the best people who are going to be effective in the organisation and we position tools to make them reach the standard.
How do you evaluate the Nigerian economy?
If you talk to a layman in the UK, for example, he will view Nigeria as a bondage economy with less honest people. And one of the great things that are happening at the moment is the initiative of the government. You can see that more companies are coming into Nigeria. A lot of local businessmen today have been very worried about what the future will hold in competing effectively with other larger organisations.
As Nigeria’s economy improves, the government should involve more world players. The reason is that the George Bush economy becomes less relevant when you deal with larger organisations. Importantly, we see Nigeria as a gateway to Africa. The rest of Africa will follow where Nigeria and South Africa have been. We have a lot of customers in the middle Africa but Nigeria is the leader of West Africa. With Nigeria, we can actually get the coverage we would like to make.
Miller Heiman has a global presence in about 23 countries and currently the only African country where it has operations is South Africa. We provide complete solution to company problems. Worldwide, we have very large clients. Our name is not unusual. The clients take our services to their working environment and we become part of their operations.
Miller Heiman and its sales systems actually work across many sectors. We work in finance, banking and insurance, pharmaceutical, engineering, etc. For example, Pepsi and Coca-Cola use Miller Heiman services in their sales. We are not particular to any industry; what we do is applicable to anyone using business-to-business (B2B). One of the things we have seen in Nigeria is the market potential and with the partnership with Profiliant Development Resources, we believe can understudy the market better.
How are you able to assess company’s performance?
The actual measurement of an improvement is to know the environment, measure the average staff with their productivity and how well the organisation is considered in the market place. When we come into any organisation, we expect our measures to be there and if they are not, we recommend them. This involves us diagnosing the situation and then prescribing the necessary actions to align objectives and build commitment for optimal channel partner relationships.
What do you set out to achieve with your training module?
Our training programme is designed to put people on a higher pedestal. If everybody is on the same level, then you have no differentiation. And if you want to differentiate yourself in the market, you need the professional skills of people to move on. It is about getting upgraded. It revolves around what to do with customers that is, create opportunities, manage relationships and opportunities.
Why the training in Nigeria?
What we do is to give lectures on our research. It is our Nigerian affiliate that gives the local cultural context. I don’t know what Nigeria economy looks like, but I know selling, the way people can manage their accounts.
From the research we have done, we discovered that what is important is to give our clients the spirit and Profiliant Development Resources adds the local colour into it. For example, In China and Japan, it is almost unheard of or impossible to talk to a senior person in an organisation. So you need someone who understands the Japanese mentality to transfer the message in Japan. We need exactly the same thing in Nigeria. That is why Profiliant organised the talk.
The time we worked with South African Telecoms, we were able to significantly change the way customers perceives them. They were able to hold on to their market share. We also improve the sale forecasting of Gotech, a German manufacturing company. They attributed their 70-80 percent improvement on their sales to Miller Heiman.
When you talk about sales force performance, what do you mean?
One thing that any organisation has is the asset of its people. Those people need to be working as effectively as possible. So what we do is to either look at how these people are positioned perhaps in the right job. We also look at what they do and how they do it. Does the organisation have a good prospect order? Is it finding the right opportunity?
We also look at how people do their jobs in terms of making sure that they are talking to the right people about their decisions or they are making interface between two organisations. It is about looking at the number of people around you in terms of how they are spending their time. Are they closing as many deals as possible? And if you are going to lose, it is better to lose quickly. Don’t hang around because you want to be on to the next opportunity.
I have learnt how the customers say yes to what is not good for them. All our reading materials are available in the universities. In fact, we provide our books free of charge in many countries and they are being used for MBA programmes. As your transaction improves so you are going to find people who will take your business away from you if you can’t handle it. That is why you need to watch out for organisations that can poach you. We are a world-class company with a world-class product.
I have some experiences in telecoms. What most companies find is the group rate. Voice is a wonderful tool to get presence in the market, but data is the one that can actually bring the revenue. And data is business-to-business sale. One thing that everybody recognises is, if you compete on price or in a commodity then you are going to suffer badly. So you have to differentiate your company.
You can get the commodity differentiation through the price delivery. The more an individual knows about the customer he is working with, the more he knows about the business modules better and succeed in sales. The most important thing is to know the business environment, understand whether it could be sold, how it is going to be sold and what the consumer will gain from it.
How is your programme of talents recruitment /retention?
At Miller Heiman, we have means through which we analyse what the best people are doing. What they are doing better and what makes them the best. We recruit the best people who are going to be effective in the organisation and we position tools to make them reach the standard.
How do you evaluate the Nigerian economy?
If you talk to a layman in the UK, for example, he will view Nigeria as a bondage economy with less honest people. And one of the great things that are happening at the moment is the initiative of the government. You can see that more companies are coming into Nigeria. A lot of local businessmen today have been very worried about what the future will hold in competing effectively with other larger organisations.
As Nigeria’s economy improves, the government should involve more world players. The reason is that the George Bush economy becomes less relevant when you deal with larger organisations. Importantly, we see Nigeria as a gateway to Africa. The rest of Africa will follow where Nigeria and South Africa have been. We have a lot of customers in the middle Africa but Nigeria is the leader of West Africa. With Nigeria, we can actually get the coverage we would like to make.
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