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Case Overview for Preliminary Round 12019 ICSC Case CompetitionCASE DISCLAIMER: Please understand that this case is about a real company, Citrix. Like most companies, Citrix takes great pride in making sure that sales employees are given every tool needed to succeed so in that sense, this is a real issue for Citrix. However, the “facts” of the case are purely fictional and are used for the sole purpose of the ISCS case event.Case Introduction:The irony of the situation was not lost on Julie Brookshire. Julie was the new head of sales enablement at Citrix and she had just finished an audit of the different technologies being used by the sales force. As she was driving home, Julie thought to herself, “Citrix is at the leading edge of digital workspaces and networking solutions, but our sales team is using some outdated technologies to manage their daily sales efforts. We need to address this sooner than later.” The next day, Julie asked for a meeting with the Executive VP of Sales, Deedra Reynolds to discuss the situation. Early the next morning, Julie walked into Deedra’s office carrying Deedra’s favorite cup of coffee. Julie knew she needed Deedra in a great mood for the meeting that was about to take place. “Thanks for the coffee, so what’s on your mind Julie?” Deedra said. Deedra was never one for small talk and was known for getting straight to the point. “I want to talk to you about the possibility of updating some of the digital tools being used in the field to manage our sales processes. My sales enablement team has just finished an audit of the different tools being used by Citrix sales reps and it seems that these tools were good when we first introduced them to the field but now…well, I think we’ve actually fallen behind the times a bit when it comes to the technology being used by our sales teams. So, the reason I wanted to meet was to see how open you would be to adding some new technology tools to our current arsenal?” Julie simply paused after this opening statement to gauge Deedra’s initial reaction to the topic. Deedra was quiet for a few seconds which was pretty normal. Deedra was very analytical and it was obvious that she was thinking hard about what Julie had just said. “Hmmm. I guess I’m a little surprised by your conclusions that we need new “toys” for the sales force. I haven’t heard any complaints about the current technologies that we are using. Given how hard it was to get the sales reps to use our current tools, I’m a little hesitant to go down this road” Deedra stated. Julie responded by saying, “I get it Deedra, but some members of my sales enablement team have recently attended different sales trends conferences and we have seen some really interesting technologies that might be useful for our teams. Just like in our industry, sales effectiveness technology is moving pretty fast with a lot of new innovations hitting the market every day. From what I can tell, our last new technology introduced to the field was 5 years ago when we launched the Dynamic Presentation System (DiPS). When it comes to new technologies, 5 years is a really long time to go without introducing something new.”“Listen, you know that Citrix prides itself on being an innovative culture and so I am open to any ideas you might have. But please keep in mind that I am not going to take any proposal to the CEO without a strong business case behind it. So, I guess I’m saying ‘maybe’. The first step is for you to come back to me with some suggestions on the technologies that you think we might need to add. But realize that your ideas have to be more than just ‘shiny new objects’ that you want to launch. I’m going to need to know a list of technologies that you would suggest, why they are important for our sales team to have, an estimate of how much they are going to cost, and most importantly, I want to see an implementation plan of how you would roll the tools out to the field in a way that creates the highest chances that our sales people will actually use them. I won’t launch new tools only to have sales people use the disruption that it might cause as an excuse for not hitting their sales goals” Deedra said. Julie thanked Deedra for her time and left the meeting feeling good but realizing that she and her sales enablement team have a lot to do. Deedra said that she would like to see a presentation of ideas from the Citrix sales enablement team as soon as Julie could get something together. Specifically, Deedra said, “you know that we are setting the budget for 2020 now, so I need your ideas right away.”The Current Citrix “Sales Stack”“Sales Stack” is a common term used by sales organizations that means all of the sales technologies that are available to the sales teams to use. Despite being a technology-based company, the Citrix sales organization is fairly “old school” when it comes to sales technologies. Ten years ago, the CEO recognized that it was important for Citrix reps to have a Customer Relationship Management system. The Citrix executive committee evaluated different CRM software vendors. Ultimately, the committee decided to build its own CRM system since the company already had a supply of software programmers available to work on the project that would allow for a highly customized CRM system. This system, known as “SalesMap” was launched in 2008 and has been updated several times to SalesMap_Version 12.0. An overview of SalesMap and other Citrix sales tools is found below. SalesMap - The Citrix CRM tool currently used by the sales teams. SalesMap is fairly similar to simple CRM tools like SugarCRM or Nutshell. The basic features of SalesMap include:Basic Sales Automation – SalesMap allows reps to track where a sales opportunity is in the pipeline and allows Citrix sellers to send automated emails and marketing materials to customers based on where the customer is in his/her buying decision. It also gives Citrix sellers basic advice on how to sell to the customer based on the stage of the selling process.Pipeline Management – Citrix sellers and sales managers can see where all of their opportunities are in the pipeline, how fast or slow deals are moving through, % of wins versus losses and so on. Meeting Management – SalesMap let’s sellers enter in accounts and opportunities along with key contacts for every account. Then, the system allows sellers to enter notes from meetings with key contacts for every opportunity they are pursuing. Managers can go into the system and read meeting notes to see how certain opportunities are moving along. Currently, the meeting notes cannot be shared with anyone other than the manager that the rep reports to.Dynamic Presentation System (DiPS) – DiPS is a system that helps Citrix sales reps build tailored presentations for customers. More specifically, the reps can pick and choose key problems and challenges that a customer is facing, and the DiPS system will pull together relevant PPT slides and create a customized presentation that reps can use to pitch the Citrix products and services that will solve these challenges. It will also automatically add the customer’s logo in the right places in the presentation and it will also add in case studies from past clients in similar industries and with similar problems.Citrix Quotation Central (CQC) – This system allows reps to generate pricing proposals based on the product and service that the customer needs. Reps use the tool to select key aspects of the solution that they will be offering, how many users the customer will have, and how much customization of the Citrix products is required for the solution. Then, the system calculates the total price for the solution being offered. These pricing proposals can be emailed directly to the customer and can also be routed to managers to approve when special pricing is needed to win a deal.*It’s important to note that none of these 3 digital tools are connected to each other.A Day in the Life of a Citrix Sales RepThere’s an old saying in sales that there is no such thing as a “typical day” in sales. But with that in mind, here are a few key frequently asked questions about the Citrix sales organization. Sales reps at Citrix have two main jobs. One job is to find and close new customers that have not bought from Citrix in the past. The other is to work with customers whose subscription contract is almost up and sell these customers on renewing with Citrix. Most customers sign 2-year agreements. Once a subscription contract is signed, the customer is turned over to the Citrix Customer Success team to help with implementation of Citrix products, to train people on how to use Citrix products and to handle any support and service issues over the life of the contract. It’s up to the sales people to work with the Customer Success team to determine which customers are coming up for renewal. The Customer Success team often has a great deal of insight into the customer’s latest issues and challenges so sales reps will work closely with members of this team to put together a game plan for getting a customer to renew.How is the sales organization organized? Citrix divides its sales teams based on the size of opportunity that is being pursued. Currently there are 3 divisions that focus on different types of opportunities. Citrix sells its products on a subscription basis with pricing being determined based on # of licenses a customer needs. For example, Citrix small business division sales reps only meet with potential customers with fewer than 500 users that would be accessing Citrix software solutions. Below is a breakdown of the different divisions with # of sellers and sales managers in each division.Citrix Sales Division# of Licenses to be Sold/Deal# of Citrix Sales Reps# of Citrix Sales ManagersSmall Business< 500≈250≈30Mid-Market500-1000≈200≈40Large Enterprise> 1000≈350≈80Where do Sales Leads Come From?There are currently three sources of leads that flow into the different sales teams. One source is simply the sales people finding their own leads. Sales people in each division are encouraged to spend time researching potential new customers and reaching out to qualify prospects and to get appointments for virtual and in-person meetings. Leads are also generated by the Citrix marketing team who manages different social media campaigns, trade show and conference campaigns, advertising in industry publications, etc. Marketing’s main goal is to drive potential new customers to the website or to call a sales person directly. Marketing also has a team of lead generation specialists who will call potential customers to qualify them as prospects before handing the lead over to the field sales team. Finally, Citrix has referral programs in place with other IT solutions companies like Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, etc. When sales people from these other companies come across a company that could benefit from Citrix products, they pass the lead over to Citrix’s lead generation team to qualify the opportunity. Table 1 in the appendix shows the flow of leads through the sales pipeline. Specifically, it shows the # of leads that came from each source last year and the number of leads that agreed to a first meeting, a second meeting, a formal presentation and so on. How Does a Citrix Sales Rep Interact with Customers…Virtual vs Face-to-Face Selling?Citrix sales people meet with customers both virtually and in-person. The bigger the opportunity, the more likely that a Citrix sales person will go to the customer’s physical location for a meeting. Obviously, reps in the small business division spend almost all of their time meeting with customers over the phone and through “Go-to-Meeting” virtual meeting software. Reps from the large enterprise division spend roughly 65% of their time in face-to-face meetings and 35% meeting virtually. The mid-market team is 50% face-to-face versus 50% virtual meetings.Overview of the Citrix Sales Enablement TeamJulie’s team is known as the Citrix Sales Enablement team. The team’s job is to make sure that Citrix sales people are as effective as possible. This includes making sure that the sales teams are trained properly and that they have all of the tools and materials they need to be successful in the field. Last year, Julie wrote a mission statement for the sales enablement team that reads…“The purpose of the Citrix sales enablement team is to ensure that Citrix sellers are able to sell the right product, to the right customer, at the right time, using the right sales strategy and sales tools.”Also, Citrix the sales enablement team spent most of 2018 revamping the Citrix sales training to include multiple courses based on the sales reps’ career progression (see Table 3 and 4 in the appendix). Julie’s team is made up of Tim Kershaw who is the assistant director of the team and Julie’s main support person. The sales enablement team also has two Learning and Development (L&D) staff members who create new courses for the Citrix Online Academy where reps can go to learn about different products and to brush up on sales skills. The L&D staff also builds and refines the content for all of the live training programs highlighted in Tables 3 and 4. Julie also has four trainers on her team that run the different sales training courses and who also spend time teaching regional training sessions on special topics requested by regional sales managers. Julie has two other people who work with sales and marketing to make sure that the DiPS software tool is up-to-date and to design any new sales tools that the team needs like brochures, new PowerPoint templates, case studies, etc. Currently, there are no sales technology specialists on the team, so Julie and Tim have been spending a lot of time learning as much as they can on what sales technologies exist in the marketplace. They both attended the Sales Enablement Society’s annual conference the last two years which features a lot of great presentations by companies that sell different types of sales effectiveness software tools. Julie is also a huge fan of Nancy Nardin’s website, . Results of the Sales Stack AuditAs mentioned, Julie used January of 2019 to conduct a formal audit of the current sales technology stack in place at Citrix. During the audit, Julie and Tim conducted interviews with Citrix’s top sales people to learn more about what they thought they needed to be successful when it comes to sales technology. They also talked to top sales managers to get their view of technology at Citrix. Then, they launched a survey to the whole sales force asking for ratings of current tools. Some results of the audit are found in the Appendix below.The conclusion that Julie reached from the audit is that Citrix needs to catch-up a bit when it comes to new sales technology. The audit showed that Citrix spent roughly $1,250/rep in 2018 on updating and maintaining the sales technologies that exist today. But Julie also found a statistic that shows that in 2018, the average company in the US spent $4,581/rep on sales technology (this number includes the cost of software subscriptions, training sales people on how to use technology and the overhead associated with IT/sales enablement staff who support sales effectiveness software tools). Clearly, Julie needs to put a good proposal together that will show Deedra what is needed and will push Citrix senior leaders to allocate a bigger budget order to give the sales team the digital tools that they need.Case Appendix:Table 1. Analysis of New Contracts Signed: Pipeline Report from 2018Lead Source# of Raw Leads# of 1st Meetings# of 2nd Meetings# of Solution Presents# of Signed DealsAverage Deal SizePartner Referrals8,15344842466617160$172,000Self-Produced16,612963549141376427$110,000Marketing Generated20,2331375866042047737$191,000Total44998278781398440401324$ 157,666.67Table 2. Analysis of Renewals; 2016-2018Citrix Division2016 Up-For-Renewal2016 Renewals-Closed2017 Up-For-Renewal2017 Renewals-Closed2018 Up-For-Renewal2018 Renewals-ClosedSmall Business 14,400 9,648 15,112 9,067 18,890 10,484 Mid-Market 4,799 2,591 5,279 3,220 6,335 4,308 Large Enterprise 1,812 1,268 2,048 1,536 2,416 1,897 Table 3. Sales Rep Training ProgramSales Rep Training CoursesCourse NameDescriptionWhen?Method of DeliveryNew Hire Boot Camp (Fast Start Program)This course serves as a rep orientation to get new hires up to speed on the Citrix basics. Topics include Citrix history, Product & Customer Overviews, Competitor Background. Also covers how to handle basic administrative procedures.First week after starting at Citrix lasting 1 weekOnline Learning Course (Approx. 20 Hours); Reps Assessed by online quizzes and conference call with Sales Enablement Onboarding Leader at the end of week 1Product Deep Dive (Fast Start Program)Covers the technical aspects of Citrix products as well as the main challenges and concerns of Citrix customers.2nd week of employment with Citrix lasting about 2 weeks.Online Course (Approx. 40 hours); Reps assessed by online quizzes and in 3 different conference calls with Sales Enablement Onboarding Leader across the 40 hours of instructionBasics of Selling Citrix (Fast Start Program)Covers the fundamentals of selling as they relate to Citrix products and services. Reviews the steps in the Citrix sales process (Prospecting, Spec Development, Demo and Presentation, Contract Completion). Also covers how to use the Citrix CRM system8th week of employment lasting about 1 week.Online Course (Approx. 20 hours); Reps assessed by online quizzes.Territory Management (Fast Start Program)Covers Time and Territory management. The goal is teach reps the fundamentals of running and managing their own territory from a time management perspective. 10th week of employment lasting 3 days.Online Course (Approx. 15 hours); Reps assessed with online quizzes and by presenting a territory management plan to their local sales manager and Sales Enablement Onboarding Leader via conference call.Advanced Sales TrainingIn-depth look at successful selling at Citrix. Goes into great detail around developing technology solutions for complex customer IT problems but main emphasis is on how to deliver effective product demos and service presentationsApproximately 12-month mark of sales rep career lasting 1 week.In-person event held at Corporate HQ and taught by Sales Enablement Onboarding Leader in a class of 15-20 sales people.Advanced NegotiationThis course highlights better negotiation techniques in hopes of helping sales people increase conversion rates for customers in the contract negotiation stage of the pipeline. Reps also hear from people representing other functional roles in the company (i.e. marketing) so that reps looking to get promoted to other areas of Citrix have some insight into these opportunities.Approximately 24-month mark of sales rep career lasting 1 week.In-person event held at Corporate HQ and taught by Sales Enablement Onboarding Leader in a class of 15-20 sales people.Table 4. Sales Manager Training ProgramSales Manager Training CoursesCourse NameDescriptionWhen?Method of DeliveryNew Manager Boot Camp This course serves as a manager orientation course that helps managers understand the basic “how-to’s” of their job. Most of the content deals with all of the administrative processes that managers need to know in order to keep their regional offices functional. First week after being promoted to sales manager at Citrix lasting 1 weekOnline Learning Course (Approx. 20 Hours); Reps Assessed by online quizzes. Conference call with Divisional Vice –President to gain better clarity on the role.Leadership and Motivation Covers basic concepts related to leadership. Motivation and goal setting is a big aspect of this training course. Managers are also taught how to conduct a semi-annual performance review required by HR.6-Months after being promoted to sales manager lasting 1 week.In-person event taught at Corporate HQ by Members of the Sales Enablement TeamTable 5. Key Comments from Top-Performing Sales People/Managers About Sales TechnologyRep/Manager NameCitrix TenureComments…Ed Norton – Rep, Small Business10 yearsI wish we had better digital sales tools but we do most of our selling over the phone and Go-To-Meeting so I am not sure how helpful these tools will be for the small business teams…There’s only so much you can do over the phone with a customerJoey Depp -Rep, Small Business12 yearsDiPS is a nice tool and the one I use the most…I really like how it lays everything out for me to present to the customer. Just add some functionality to this tool and we should be good…I hate SalesMap. I think it’s just a clunky address book really.Mary Davenport -Rep, Mid-Market22 yearsSalesMap is just a tool for managers to use to tell us how we’re doing. It’s a reporting tool for managers but doesn’t really help us sell more…wish we had a way to share information with Customer Success team.Ralph Timmons – Rep, Mid-Market18 yearsI’m a tech fanatic. There are so many cool apps and tools that sales people can use to run their sales efforts. I use a lot of free apps and tools…Why not just give us access to lots of different digital tools and let us pick and choose what we want to use?Sally Struthers – Rep, Large Enterprise8 yearsI came over to Citrix from a competitor and I was shocked how little we have to help us sell. The CRM tool is ok I guess but it seems dated and clunky to use. Whatever tools you bring on, they have to be easy to use…I do like the concept of the DiPS system, just wish it could do more.Brian Williams – Rep, Large Enterprise16 yearsI think digital sales tools are overrated. We got along just fine before all these complicated technology programs came along. I know that when we launched SalesMap, most of us top-performers almost revolted over being told we had to use it…Why? We’ve been successful without it so why do we need it now? Plus, the training they gave us on how to use it was terrible…Kelly Reynolds – Manager, Mid-Market14 yearsTech is great, but it can be a real distraction for the sales force. I remember how painful it was when we rolled out SalesMap and then DiPS. Eventually the sales team got on board, but it took us managers months of beating up our teams about not using the software tools before reps started to use it…But I still think that a lot of our reps use the tools because they have to, not because they want to.Riley Jones – Manager, Large Enterprise10 yearsWhatever you do, please make sure that the systems talk to each other…It is so hard to move back and forth between tools…Reps need something that is all interconnected…Also, what about us? Managers have even fewer tools to get our jobs done. We basically use Excel for everything…would be nice if we had some manager effectiveness digital tools to use as well.2019 ICSC Case CompetitionFinal Round AddendumDeedra and the other executive leaders enjoyed your presentation and obviously thought you made a very compelling argument around the sales technology issue. That night, Deedra called Julie to congratulate her and her team on a doing such a good job. “The sales enablement team really worked hard, and the presentation was great. After your team left, the senior executives discussed your presentation and decided that you should probably present your ideas to the Citrix CEO. I called the CEO to set-up the meeting and he asked for the highlights from your initial presentation. I covered the basics with him but probably didn’t do it justice. So, you should probably review your main points with him in the meeting. However, you also need to know that he had a few concerns right out of the gate” Deedra said.Deedra went on to say, “First, he said that there is no way that we can afford to go straight to a $4,500/rep/year expense on sales technologies. He said that he would only approve $2,500 /rep for the 2020 budget and if it seems to be making a difference, then he will approve $4,000/rep for 2021. This means that you will need to make some recommendations on the highest priority expenditures for next year and then what should come later in 2021 and beyond.”“Second, he wants to know how we will know if the digital technologies are really making a difference? Citrix has been growing by 5-10% per year so simply using growth is not enough given that we are growing even with our old technologies. I think what he means is that you need to propose some very specific metrics that we should use throughout 2020 to know if the technology is making a difference. Please cover that in your presentation” Deedra continued.“Another issue he raised is why is sales enablement taking the lead on this versus the Citrix internal Information Technology (IT) team? He said ‘it seems that this is an IT issue not a sales enablement issue. Why not just make recommendations to the IT group and let them handle it after that? Help me understand the role the IT group should play here’. So, make sure you have a plan here,” Deedra passed on.Deedra closed her phone call by saying, “His fourth concern was how do we avoid being in the same place in 3-4 years from now when it comes to sales effectiveness technologies? He wants to know that your plan includes some “future-proofing” where we are protected from a crazy escalation of costs; more and more software spending in future years. His exact quote was ‘please don’t come to me saying that we need $8,000/rep/year in 2023’. Hopefully, you can also address this in your presentation.”Julie thanked Deedra for setting up the meeting and went straight to her sales enablement team to start working on refining the presentation for the meeting with the CEO…You work for Julie on the sales enablement team and your task is to refine your presentation so that you can present a summary of your initial ideas as well as address his concerns listed above. ................
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