In‭ ‬1997‭ ‬IBM formed IBM Software Group‭ ‬-‭ ‬a separate world-wide business unit that focused on building a solid market share in enterprise software market to ensure future leading position of IBM in all IT industry.‭ ‬Traditional approach to selling‭ ‬-‭ ‬product based selling that IBM used to sell standard products was not appropriate for new market situation.‭ ‬This is why IBM Software Group chose Solution Selling Process methodology as a common sales approach.‭ 

Business Challenge

Deployment of this high-performance,‭ ‬buyer centric sales approach became the most critical element in the process of building this new organization.‭ ‬In Central Europe this organization was still to be built.‭ ‬With cultural specifics of each country this combined challenge was so intense that sales activities got out of control,‭ ‬results were unpredictable and the whole mission in the region was in danger.

1. The local teams were formed mostly of new hires without serious B2B sales experience,
2. The existing,‭ ‬more experienced members of local teams were resisting to new approaches,
3. Experienced leaders from Vienna HQ could not cover all important sales situations in the countries.

1. deploy theoretical sales concept into every day selling in a form of easy to use tools,
2. make sure the process was executed consistently producing verifiable outcomes,
3. forecast,‭ ‬monitor and analyze the sales activities and results using an information system suited to the process.
4. lead the project by people that were used to cultural differences of different countries

1. All sales professionals followed a common sales process,‭ ‬used same set of tools and used "a common language".
2. Newly hired team members were brought up to speed much quicker.
3. Regional leaders were able to see reliable information about sales pipeline,‭ ‬status of all and each opportunity.
4. Forecasts were regularly prepared,‭ ‬discussed and thus more reliable.