The Intervoice Story

The challenge

For over twenty years and through more than 23,000 system deployments, Intervoice has led the market in providing voice automation solutions that have resulted in the generation of billions of dollars from increased revenue and improved operational efficiencies. Intervoice provides leading enterprises, carriers and developers with the platform, software and services necessary to create interactive spoken dialogues between people and applications. Nonetheless, John Burnett, Sales VP EMEA faced a very real challenge in the carrier messaging market. John had a relatively new sales team and a new generation of product. He needed them to be effective as soon as possible in a tough sales environment where customers buy on business benefit. He also needed to maximise on Network Operator investment in data services and grow market share with call completion and voice mail applications. He could see that Intervoice had silos of product and market expertise but this did not translate into a clear market definition for his team. The sales team found it difficult to articulate a clear business argument with prospects and often the opportunity descended into a feature war or technical debate with competitors, which reduced sales value and delayed decision-making ability in customer accounts. John also knew that all the knowledge he needed was bottled up somewhere in Intervoice.

Action

John needed a process that would garner consensus on the success factors of the product and the company, then distil those messages into a format that could be accessed by the sales team and readily consumed by prospects. Having seen examples of the Solutions for Sales Strategic Sales Program he decided to apply it to his problem.

Results

Intervoice selected the Sales Guide and Interactive Sales Kit. John commented, “The workshop and Sales Guide are part of a very powerful process, we have really kick-started the sales drive for our next generation proposition”. Furthermore the program reached through the whole Intervoice line of business and became a worldwide activity rather than just an EMEA program. John went on to say “Solutions for Sales asked the difficult questions, they provided valuable arbitration that internal debate rarely facilitates and sought proof points in our proposition that sales people can use to defend our proposition” The process encouraged wider participation from Intervoice world-wide with significant contribution from corporate product marketing in the US. Ron Neiman, Line of Business VP for OMVIA commented, “Solutions for Sales brought focus and clarity by driving consensus from our business stakeholders, their engagement was excellent and it helped us to resolve some very complex business issues”.

"The workshop and Sales Guide are part of a very powerful process, we have really kick-started the sales drive for our next generation proposition. The salespeople have welcomed this tool, it helps them prepare and execute efficiently with prospects and customers."

John Burnett, VP Sales, Intervoice, EMEA

The Strategic Sales Program is only available from Solutions for Sales Ltd.

For more information please email or call +44 (0)1702 586742.