Technology Case Study

Building a High-Performing Team

Through Data-Driven Talent Assessment

OPTIMIZED TALENT HIRING FOR

ROLES

OPTIMIZED TRAINING FOR

SELLERS

Challenge

Assessing Talent in a Transformed Sales Model

After a XaaS company overhauled its sales model, the organization was left with new sales roles, elevated seller expectations, and an evolved segmentation and new go-to-market (GTM) model.

Under the new structure, there were 250 sellers across 15 unique roles—each mapped into three groups. The organization aimed to continue strengthening their sales arm by investing in seller training and enablement. However, the business needed to assess whether they had the right talent in each role to win in the market.

Due to previously working together on the GTM structure transformation, this tech organization reached out to Alexander Group to provide a thorough talent assessment.

Opportunities for Upskilling and Role Alignment

By taking a structured, data-driven approach to reviewing the client’s talent, Alexander Group’s appraisal revealed three areas:

Overall talent deficits: There were organization-wide competency gaps across three company categories: growth and accountability mindset, comprehensive knowledge content and presentation/communication skills.
Role-specific expertise gaps: Some roles saw specific deficiencies in certain competency areas. For example, those in hunter sales roles saw significant gaps in industry and market knowledge, industry commercial acumen and territory prospecting.
Mismatched role fits: Alexander Group identified nearly twenty individuals who were underperforming according to role expectations and requirements. For instance, 21% of hunter sales reps and 8% of account managers (who functioned similarly to ‘farmer’ roles) were rated below their expected job level—indicating a need for significant investment and upleveling in these roles.

Solution

According to manager and executive-level feedback, existing training and enablement needed to be more personalized, tailored to current roles, and externally informed. Additionally, leadership noted that all roles needed more training in soft sales skills (e.g., negotiations, closing, etc.) and industry/market awareness.

Following this thorough analysis, Alexander Group made several recommendations to take this technology client’s sales talent to the next level.

Role Fit Methodology

Alexander Group created a data-driven process for flagging and reviewing current employees who may not fit their role. This three-step process included creating “weighted role fit scores” where anyone below a 1.5 would be noted as a mismatch, examining the reason for said score and then implementing potential solutions such as upskilling investment or finding replacement candidates.

Training and Enablement

Based on the 11 competencies and five roles, Alexander Group suggested several channels that the client could build training around to address role competency gaps. These training courses are centered around foundational training and leadership reinforcement, new enablement resources (ex. sales playbooks), role-specific training sessions and leadership/coaching training.

By revamping these two areas, the client would address their primary talent challenges while also standardizing talent expectations.

Impact

Empowering Talent Decisions for Sustainable Sales Growth

Through this engagement, the client gained immediate clarity on its sales talent landscape and actionable insights to address critical gaps. Within three to six months, the client was able to:

By the one-year mark, the client implemented targeted initiatives for employees to close competency gaps and developed clear talent profiles to hire the right people into the right areas. Today, this technology business is in a better position to build a high-performing, future-ready sales team.

What’s Holding Your Sales Team Back?

Alexander Group can help your organization uncover talent gaps, optimize role fit and create a roadmap for long-term success.

About Alexander Group

Alexander Group is the premier go-to-market strategic partner to unlock revenue growth opportunities.

Alexander Group provides go-to-market consulting services to marketing, sales, service and talent leaders. With over 40 years of developing practical, executable solutions, we are singularly focused on helping commercial teams unlock their full potential and reach new revenue goals. With a robust network of offices, Alexander Group maximizes growth opportunities for our clients around the globe.