Netezza, headquartered in Marlborough, MA, is the leading supplier of data warehouse appliances that simplify analytics for companies that must analyze huge amounts of information needed to maintain and improve competitive advantage. Netezza competes with very large companies that sell data warehouse systems. Netezza’s business development strategy was to offer cheaper, faster systems that delivered exceptional price performance. The strategy enabled Netezza to gain a significant share of the data warehouse market.

Ray Tacoma, Senior Vice President of World Wide Sales had the best “high-tech” sales force in the world. He wanted to make them even better. Ray wanted to move them and Netezza to the next level. Ray’s executive team, Rob Stoker, Vice President of North American Sales and Jim Kelly, VP Retail & CPG Sales, knew that Netezza’s larger competitors would drastically reduce prices to stop Netezza’s erosion of their market. The executive sales team knew that packaging and selling business solutions to executive-level problem owners was the key to success. The challenge was to train an elite “price-performance” sales force to do that.

“With the changes and challenges taking place in our industry, we needed to arm our sales teams with the best tools available, tools that optimized selling effectiveness and productivity. I used Sales Force Systems in the past and knew they were the best for the job. We decided to enhance our existing salesforce.com CRM system with the BVS Plug-In from Sales Force Systems because it was fast to implement, easily customized to our best sales practices, and proved to actually help our sales people win new business. We found that BVS puts a consistent, repeatable selling process in the hands of our sales professionals and insures that we deliver significant value at every selling touch point.

The adoption rate for Sales Force Systems selling tools was beyond our expectations. The BVS Plug-In was customized and deployed across our organization within 10 days. We immediately experienced better control and predictability of the sales cycle. The number of calls required to close a transaction was reduced. The BVS tools give sales reps more selling time on deals they know they can win,” said Rob Stoker.

“Business Value Selling training has improved our effectiveness in providing unique business solutions for our customers. The process helps our sales teams communicate the unique value that Netezza brings to our customers. Account plans and sales call plans are now used to improve selling effectiveness and gives the management team a real time view of all the opportunities that Netezza is pursuing.

“The BVS tools have enabled us to focus on the primary business opportunities that have a high probability of success, and we have the unique competitive advantage required to win. Sales Force Systems Business Value Selling process will enable Netezza to win at least an additional 30 percent of the business we would have lost to our competitors and surpass growth expectations.” said Jim Kelly, Vice President, Retail & CPG Sales.