VMWare, the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, delivers customer-proven solutions that significantly reduce IT complexity and enable more flexible, agile service delivery.
VMWare accelerates an organization’s transition to cloud computing, while preserving existing IT investments and enabling more efficient, agile service delivery without compromising control.
With more than 190,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMWare helps organizations of all sizes lower costs, preserve freedom of choice and energize business through IT while saving energy—financial, human and the Earth’s.
The Solution
“We have a great relationship with Baker Communications going back several years, “ said Mike Clayville, Vice President for North American Sales at VMWare. “We partnered with Baker and our regional partners in Asia in our first server refresh play. It was based on Baker’s unique methodology, which integrates sales, marketing, training, measurement and CRM adoption activities into one highly targeted and directed sales play. The play ran in Asia, and it produced fantastic results."
The Results
To be more specific, the play resulted in almost $40 million dollars in net new business for VMWare and its partners, with an ROI substantially higher than 20 : 1.
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“We have continued to work closely with Baker ever since,” Clayville continued. “We believe in the Baker strategy because it is a systematic, repeatable, manageable, measureable method of prospecting,” said Clayville. “Prospecting and messaging activities are consistent across our large sales community, and institutionalized while integrating the rest of the organization around this crucial methodology.”
Challenge 2: Customer Reactivation
The Solution
Building on the success of the plays in Asia, VMWare worked with Baker to create and deploy a new Customer Reactivation play in order to re-activate customers that had stopped purchasing from VMWare.
The Results
$3,159,915 in net new pipeline.
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Due to this success, VMWare decided to test the Server Refresh Power! Play in Europe. Working with Baker Communications’ partner, Mentor Group, a team of 12 of inside sales representatives in Cork, Ireland, ran the play again.
Over the course of the play in Ireland, the team uncovered 156 new opportunities representing in $4.1million in net new pipeline. To date they have already closed 51 new deals at a total value of $1,024,963.
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Challenge 3: Launching A Global Initiative
"The opportunity to partner with VMWare and Salesforce, two of the world's leading innovators, has been a privilege for us," stated Baker Communications President and CEO Walter Rogers.
"Some organizations may be shying away from the current economic uncertainty, but this economy is creating fantastic opportunities for us and our partners in the channel," explained Clayville. "Not only is this the perfect time for us to build a uniform corporate wide prospecting culture buy, it is actually urgent for us to do so right now."
However, to ramp up on such a large scale required the sales force to significantly sharpen their skills and shift their focus.
The Solution
Clayville and other VMWare executives knew that building a prospecting culture across the organization and driving Salesforce adoption would be the key to their success. Inside and Field Sales in the Americas ran a Tier 1 virtualization play. The first plays in Phase 1 have completed phase 1, and the results once again ran true to form.
The Results
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Inside and Field Sales in the Americas ran a Tier 1 virtualization play. The first plays in Phase 1 have completed phase 1, and the results once again ran true to form. These Plays, ran in the US, have yielded:
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Gateway To Success
"The Baker play process lets us know how well we have targeted, made contact, created meaningful dialogue and created pipeline; all of these matter,” said Clayville. “It also provides weekly visibility into the specific success and obstacles faced by each play, allowing us to adjust on the fly to increased sales throughput. This process succeeds at institutionalizing the just-in-time needs and practices of sales training, resulting in an average connect ratio of 25%, conversion ratio of 65%, and 20 to 1 or better return on investment. There is simply nothing else like it for refocusing the entire team on prospecting, uncovering net new opportunities, boosting CRM adoption and driving revenue.”