Profit Magazine - May 2008

Keith Block, Executive Vice President, North America Sales and Consulting, Oracle

A NEW APPROACH
TO CUSTOMERS
RELATIONSHIPS, SOLUTIONS, AND SERVICE AT THE CORE OF ORACLE’S SALES STRATEGY

ooks and movies are filled with images of hard-bitten salesmen whose sole aim is to get the commission and beat feet out the client’s door—think Ricky

Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross. But according to Keith Block, executive vice president of Oracle’s North America sales and consulting organizations, fielding that sort of sales force not only hurts the customer, it also does long-term damage to any company that does it.

That’s the thinking behind Block’s six-year effort to transform Oracle’s sales force strategy from a pure transaction selling focus to one that emphasizes relationships, solutions, and service.

“Historically, Oracle had been a bit rough on customers,” says Block. “We needed to repair those relationships—if we didn’t specialize and focus on long-term relationships, we would be in a lot of trouble.” The result has been not only happier customers but also very healthy growth for Oracle. “If you look at our growth, it’s been in double digits every quarter—not just merger-and-acquisition growth but organic growth as well,” says Block. “Every line of business is doing exceptionally well.”

PHIL SALTONSTALL

IN THE BEGINNING

When Block took over in 2002, he found a sales force that focused on software features, speeds, and feeds. “They were

selling features and functions of the software and focusing on the transaction as an isolated event,” he says. But such a strategy missed huge opportunities to build relationships with customers and help them focus their long-term IT strategy. “We realized that we had to transform from transaction selling to solution selling—we weren’t in the game of just selling software; we’re in the value game of selling solutions.”

What’s the difference? Instead of selling the technology itself, Oracle salespeople take the time to understand a customer’s industry and business problems and show them how to apply technology to solve specific problems. “Instead of selling the world’s fastest database, we focus on customer problems around availability, security, business intelligence, and integration. The same is true for our applications customers, where we take a true industry perspective,” says Block.

Like any major organizational shift, the change was not simple or quick. “Cultural change is always the hardest,” says Block. He started with the management team. “We looked for people within the organization who understood the new model and had the potential to focus long-term on the customer, and put them in positions of leadership,” he says.