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VMware

  

How to EnterCompany: VMware, Palo Alto, CA
Entry Submitted by
: Visualize
Company Description: VMware is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. Founded in 1998, VMware employs more than 13,000 people worldwide, and is based in Palo Alto, California.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: National Sales Executive of the Year

Nomination Title: Mark Reynolds, Americas Enablement Director for Sales Strategy and Transformation

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since the beginning of July 2011 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Upon joining VMware in January of 2011, Mark realized to exceed his Americas Sales’ growth target -- doubling revenue in three years -- he had to overcome substantial internal business challenges. His region’s bookings were at not growing fast enough to meet the FY13 goal.

Though the Sales organization communicated value messages about their flagship cloud product, they struggled to deliver an overall value proposition for their newly expanded portfolio of products and services. They also struggled when calling higher and wider to access power during sales cycles.

Mark determined a pressing need for a common language to align with Marketing and other partners. By adopting a consistent selling framework, and leveraging his expertise in championing change, he achieved a significant cultural shift.

The stakes were high because the company had previously introduced new sales methodologies that had failed. Mark noted two key reasons: they’d been driven from headquarters vs. the field, and they hadn’t focused on managers reinforcing and propelling the new approaches.

He deployed the ValueSelling Framework®, a scalable approach that strengthened pipeline management and armed the field with a unifying approach to selling adjacencies beyond their lead platform, something that had been a transactional sale.

Mark successfully secured previously skeptical senior leadership buy-in, piloted three courses, elevated managers as coaches, and deployed the rollout to nearly 1,100 members in the field via 48 two-day sessions. 90% of Sales Management and 200 people in Corporate/Product Marketing have completed customized courses.

Through this transformation, the team learned how to uncover customers’ critical business issues, moving from selling products and feature sets to instead linking to their customers’ problems, discovering and articulating the value of working with VMware.

Mark has further maximized the impact – via coaching certifications, measurement, leadership calls, office hours, reinforcement webinars, social media postings, and opportunity assessments – to drive the evolution across the company. His efforts continue to produce significant results:

  • Bookings for his region’s core product soared in FY2011 and are projected to hit targets for FY12 and FY13.
  • The organization has shifted from a transactional, product-centric model to a solution-selling model.
  • From Q3 YoY, the improvement of total non-infrastructure license bookings among those trained was 80% higher than non-participants. The improvement of average deal-size (all-in) among those trained was 107% higher than non-participants.
  • As a result of the programs Mark introduced, VMware recently won a $6 Million account, crediting Mark and his team in the win report.
  • For consistent execution, the ValueSelling Framework® is now a required part of pre-call planning, at the heart of all enablement materials, and used to empower managers to coach more effectively.
  • EMEA and Asia Pacific Japan have committed to moving forward with the framework, further evidence that Mark’s strategy has achieved traction globally.

Attachments/Videos/Links:

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-earnings-q312.html (VMware Reports Third Quarter 2012 Results)

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-earnings-q212.html(VMware Reports Second Quarter 2012 Results)

VMware Reports First Quarter 2012 Results(VMware Reports First Quarter 2011 Results)

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-earnings-q112.html (VMware Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2011 Results

http://www.vmware.com/company/customers/ (VMware Customer Success Stories)

Mark’s LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markcameronreynolds

 

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Mark Reynolds is the Americas Enablement Director for the Sales Strategy and Transformation team at VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions enabling businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Within the $4Billion company, he enables the VMware Field to successfully sell and deliver VMware solutions via knowledge, skills, and tools. Prior to VMware, Mark, held leadership roles at Equinix, Interwoven, BEA Systems, Siebel Systems, and Oracle.

A California native who grew up ski racing, Mark graduated from the University of Virginia. He resides in the Silicon Valley with his wife and three children.