Nextel-Battaglia

Company: Nextel Communications
Company Description: Nextel Communications, a FORTUNE 300 company based in Reston, Va., is a leading provider of fully integrated wireless communications services and has built the largest guaranteed all-digital wireless network in the country covering thousands of communities across the United States.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Sales Manager

Nomination Title: John Battaglia, Vice President, Account Services

   1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in 2004 (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:

In the hyper-competitive industry of wireless communications, attrition is a
natural byproduct.  One of the leading indicators of performance is the ‘Churn
Rate,’ or the number of customers who leave one wireless company for another
every month.  Nextel posts industry-low churn rates that are routinely half of
what the competition experiences.  A large part of their success is due the work
of John Battaglia’s leadership as Vice President of Reactive Retention.
 
Already leading the industry at the end of 2003, Mr. Battaglia challenged his
team to stretch their performance even further in 2004.  To do this, he
implemented the “Winning Ways Program,” a holistic approach to driving
performance.  His vision was nothing short of transformational:  “The only way
we’re going to make the strides I know we can make is if our reps change the way
they interact with our customers.  To do that, we need to fundamentally change
the way Supervisors coach their teams and the Managers direct their centers,” he
said.

To achieve this vision, Mr. Battaglia championed a unique approach that focuses
on on-the-job coaching to drive better Rep behaviors on Retention calls.
Winning Ways included consistent and proven on-the-job coaching techniques, job
aids and Metrics Performance reporting that all aligned with the goals for every
frontline performer in the center: From phone sales Reps to Supervisors to
Center Leadership.

The reps received a flip-tool, designed for them to use on each call they take.
The Supervisors received an on-the-job Coaching Kit, which armed them with the
coaching structure and skills they needed to be effective coaches to drive
better floor performance.  The kit seamlessly aligned with the rep tool, so
coaches developed the same behaviors reps were practicing.  Center Leadership
received a weekly Dashboard, which reported not simply performance and
operational data, but critical behavioral data that linked floor sales and
coaching behaviors to center results.

By building a consistent set of behaviors from rep through management, Mr.
Battaglia created a system where employees could quickly pinpoint their
performance and how to improve it.

The final piece of the Winning Ways Program dealt with execution.  To ensure
that everyone understood their roles and how to demonstrate them, Mr. Battaglia
brought in experts in sales coaching.  Rather than take reps and coaches
off-line for a week’s worth of training, associates were given 4-8 hours of
classroom training, then three weeks on-line with the help of expert sales
management coaches.  As experts with all the sales tools, the Coaches were able
to help each rep and coach apply lessons learned from the tools on every call
Reps handled. 

The results were significant.  Over the final two months of the year, the
Account Services team increased their Save Rate by 7%, and saved an incremental
28,000 customers. 

It would have been easier to deliver traditional classroom training.  However
John Battaglia knew that to achieve the type of transition he was looking for,
he needed to implement a different type of program. With Winning Ways, he did
exactly that. 

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: List each link on a separate line, begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.website.com]:

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about this nominee:

John Battaglia help several sales manager positions at Nextel before becoming
Vice President of Account Services.  In his current role, John oversees the
entire Reactive Retention department, from new campaign development through rep
execution.  Reactive Retention oversees 600 representatives and 50 coaches, and
handles more than 1.5 million calls per year.