Atos

Challenge

IT corporation Atos specialise in hi-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and cyber security services. With around three decades of experience in their sector, they pride themselves in delivering digital transformation and empowerment to their clients.

But as the market became increasingly competitive and the demands placed on bid teams were escalating, Atos found that they were not always winning pursuits they felt they deserved to win; not because their offer was inferior or that they lacked capability - far from it, but because they weren’t converting the opportunities in the final pitch.

Pitches frequently come down to choosing between two or three companies, all of whom are capable of delivering the service the client requires. Atos were coming second too often and felt they needed to strengthen their capability in both creating a clear narrative as to why their clients should choose them in favour of their competition and then presenting this in a compelling and confident manner.

Natural Direction had already enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Atos and were approached to help increase win rates by providing a more consistent pitching methodology.

Solution

Natural Direction created the ‘Pitching to Win’ programme to help Atos drive winning presentations and increase new business wins. The programme covered the end-to-end process from responding to the Request For Proposal (RFP) to the final presentation.

Through extensive research and a series of workshops - spearheaded by both the senior Atos team and Natural Direction’s experienced performance coaches - we worked to improve not only the quality of the story that Atos were telling, but how they were presenting this story to prospective clients in the final and crucial stages of the bidding process.

Through ‘Pitching to Win’ we aim to replicate the intensity and excitement of a real pitch process. Teams come to the workshops with ‘live bid’ opportunities that they’re in the process of preparing for a pitch, and get the chance to ‘test in the field’ while receiving coaching and feedback from colleagues and experienced pitching mentors.

The programme uses Natural Direction’s 10 Disciplines of Pitching framework to help sales teams master skills in the planning preparation and performance delivery of their proposition. With this knowledge, the team are better equipped to command the confidence of buyers, build rapport and connect with them, and compel them to choose Atos.

Results

This investment has helped Atos to continually increase sales, even in the turbulent economic environment, and has positively changed internal perceptions of the sales teams - creating belief that they can win.

Atos saw yearly win rates rise from 41% in the first six months of 2011, to 57% in the following six months. Win rates increased to a staggering 74% in the following six months.

 

“The support of Natural Direction has been a fundamental cornerstone in securing a number of key business opportunities over the past 12 months. Natural Direction supports our deal teams with presentation coaching during high stakes business opportunities which has resulted in unprecedented levels of success. In addition to this they have helped our sales team dramatically increase their performance through a disciplined approach to pitch preparation and delivery; and they have changed the way our leaders and teams work to improve the quality of their relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Needless to say Natural Direction delivers results, and I put this down to a combination of exceptional design, outstanding delivery and a relentless desire to create a shift in the mindset and performance of an audience.”

Mark Ingleby, Senior Vice President UK&I Sales and Marketing – Atos