When David Mitchell left the Royal Air Force and joined BT the Berlin Wall was still standing, no one had heard of the Internet, and BT was a recently privatised national provider of fixed telecommunications services operating in a virtual monopoly. Much has changed since 1988. The Berlin Wall is a tourist destination at the centre of a united Europe, the Internet pervades every aspect of our lives and BT is now an international provider of mobile, fixed line, data and telecommunications services operating in a highly competitive market.

 

During those 21 years Mitchell has worked his way around many parts of the company. “I’ve been very lucky,” he says. “I had the opportunity to experience many different departments and get a wide range of perspectives on our business. Few people entering the world of work these days get that chance. In many ways it was two decades of apprenticeship building up to my current job.”

 

 

In his current role, as Director of Sales & Operations for BT Global Services, he manages a direct sales team of just over 100 people. He has roughly 60 account managers who sell to four sections of the public sector: health, defence, central government and local government. He also has around 30 technical sales specialists, and a team of 16 working on major deals. Backing all this up he has business planning, channel planning and customer service teams who put in all the work behind the scenes so the direct salespeople can achieve as much as possible.

 

So, much of his time is spent in general sales management. But he also still manages to get out and sell to customers. He says: “I really like keeping my hand in with the actual sales. I don’t believe in only getting involved in the larger deals. Wherever there’s a need, whenever a deal isn’t going as well as it could, I’ll try to add value in any way I can.”

 

Most of the challenges Mitchell and his department face are specific to selling to the public sector. He explains: “Although it’s defined as one sector, it’s incredibly diverse. The needs of the Ministry of Defence are very different to those of a local council. So, our salespeople need to have a deep understanding of the specific needs of their clients.”

 

He continues: “This goes beyond knowing what those direct clients need, and involves knowing what the clients’ client – the citizen – needs. A final challenge is that those citizens have become much more demanding in recent years. We now expect online banking from our banks and so demand similar levels of convenience and transparency from our Government. We have to raise our game to help the public sector deliver this.”

 

When he took on the role two years ago, BT Global Services was a thriving business. Yet, no job is without challenges. “We were successful,” he recalls. “But we needed to develop a clear vision of our next step forward. Sales tends to go in cycles and it’s important to know where you are in that cycle and what’s coming next.”

 

Mitchell identified a need for greater collaboration between teams as the way to keep moving the division forward. He explains: “Our strength is that we have salespeople who really understand their markets and know their customers. But we also needed to break down the stovepipes between teams so we could share knowledge and generate efficiencies. I’m very pleased with what we’ve achieved in this area in the last two years.”

 

For Mitchell the ideal salesperson possesses a combination of the science and art of sales. He explains: “On the one hand a salesperson has to be able to do all the analysis, to really break down the customer’s need, and go through the sales process rigorously. But it is about doing more than selling by numbers. I also look for some flair, some artistry – that little bit of pixie dust – that gives the customers something that genuinely excites them. True success comes from balancing those two elements”

 

While experience can help, he does not attach too great an importance to it. He says: “An impressive CV demonstrates that someone has sold well in the past but is no guarantee that they will do so in the future. Products and technologies change. Different customers want different things. Different companies and markets have different cultures and ways of operating.”

 

“The fundamentals of sales haven’t changed in centuries,” believes Mitchell. “Essentially it’s about building relationships of trust. That was as true of a medieval blacksmith as it is of a twenty-first century vendor of telecommunications services. However, around that rod of continuity much has changed. And for the better. We now deal with customers who are better informed and who provide a more level playing field for potential suppliers. There’s much more transparency about what companies can offer, and that allows quality providers with strong values to succeed.”

 

Looking ahead, he believes that his division will face an ever more competitive market. He points to the falling barriers to entry to the telecommunications industry, and he believes that to retain its market share BT Global Services will need to keep hiring, retaining and motivating the top salespeople.

 

He concludes with this advice to all those sales professionals who want to emulate his success in the profession: “Make sure you understand your market, your own business, your products and your services. Time spent going around the business, really getting to know how it all links up, is never time wasted. And bear in mind that, although companies need accountants and lawyers they also need salespeople. Sales is a vital part of any business and is also a valid route to the top position. In the future we will see more and more CEOs coming from the sales departments, and that can only be a good thing for British business.”

 

Alex Blyth