Learning Innovations – SILVER: Ted Hoff, Vice President, Learning, IBM

When IBM Vice President of Learning Ted Hoff joined the company four years ago and began to actively leverage work on IBM’s On Demand Learning capabilities, one of his first […]

When IBM Vice President of Learning Ted Hoff joined the company four years ago and began to actively leverage work on IBM’s On Demand Learning capabilities, one of his first stops was the sales department. To strengthen sales and ensure that there was an expansive role for sales learning at IBM, Hoff worked closely with the sales transformation team to create a single, shared-sales methodology across all of IBM’s product lines around the world. IBM’s Sales Transformation Learning Initiative was the result. Its focus is three-fold, and all components center on the future of learning at IBM centers, to provide learning for individual employees, teams or groups, and self-transforming organizations.

Hoff was instrumental in transforming the sales organization via the On Demand Workplace, which provides a framework for an integrated approach to sales leadership and learning and development, featuring a new sales method, leaders coaching leaders, and integration of learning and talent management into the development of sales leaders. IBM sales leaders and teams are encouraged to use the On Demand Workplace to identify opportunities, and create and deliver value to clients. Sales Transformation gave birth to the Major Deal Maker Initiative, which was created to develop a team of deal makers who can lead IBM staffers to increase the sales close rate and the number of business opportunities.

Rejuvenating sales has helped promote IBM’s cultural transformation into a client-driven, solutions-focused company. On-demand learning opportunities enhance performance levels and facilitate IBM salespeople’s ability to create new solutions based on priority business issues. On-demand learning also helps the IBM account team plan for innovation and transform the work of sellers through the On Demand Workplace. When the company’s solutions sellers enter the On Demand Workplace, the system recognizes who they are and offers the right information and resources to accomplish their jobs, service their client accounts and measure their revenue-generating ability.