Revolutionizing IBM sales strategies through actionable feedback

Challenge

Anthony Coppedge, Principal Global Agile Digital Sales Evolution Lead at IBM, faced a big problem with the existing feedback system on the sales team. Feedback was often perceived as vague and overwhelming in quantity, making it difficult for teams to derive value and take action. Anthony believed that feedback was neither good nor bad but “true,”’ reflecting the individual's perception and experience. The primary challenge was to transform this vague and overwhelming feedback into actionable insights.

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Solution

Converting qualitative data into quantitative insights

Anthony introduced an innovative approach to convert qualitative (QUALS) feedback into quantitative (QUANTS) insights. He deployed Mural to capture feedback from 26 teams in quantifiable terms. This involved:

1. Data collection: Gathering qualitative feedback from teams using Mural.
2. Visualization and analysis: Using Mural's retrospective radar template to visualize the quantified feedback, enabling teams to identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement.
3. Data transformation: Exported data from Mural into Excel and systematically converting qualitative data into quantitative insights by categorizing and scoring feedback based on predefined criteria.
4. Enhancing with AI: Anthony leveraged Watson, IBM’s AI toolset, for advanced data analysis. Watson processed verbatim text for emotion, tone, sentiment, and keyword frequency, leading to intelligent and actionable insights. This significantly contributed to enhancing company culture and emphasized the role of feedback in continuous improvement.

Impact

Leveraging Mural to drive change through actionable feedback

Anthony stresses that proximity does not make a team — understanding does. Initially, sticky notes were used for immediate feedback, which was then grouped into categories for further discussion. This approach was scaled up, and feedback data was exported to Excel for deeper analysis, creating a quantifiable and segmentable feedback loop that drove performance enhancements.

Anthony explained, “We are able to export all of that text directly into Excel. So I have a CSV file that lets me see what was said and by whom. This is all captured in Mural. Now, I did this with 26 teams when I first started. Now we do it with hundreds.”

Freeing the seller

Using a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), the IBM team discovered a direct correlation between teams that utilized the feedback system and their resulting performance. By employing Mural as a data aggregation tool and analyzing feedback, IBM implemented significant changes that led to cost savings and improved business outcomes. Timely feedback resolution asserted the importance of feedback in decision-making and facilitated the convergence of product marketing and sales. As a result, the top 12 out of 26 teams who provided the most feedback were also the top 12 performing (sales performance) teams among the 26 — proving there is a direct correlation between feedback leading to change and overall performance.

Today, Anthony requests this type of feedback every two weeks. He tells sales executives, “if you will give me five minutes a day and 45 minutes every two weeks, that's all I need. I'll give you one to one and a half days of time back by reducing low value work. I call this freeing the seller.” 

Other impacts from this new feedback process include:

• Feedback input increased by over 200%
• Feedback was acted up within 30 days
• 1.5 days a week were given back to sales teams
• Cut net time savings of 25%

By converting qualitative feedback into quantitative insights and fostering a collaborative environment, IBM significantly improved its feedback culture and drove meaningful change within the organization by “freeing the seller.”