Knight-Ridder Taps Former Xerox Exec To Lead U.S. Sales

Continuing with her agenda to make the Knight-Ridder Financial/Americas sales staff take a more aggressive and sophisticated approach to selling data, managing director Patrice O'Grady has named Gregory Harold, a former sales manager with Xerox Corp., vice president of sales. Harold -- who shares the status of market data industry outsider with O'Grady herself -- is responsible for all sales and sales support in the U.S. That includes five so-called region sales managers and 90 sales and sales support executives.

Meanwhile, as IMD goes to press, O'Grady and Harold had just filled the post of central region sales manager, which became available when Dave Mulso stepped down a rung to become senior sales executive and team leader in Houston. A spokesperson confirms the position had been filled but declines to release the name until internal announcements had been made.

Harold's appointment follows a period of major upheaval at the vendor, during which changes in compensation structure led to high turnover rates among sales staff (IMD, May 9). Now, O'Grady says, the first phase of the transformation of the sales group is complete and the department is ready for the next set of changes, which involve implementation of a training program.

"I think there's a sense that the groundwork has been laid," says O'Grady. "I think that for all of the folks that are still here who are really our top performers, I think they are more comfortable with the change, they better understand our mission ... and I think Greg Harold's role now is to help them get to the next level, which is to compete in this very competitive marketplace."

O'Grady also suggests that the days of high attrition and frequent job changes have not yet come to an end: "You're going to see turnover; that's going to happen. There are still folks who are ... dealing with whether or not they have the knowledge and skills ... and so some may decide they don't want to have to go through this training program."

Part of Harold's responsibilities include helping to expand a training and development program which the company began to implement in the U.S. in August. The purpose is to train the sales staff to prepare for what O'Grady calls "a four-part sale." The training, she says, involves being knowledgeable about "the different platforms that are out there;" various software options and digital and interactive data feeds; systems or integrators such as Unix or Teknekron that the potential customer may be using; and it also involves becoming "very good at understanding the customer's environment, what their needs are, what industry they're in, what their applications are," says O'Grady.

O'Grady says the training program has been in effect in Knight-Ridder's European sales groups for a year.

The sales approach that Knight-Ridder will take also involves dealing with multiple decision-makers at an account -- such as the director of MIS, the head trader and a financial person, O'Grady says. "That's why I want a more integrated, higher-level major-account type of approach against the customer, which is one of the things I think Greg brings to the party. His role will be to help the sales teams develop their approach against each of these accounts in a very complex sale, because he's been used to doing that."

When asked how Harold, an industry outsider, could be involved in training and development, O'Grady says his skills in selling major accounts are transferable. In addition, some of Xerox's products "are complex from a systems standpoint ... so he's very conversant ... with what our business is," she says.

O'Grady says Harold's responsibilities also include leading the sales organization in its pursuit of new objectives, which include the corporate market. "We believe there are users within corporate America that are not banks or financial houses that we are going after with our new corporate market strategy," O'Grady says. Specifically, she says that Angus Robertson, managing director and executive editor in charge of financial news, has developed a corporate news strategy "so that we'll have the news ... to go against this new marketplace."

O'Grady says that in addition to the shift to a net- compensation structure, the first phase of changes in the Knight-Ridder Financial/Americas sales department involved setting up teams of sales staff, which include a senior sales rep, a sales rep and a sales support executive. "We did that last year in an effort to both give better coverage to the clients and penetrate the larger clients more," she says. "So there was a lot in the first phase, but the second phase is now preparing and developing these folks to participate in a very complicated sale."

O'Grady became managing director over one year ago (IMD, July 6, 1993). Soon after she was hired, O'Grady told IMD that among her goals was to make some changes that would be "internal to the organization." Among other things, she promised to make "sure that we have a very competitive, highly motivated sales and service organization" (IMD, Nov. 8, 1993).

The position filled by Harold had previously been held by Chris Devit, who was demoted earlier this year to region sales manager responsible for the northeast. Devit had been promoted to vice president just 10 months before. He now is working on special projects, according to a spokesman.

Meanwhile, at press time, O'Grady and Harold filled the region sales manager for the central region position. The position became available when Dave Mulso, now a senior sales executive and team leader in Houston, stepped down a rung on the sales management ladder. O'Grady says that was not a demotion, but Mulso's choice. "The good news is he stayed with Knight-Ridder and I'm very happy about that," O'Grady says.