Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

Gayle Tomkinson, Kraton Polymers

  

SASCS11 How to Enter Bug

Company: Kraton Polymers, Houston, TX
Entry Submitted by: ValueSelling Associates, Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Company Description:
Kraton Polymers continues its year-on-year commitment to engineering precise polymer solutions in partnership with innovators worldwide.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Education Leader of the Year

Nomination Title: Gayle Tomkinson, Marketing Services Director, Kraton Polymers

    Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

        Kraton Polymers is a leading global producer of performance polymers and one
of the world's largest producers of styrenic block copolymers (SBCs), a family
of products whose chemistry was pioneered by Kraton more than 40 years ago.
The company offers approximately 800 products to more than 700 customers in
over 60 countries worldwide.

        With a sales force of 75 sales professionals located on four continents, the
leadership at Kraton realized it needed to establish a common sales process
and language so that each sales team could accurately promote Kraton’s ever-
expanding product lines and share information and strategies with each other.
This also fell in perfectly with the company’s commitment to innovation.

        Gayle Tomkinson, the company’s marketing services director, embraced that
value and  took the helm for a companywide initiative in January 2010 that
would transform Kraton’s sales team from product experts to customer problem-
solving experts. These teams needed to weave the company’s innovations unto
sales and marketing efforts as offshore competitors continually tried to clone
its offerings. Sales and marketing needed to consistently promote a unique
value proposition to stay competitive and grow, particularly after the company
recently went public and was now accountable to shareholders.

        Workshops were held – in English, Spanish and Mandarin -- in the U.S., Europe,
Asia and South America throughout Q1, with customized case studies and role
plays being applicable to sales teams based on their location. Gayle knew
support from the top executives was key to strong staff buy-in, and she made
sure the company’s COO, David Bradley, introduced each workshop either in
person or by phone. This stressed the important of the skills and toolsets
staffers were given to help them better differentiate Kraton’s products.

        The company began to see behavioral changes immediately, with peple using a
common language and helping each other with call preparations. To keep
momentum, Gayle organized a competition for the best sales presentations
incorporating the new sales framework and methodology. The best six presented
to their colleagues and the top three received special recognition and awards.

        The investment quickly paid off with a jump from single to double-digit
quarterly growth. During its most recently earnings report, sales revenues
were up 24% over last year to $335 million.

        Gayle was instrumental in that success, in part, because she:

        •     Globe-trotted to personally attend every workshop
•     Held a series of webinars to foster faster overall adoption and
instruct use of an electronic tool just coming onto the market
•     Created an intranet repository for easy access to new resources and
tools
•     Developed and managed a new-hire process, which has new hires taking
an essential sales course within 30 days of start date and then attending the
next available workshop
•     Continually reaches out to each manager to provide specific sales and
marketing coaching as needed

        The company began to see behavioral changes immediately, with peple using a
common language and helping each other with call preparations. To keep
momentum, Gayle organized a competition for the best sales presentations
incorporating the new sales framework and methodology. The best six presented
to their colleagues and the top three received special recognition and awards.

        The investment quickly paid off with a jump from single to double-digit
quarterly growth. During its most recently earnings report, sales revenues
were up 24% over last year to $335 million.

        Gayle is now working with other Kraton managers to spread the sales training
further into the company, beginning with its technology staff. By
understanding the customer problem-solving approach, developers could help
solve issues that sales teams could then use in Kraton’s value proposition.
Similarly, they are instructing selected distributors on their new sales
methodology.

        In addition to our managers reinforcing the process, the salespeople
themselves have been sharing best practices with their colleagues, which has
upped the momentum and encourages that the behavioral changes are permanent
and can help Kraton achieve more challenging objectives in the future.

    List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

        http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=220948&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1491360&highlight=

        http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=220948&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1423105&highlight=

    Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

        Gayle Tomkinson has worked in the plastics industry for 25 years. She earned
a BS ChE at Lafayette College and a MS MatE at RPI.  She started her career at
GE Plastics working in a variety of technical and marketing roles for 11
years. She then worked for 10 years at AES (Santoprene business of ExxonMobil)
in global sales & marketing management roles. She was director of fire safety
products at Bullard before joining Kraton Polymers.  Gayle has been with
Kraton for 4 years in a number of strategic roles and her current title is
Marketing Services Director, taking the lead in training the global sales &
marketing team. Gayle resides in Lexington, KY with her husband and 2 sons.