3M’s Safety and Industrial Business Group Accelerates Global Value Selling with LeveragePoint

Drawing on perspectives from three 3M SIBG leaders, Dan Cunningham (Divisional Head of Sales, U.S. and Canada), Paul Davis (Global Marketing Operations Manager), and Brad Dunn (Senior Sales Representative), this case study traces a multi-year transformation in how a $1 billion-plus, roughly 400-person global sales division quantifies and communicates customer value. The challenge was universal. Brilliant field testing and a strong consultative culture existed, but the value story lived in individual heads, napkins, and personal spreadsheets, with no consistent global methodology for demonstrating value against 3M’s premium pricing.

3M partnered with LeveragePoint to build VMAX, a platform designed around four principles: sophisticated enough to model complex, multi-step industrial workflows yet simple enough to use in front of a customer; built for real applications where customers use multiple products across a process; translated and localized for a global sales force; and centrally integrated into leadership dashboards. Adoption was driven by champions rather than mandates, letting respected reps validate the tool organically until it reshaped the entire performance bell curve, lifting both new reps and the crucial middle tier.

The measurable business impact includes an 800 basis point win rate lift when VMAX is used, a documented value analysis now required for certain pricing support requests, and more than 3,500 global value reports that have become a strategic asset informing product strategy, forecasting, and distributor engagement. As Dunn summarizes: “If our right leg represents the best products in the marketplace, then our left leg is LeveragePoint giving us the ability to back that up.”