The world of sales software and sales practices is like an island kingdom, secure and comfortable.  But on multiple horizons, we catch a glimpse of the future.  And the future of sales is likely to be different than what we take for granted now.  It is the view of this writer that sales governance, sales technology, sales practices and sales self-understanding wlll all undergo major evolution. 

Today, let's look at one of the four anticipated changes on the island of sales: that of sales technology.  Intriguingly, our search for sources of positive change will lead us unexpectedly to the world of scientific writing and pharmaceutical research.  

What makes a solution real for potential customers?  How do your reduce a customer's perception of risk associated with your proposal?

When you are asking a customer to make a change, even with a solid business case, it is sometimes helpful to be able to walk the customer through a solution. 

Leadership is an important part of sales.  Especially where breakthrough technology is concerned, the sales team encourages the customer to consider a new way of doing business.

But many good ideas die, even ideas which are a great match to customer business models. 

One of the main reasons for the failure of good ideas is fear, a powerful emotion which goes far beyond the dry concept of "risk".  What is the risk that a project will not conform to expectations -- or hopes?  In the case of software, the trade press retails stories of all-to-frequent failure.  Customer fears of project failure are not unfounded. 

Not every great deal gets a big write-up.  But Oracle's ebXML B2B win at a leading distributor of agricultural chemicals got just that in the online Web Services Journal.  This deal was a competitive win for one of Oracle's first ebXML deployments.  And as you can see from the write-up, the win turned into a very nice reference!  And the customer continues to enhance the environment. 

From a sales perspective, the win was particularly sweet, coming at the end of Q4.  (The win actually became "deal of the week" in Oracle's North American sales system.)

Who is about to initiate a buying process? 

This is the question that vexes sales reps everywhere.

Knowing the definitive answer to this question would be like having a genie in a magic lamp, that on command would deliver hot leads.

However, in the absence of the lead genie, there are ways of skewing decision processes in your favour.

Here's one idea for tipping the odds your way that you may have overlooked:  a traditional B2B newsletter, actually printed, as opposed to delivered only electronically.

Newsletters used to be an affordable staple of business-to-business communication.  But they have been partially eclipsed by the ease of deploying web-based content.

Click For Set Of FourSales Walkthroughs      

How do you overcome customer perception of risk?  Sometimes new technology capabilities are ahead of customers.  If you can present the solution in the clearest possible way, you'll help your customer get a lot closer to moving forward.

In the case of BPEL-driven B2B/EDI, the technology is very powerful and much easier to use than traditional EDI.  But adoption rates are still relatively low.

The attached diagrams are a successful sales tool which enable you to walk a customer through the entire connection.  Attractive and simple, these diagrams can also be animated in support of a great webinar talk track.

Please see the attached PDF for four different scenarios.  Is your technology ready for prime-time?  Can you explain your technology and its business benefits with maximum economy and clarity?

You can also see an animated version of Case No. 1 - EDI 850 Inbound here: 

Will your Software Project Proposal be rostered on your customer's list of approved projects this year?

Part of the back-and-forth between different customer stakeholders is contention over budget.  But you can't budget without numbers.  So, if your project is going to be in play, you'll probably have to deliver the dreaded Estimate!

Example Of Estimate And Project

On one hand customers are concerned to minimize project risk.  And on the other hand, vendors are concerned to minimize cost-of-sales (which is a kind of risk in itself).  The Estimate is one step in addressing both concerns together.

Harvard prof. Clayton Christensen has written the business bible for technological innovation, The Innovator's Dilemma, and he has added to that foundation with The Innovator's Solution and a proliferating fractal of other texts. 

In the December 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review, along with his co-authors Johnson and Kagermann, Christensen offers additional insights on the importance of organizational business models.   Business models are not as widely studied as one might expect.  My interest is in understanding how a library of business models can be an important sales tool for guiding new technology sales.  Obviously this is a big topic; I'd like to start with a few practical notes.

Here is the website from Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor:

www.theinnovatorssolution.com

Actionable Insight For Technology Sales:  Customer business modeling is not just for often maligned corporate strategy types, but can be directly useful for sales management and front-line sales people.  A good understanding of customer business models will give you the sales match to your products.  And from that you can derive the compelling benefits and sales tactics that will enable you to execute.  Don't waste time guessing.  More in the coming months.

At some point during a sales cycle, your prospect will actually want to dig into the details of your technology!  This can be a mixed blessing -- although hopefully not because your technology won't stand up to scrutiny! 

Rather, customer desire to know about what your technology can do is an opportunity for the sales rep or especially the sales engineer, to forget everything they ever knew about sales!  Why?  Because the temptation is strong to unload a truckload of facts and figures about your technology.

Stop!  And remember two things:

1. You should be presenting technology that is relevant to your prospect, based on your discovery with that customer.

Summary:  After the listening, every good business and sales person can respond with business models and benefits.  But if that's all you talk about during the sales process, you're on a level playing field with the competition.  Why hide your light?  To win, you have to go beyond everyday benefits to the specific advantages of your offering.  You have to sell both benefits and features!  And if you are going to really succeed with business model- and business case-based selling, you'll need detailed model inputs about how your technology makes a difference to their business!

Deep Dive:  Every C-Level executive and every experienced and successful sales rep knows the same things.  Whether gained in the school of hard knocks or in B-school, the principles of business success are widely understood.  And because business knowledge and business skills are widely disseminated, it's difficult for any one organization to consistently outperform any other organization in their market.  It's not impossible, but it is difficult.  You could say that business competition in open societies occurs on a playing field that is at least somewhat level.

With these facts in mind, why would anyone ever reduce a technology sell to "business benefits"?  The fastest way to end up on a level playing field with your competition is to downplay your unique technical advantages -- in favour of generic business benefits such as "faster time to market" and "lowest total cost of ownership" and "better information".

When you're brought a sales lead from an Oracle business partner because you're the best in town, are you ready to step up? 

In the case of a marquee retailer lead, dthree inc. was ready with the Web 2.0 technical knowledge.  But that knowledge needed to be focused on a winning proof-of-concept.  The customer had a strong need for a special-purpose portal, but the business case was being driven by the IT department, which needed to show the business team what could be done with Web 2.0.  Fortunately, IT was willing to fund the POC, which meant that there was full attention on the project. 

The deal then had three main components:  (1) delivery of the successful POC; (2) specification of the appropriate and affordable software license proposal and (3) provision of an estimate for the portal.  The estimate was just that, an estimate, and not an offer to do business.  Before a full service proposal could be delivered for Phase I, a proper discovery and planning project would be necessary.

The POC was received extremely well by the executive team.  So, all the deal components and players came together for another Q4 win!

You've got business opportunities and relationships.  And you've got great technology solutions that will meet the needs of your customers.  Now you have a problem!  How do you bridge the gap between possibility and closing a deal?  And then making sure after the sale that your customer ramps up successfully?

The problem with a new technology sale is you have a double sales job!  Someone has to sell the concept before you can sell the solution .  (This double sales job accounts for some of the extra commission earned by "hunter" sales people.) The problem of selling new technology is an old one, well documented, and this website will pull together some of these insights elsewhere.

A Recipe For Bridging The Gap

For a deal ending up north of $ 300 K, this pioneering platform solved multiple problems.  The "mothership" needed a high degree of control, flexibility, security and scaleability.  But satellite partners in this public sector organization did not need and could not afford the investment required to duplicate what had been done in the hub.

A great answer was available via simple open source satellite deployments.  Delivering the security, capability and manageability demanded by remote customers, the open source solution enabled the core organization to move forward with confidence.

When an ecosystem is defined by standards, you can win by matching the right scale solution to the right ecosystem tier.  And your software sales effort itself can become an ecosystem of mutually supporting tiers.  Are you thinking about software and sales ecosystems?

Thin client technologies have been used successfully for almost two decades.  Now with the tidal wave of virtualization, centralized deployments of applications has found new "legs".  Back in 2002, many mid-sized organizations were just beginning to look a Citrix and other alternatives for the first time.  

From 10,000 feet, many CIOs were prepared to acknowledge the business case (vastly reduced administration, more agile deployments, increased control, increased user satisfaction, great economics), but for many the worry was still there.  Would it really work?  Oddly enough, there was a perception that thin client technology had of a lot of moving parts.

This is a flyer for a successful sales campaign around Oracle's powerful B2B/EDI capability.  Many prospects either had existing hard-to-manage legacy B2B/EDI platforms, or were thinking about doing B2B/EDI for the first time.  The business need was there, but prospects needed to be assured that the technology was ready, and usable.  The usability issue was especially acute given the history of EDI.  The B2B/EDI campaign was run multiple times with very good results.

You can see the full flyer by clicking on the "Use Oracle App Server" image above.

Click Thumbnail For Flash Movie Presentation

This is a presentation done by your host for an "Information Resources Management Assocation of Canada" monthly meeting in 2003, tag-teamed with Magic Software customer adidas - Salomon.  IRMAC is the Canadian affiliate of DAMA. 

If you're looking for traction on how to sell business rules, you'll find some great ideas here.  The key is tying a technical advantage to a compelling business benefit! 

(The presentation was based on your host's own standard "business benefits of Magic rules-based development" presentation.) 

You can see the original Agenda listing for the event here:

http://www.irmac.ca/0203/2003may.htm

It's interesting to note that the presentation was given in 12 minutes -- leaving lots of time for the start of the event, which was adidas.  Not all slides were presented.