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Prospecting in the Internet Age, Part 3: Cutting through the Noise

Ramon Vela — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:25:13 +0000

Business people have been always been busy; it is not a new phenomenon. If you think that they are not talking to you simply because they are too tied up with work, then you are greatly mistaken. Although the pace of modern business has picked up, there is still enough time for executives to take your calls. However, they need to think that the caller is valuable to them and so you need to be someone worth talking to. Thus the real reason that they are not talking to you, is because they believe you are someone not worth talking to.

There is going to be a large number of people calling the same prospects. Executives are constantly being bothered with pointless information and pointless calls. That is a simple fact. All of these calls and communications create a lot of noise that you must cut through to get your message heard.

To do this you must ensure that you are relevant. But how do you achieve that?

Firstly, believe that they need to talk to you and that they want to talk to you. If you have done your homework and you are talking their strategic language, you can usually cut through all that noise and get your message across. Remember, 90% of the people who are prospecting are simply repeating canned marketing messages about how wonderful their particular company is. Your message is tailor-made to your prospect.

BE ORGANIZED AND MOTIVATED
When prospecting, you really need a system that keeps track of your prospects and reminds you about following them up. This enables you to maintain a list of prospects that you are targeting on a regular basis, making sure you stay fresh and relevant with each communication.

While some might want to simply jump in and start prospecting, the time you spend organizing yourself beforehand is actually an investment and will allow you to reap dividends with the prospecting you do.
This means you spend a little time preparing who you are going to be calling that week, what you said the last time you called, and refreshing your memory by reviewing the homework you have done on that prospect. Then, when you pick up the phone, you will be ready with your personalized message, not some pat marketing speech that your prospect has already heard a hundred times before.

Doing this will give you much better results with your prospecting, which in turn will have a profound effect on your motivation.

Motivation is very important. Keeping a smile on your face after you just left 35 voice-mails in a row is near impossible. Spending several hours stuck in this cycle can be extremely discouraging. Therefore, you should do your prospecting in short bursts, allowing you to maintain your motivation levels.

These short bursts should coincide with periods of high potential prospecting. These are the times when your prospects are easily available and not buried under mountains of work. Learn their habits and routines. If they close their books in the first week of the month, then don’t call them during that period. If you know they are extremely busy at Easter, then don’t schedule a follow-up for this time.

This will give you better results, which in turn, will keep you more motivated. Nothing feels better than making a call after just getting an appointment booked.

Motivation is especially critical when, after leaving all those voice messages, you finally get someone on the phone. The last thing you want to do is sound frustrated or desperate. You want to sound confident and buoyant and the key to that is motivation.

INTERNET IDENTITY
While we all know about e-mail and Google, there are a number of other ways in which you can use the Internet to develop an online presence. We are not talking about standard marketing communications here, but rather creating your very own individual online identity.

What you need to be doing is communicating with people in your clients’ industries. Get on their blogs and forums and leave comments and participate in their discussions. This facilitates the creation of your own digital identity on the web, enabling people to get to know who you are.

In addition, every single sales person today should have some form of blog which allows them to post articles and create thoughtful content for people to find.

WHY?
Because on the Internet people trade in authority and expertise. If you have created a blog that showcases these two attributes for you, you can use this by inserting a signature block into your e-mails that links back to your blog. The guy who receives your e-mail might not call you back, but he might click on your blog and, after seeing your authority and expertise, might decide to do business with you. In this way you have used your blog to forge a form of trust before you even meet.

It all goes back to standing out from the crowd and being heard above the noise.

Also, sales people can be an excellent consultative resource for their customers, becoming trusted advisers and further enhancing their authority on a subject. This all contributes to the fostering of strong relationships with potential clients. Your blog can do this for you even while you are sleeping. You are creating an inbound lead flow for yourself by standing out from your competitors, while simultaneously enhancing your personal credibility, and therefore your leverage.

Your blog does not have to be fancy, but should be functional. And always bear in mind that that people don’t want to read long articles, so keep your posts relevant and valuable, rather than rambling.
There are numerous ways to start a free blog such as BlogSpot, or wordpress.org. There are also a number of other services out there that can help you do this very cheaply; certainly at the cost of less than $100.
Bear in mind that thousands of blogs start up every day and currently everybody seems to have a blog. This means that there is a lot of bad content out there and people are becoming jaded about reading them because they have to wade through masses of poor writing to get to something valuable. Inject a little of your personality into your blog, be honest, open and forthright in your communications and people will appreciate that.

LinkedIn is another valuable resource. While it enables you to check people out, more importantly it lets interested prospects check you out. Just as you will have done your homework on them, you should expect them to do their homework on you. Before they start a conversation with you they want to know who you are, what you are doing and how relevant you are to them. You can provide them with this information through LinkedIn, while also linking it back to your blog to further enhance your image.

GETTING PAST THE SHIELDS (GATEKEEPERS)
Administrators and screeners are notoriously difficult to bypass – after all, their job is to shield the executive from unsolicited calls. However, there is an effective tactic that can be used to get through them.
When your attempts at contact with your prospect are consistently being blocked by administrators or screeners, simply try asking them for their help. It is surprising how many sales people simply don’t do this.
All you have to say is, “Excuse me, can you help me out? How does the executive you serve like to get information about new opportunities or products, and how do they like it to be presented?” You will be surprised how many screeners open up at this point.

Remember that these people deal with obnoxious callers all the time in their jobs, so simply being polite can help you make a great deal of progress. You need to understand that these people have a very hard job to do, and they are a trusted by their executive to be an effective shield. If you can get them on your side and establish a rapport, they can be a goldmine of important advice about how to get through to your prospect, including how to set up a meeting and how to present your pitch.

If you consistently act like all the other sales people that the screener is specifically blocking, you will get nowhere. When dealing with them, simply stop being a sales person and just be a person. You will be amazed how this penetrates their defenses.

Another aspect of the screener’s job is to look for good products and services that will benefit their company. With your prior research and knowledge, you will stand out from the crowd and be able to show that you are a benefit to their company, thus facilitating your contact with your prospect.

CONCLUSION
The Internet has changed the way in which we prospect for clients. It is important to adapt to the new circumstances and to change your style accordingly.

There is no substitute for being properly prepared. Research your prospects well and make your communications specific to their needs, mirroring their corporate strategies and language of communication.
Keep your communications relevant and become someone it is worth spending time on. Remember that your prospects make a very quick decision about whether or not to read a communication. Give them something that catches their attention.

Maintain an online presence and promote your authority and expertise. Give your prospects a reason to seek you out.

Break through shields and make allies as you do so. Remember that a little etiquette and courtesy can go a long way.

Finally, always stay aggressive and relentless in your pursuit of new business. Don’t plead, don’t ask for favors, and don’t apologize for calling. Be confident, stick to your strategy, and you will prevail in the end.

For more information:
If you would like to improve your prospecting techniques or learn about training for specific sales methods, please call Ramon Vela at 323-223-0068 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 323-223-0068 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or contact him via e-mail at rvela@streetsmartsolutionprovider.com.

Prospecting in the Internet Age, Part 2: Getting Through Call Screening

Ramon Vela — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:32:22 +0000

How do I get through call screening? The advent of voice-mails and caller ID has made phone prospecting considerably more difficult. Executives commonly screen their incoming calls and it is rare when they actually call you back after you leave a voice mail. Business etiquette has changed and you are no longer expected to return calls, or even to politely decline what is being offered. Communication has become permission based and that permission is rarely given.

However, using the research we mentioned earlier you can shape your message in a way that gets the attention of the executive you are targeting. By applying your knowledge of your prospect’s corporate strategy and background, you can phrase your communications in a way that gets your foot in the door and makes them interested in hearing more of what you have to say.

It is important to realize that you should use both e-mail and phone communications to make your pitch.

E-MAIL COMMUNICATION
Keep your e-mail very simple and get right to the point in the subject line. You want to ensure that the first 40 to 60 characters communicate a punchy message to someone you are not familiar with. Their decision whether or not to open your e-mail is going to be based on that subject line, so it needs to be relevant and interesting to them. Again, your prior research will help greatly with this.

It is a common mistake to see sales e-mails that focus on how great your company is and how wonderful your products or services are. Sending out an e-mail like this means that you simply merge into the morass of other e-mails your prospect has received that day. Instead of standing out, you blend in and that is very bad for sales.

Instead your e-mail should be all about your prospect and the problems they are facing. Once again, your research will have provided these. This not only makes you stand out in their inbox and shows that you have done your spadework, but it also makes reading the e-mail important and valuable to the prospect. And that is what you want – the prospect to read that e-mail, rather than hit the delete key two seconds after scanning the subject line.

You will be surprised at just how common problems are to companies and general themes of corporate concerns emerge.

You will find that in general most companies are concerned with:
• keeping existing customers;
• obtaining new customers;
• increasing the profitability of customer relationships;
• their competition; and
• saving money

Of course, you will need to tailor these themes to the particular company that you are communicating with.

If you have assisted the competitors of your prospect to solve a particular problem, then this information should also be incorporated into the body of your e-mail. Senior and middle level executives care a great deal about the competition and this information will make them take notice and remember your communication.

It is important to insert a quick note about spam here. Do not spam your clients. A couple of e-mails every month are sufficient to keep them aware of what you can offer. It is very frustrating to try and wade through the 200 e-mails that arrive every morning in your inbox. If you want to be taken seriously and considered as a professional, then keep your e-mails to a respectful level. If you remain on target and talk about the assistance you can provide while remaining focused on their corporate strategy, you will eventually get read.

VOICE COMMUINICATION
Normally you will be doing the majority of your telephone talking to a voice mail machine. When you do leave a voice mail message, realize that you only have around 10 seconds before your prospect will decide to stop listening and delete the message. Thus those first 10 seconds are crucial, just like the subject line of your e-mail.

Once again, using your initial research will greatly help you out as you will know what is considered important by your prospect.

When you are talking about corporate strategy, always try and use the exact language that your prospect uses. It enables you to communicate concepts effectively and shows that you are on their level.

And when it comes to major accounts, you should also understand that not only should you be using both e-mail and voice communications to get your sales pitch across, but you should also be targeting multiple people within the organization. After all, there may be more than one decision maker, or you may have a business line manager who wants to take a shortcut and deal with you directly.

Let me know what you think? In part three I’ll discuss “Cutting through the noise”, “Be organized and motivated”, “Internet Identity”, and “Getting past the shields”.

This is an excerpt from a March 2010 Webinar titled “Prospecting in the Age of the Internet” with Glenn Donovan begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, a 25 year veteran of technology sales. Today he provides tools and training to sales people, helping them use proven sales techniques in a 21st century context. He can be contacted by visiting www.b2bsalestalk.com.

Prospecting in the Internet Age, Part 1: Determining a Prospect’s Corporate Strategy

Ramon Vela — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:10:41 +0000

Back in the old days if you wanted to find out about a specific company’s strategy you would have to read their press releases, or maybe even employ a clipping service that would do that for you and then send you in a report.

Today, things are very different. Nowadays, we do business in the Internet Age.

The Internet gives us access to a vast array of information with the few clicks of a mouse. And everything you ever wanted to know about a particular company is just a few search engines away.

But it is this very mass of information that can prove to be our undoing. Where do you look and how do you separate the wheat from the chaff to get to the information that is useful? And what exactly should you be looking for?

DETERMINING A PROSPECT’S CORPORATE STRATEGY
Before you begin approaching prospects, understanding their corporate strategy is crucial. It is this strategy that drives the decision making process and thus also determines the prioritization of corporate projects. Projects that receive funding are the ones that match this strategy.

Thus you need to examine the companies you are targeting and endeavor to determine their strategy, and how this is being communicated by the top executives within the company. Remember, that these communications will have their own language and you also want to match this to ensure that you are on the same wavelength.

SO WHERE DO I BEGIN LOOKING?
If one of your prospects is a publicly traded company, their financial reports – both quarterly and annual – should be online. In addition, you will often find that publicly traded companies maintain strong public relations efforts with the investment community. Therefore, if you visit the ‘investor relations’ component of their website you will normally find it to be a treasure trove of material that clearly delineates their corporate strategy and future plans such as webinars, PowerPoint presentations and videos.

Running information searches on the company’s key executives, and locating them on professional networks such as LinkedIn, enables you to draw up excellent background information on them and determine their corporate pedigree. In this way you will not just know their current position and previous positions they have occupied, but you will also know what skills and specializations they may have picked up in their career.

Remember, that in corporate America, CEO’s have an approximate shelf life of around two years. Changes in the makeup of senior executives in a company often signal a change in its strategy. Be aware of these changes and ensure your communication reflects your awareness. Sales people who take note of such changes will garner more attention.

Corporate blogs are another excellent resource worth visiting and these will assist you in determining the strategy and direction of a particular company, often giving you insight in to its internal workings.
Look at your top five prospects. Ask yourself if you really understand their corporate strategies and how these are being communicated to their top executives? If not, it is time to do some serious research before your next call.

WHAT WILL THIS ACHIEVE?
Once your homework is complete, you can create a hierarchy of companies that are going to be important to you and who you feel you can influence and do business with. By focusing on these good prospects, you can make your cold-calling far more effective. It also enables you to stand out from all the other sales teams that are approaching the same prospects as you.

Also, once you have this information at your disposal, it will enable you to have something meaningful to say to your prospect once you actually get them on the phone.

Let me know what you think? In part 2, we’ll be covering getting through call screening, email and voice communication, and cutting through the noise.

This is an excerpt from a March 2010 Webinar titled “Prospecting in the Age of the Internet” with Glenn Donovan begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, a 25 year veteran of technology sales. Today he provides tools and training to sales people, helping them use proven sales techniques in a 21st century context. He can be contacted by visiting www.b2bsalestalk.com.

The Cloud Storage Opportunity for VARs, Solution Providers

Ramon Vela — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:05:13 +0000

It is important to understand from a Value Added Reseller (VAR) or solution provider perspective that the cloud is not a direct only model. Ultimately, it is not going to be the sole realm of companies like Amazon and Google. Indeed, there are and will be many opportunities for VARs of different sizes.

The other key thing to remember is that it is recommended that the cloud be positioned as an augmentation, not as a replacement. This will help overcome the fear of security and liability. Moreover, at this point in time it cannot be said that everything can be run on a cloud, especially from a connectivity perspective.

Essentially, cloud storage has three types of deployments.

1. Cloud-only deployment. This is mostly for the S part of the SMB market (small businesses). The opportunities are generally for the provider only. However, there are still opportunities to resell, or agent, this type of solution, where the provider gives a percentage of the sale or revenue. There are a few instances where providers require a very active role from the reseller. Typically, the provider offers a dashboard where clients and activities can be monitored.

From a cloud-only deployment perspective, the VAR can supply the cloud provider with the technology, expertise, and support to run the business. There is also an opportunity to become a provider; many off-the-shelf solutions (both software and hardware) are available for this, but thorough research into these is recommended.

2. Hybrid cloud storage. This is for medium and large data centers, and it offsets some of the issues encountered in a pure cloud deployment. The solution is local; usually the equipment installed in the customer’s site to resolve bandwidth, availability, or security issues. It may be able to assist with archiving, backup, or primary storage, or it may serve as a big cache to the secondary storage located up in the cloud.

“Private or internal cloud.
This is the standard storage
project for the VAR.”

There is a big market for this type of deployment, where much acceptance is seen at present. Customers seem to be more comfortable with it because some of the data is closer to them. Providers offering the hybrid cloud are in general actively looking for people to set up, configure, optimize, and maintain the equipment. In many ways this deployment is similar to a storage platform, with 2/3 of the storage in the Internet. The providers in this space offer VAR programs where the reseller receives renewal revenue as well as a customized VAR interface that offers a dashboard into the customers. The VAR’s participation in the installation of the interface gives him higher visibility in these projects and clients.

3. Private or internal cloud. This is the standard storage project for the VAR. Typically the storage can be provided by major manufacturers or the traditional storage suppliers who have entered the cloud space. The upside to building and implementing this type of solution is that it gives the VAR a unique footprint, for all intents and purposes. In addition, there are around 6 to 10 software suppliers that provide cloud storage intelligence. These platforms are called storage servers, and they possess large capacities, having as much as 48 drives in one unit and multiple quad core processors.

The opportunities for the internal or private cloud are more targeted to larger businesses. Smaller business may need consulting help, typically to get their cloud-only service up and running.

Let me know what you think. Or better yet, share your own experiences.

Cloud Storage: Companies, Markets, and Industries Ripe with Opportunities

Ramon Vela — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:56:59 +0000

Where are the cloud storage opportunities? Here’s a quick review of the market. Enjoy.

Clearly, the smaller part of the market is already embracing cloud storage. In terms of internal or private clouds the classic enterprise market has the biggest opportunities. Companies that may fit the profile have +25 to 50 servers and +25 terabytes of storage. However, like all buyers they may still be resistant to new technology or solutions.

In the archive market, a lot of interest in the cloud is seen in any industry that is heavily regulated, such as healthcare. From a regulation standpoint, everything in healthcare just got very complicated, and they are looking for relief. The energy sector is another area where companies are becoming very concerned about regulation and compliance as well.

There are a variety of areas that spell opportunity for the VAR in backup. As of matter of fact, any company that has a need to off-site or DR data but does not have a proper site to send it can be sought out as a potential opportunity. More companies are either looking at that scenario or implementing it.

As of matter of fact, using the cloud as a disaster recovery site is very viable; most of the enterprise backup software is being built in a cloud replication type of option. There are some cloud providers that allow the VAR to sell their equipment, which will run the backup and send it up to their cloud.

Another growing opportunity is tier 2 storage capacity; this can be thought of as a big NAS used for storing documents. These scenarios are typically more regionally placed so that the user can be closer to the data. In addition, users are buying a “metro link” into a storage provider; with the use of this link, they are able to quickly load documents into their local network.

Let me know what you think? Better yet, share some of your own findings.

The following is in excerpt from our March Webinar on Cloud Storage: Identifying and Selling Cloud Storage Opportunities with George Crump, CEO of Storage Switzerland.

Sales Insights: Proving ROI in a Cloud Storage Opportunity

Ramon Vela — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:28:53 +0000

As part of your sales process, the goal should be to have the customer look at the whole scope of return on investment (ROI). Many customers are very focused on the hard cost, and it will quickly be apparent to them that in most cases cloud storage seems more expensive from a hard cost perspective.

So with that said, here are two challenges you must overcome in your sales process:

1) The goal is to get upfront agreement on soft costs such as operational management. Power, cooling, and space should be factored in and it should not be assumed that the customer has done so. A surprising number of customers have no idea of the cost of the data center electric bill.

2) After gaining agreement, the next step is to compare the costs to manage, store, house, power, and to cool the physical capacity, be it replicated to a DR site for backup or be it stored off-site for archiving, to the costs of cloud storage.

When discussing cost, an important caveat to consider in cloud storage is that some cloud storage providers may charge for retrieval bandwidth use. This is not an issue when the customer’s data will be stored off-site and never accessed again. But if data will be frequently moved in and out of the solid state of the archive, this can be a problem for the customer. In order to arrive at an accurate cost estimate one must consider any bandwidth costs associated with the cloud site.

Let me know what you think or better yet, please share your experiences and thoughts to this subject.

The following is in excerpt from our March Webinar on Cloud Storage: Identifying and Selling Cloud Storage Opportunities with George Crump, CEO of Storage Switzerland.

Sales Insights: Who Makes Cloud Storage Decisions and Why?

Ramon Vela — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:08:14 +0000

Finding who will make the decision to purchase or implement a cloud solution and what motivates them can be challenging. Much of it depends on the size of the organization being dealt with. In general, either one of the following makes this decision in an enterprise: the IT manager and the CIO.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, most of these executives see the cloud as a way to augment IT, and this references a key point; ensure that the cloud is positioned as an augmentation, not as a replacement.

Most of these executives are dealing with two common issues: archiving and backup, especially in industries that require financial compliance. Most organizations do not have the wherewithal to store and maintain data for the amount of time requested of them. This is especially true right now in healthcare; healthcare markets are booming, and need outsourcing of data retention.

From a classic IT sense, many of the motivating factors or pain-points technology executives may feel surround backup, such as:

• Data migration to an offsite facility;
• High expenses of the offsite facility; or
• Problems with the facility itself.

These may be considered low-hanging fruit.

Take for example the M part of the SMB market, this IT person is reminiscent of a juggler at the circus that spins plates on many little sticks; he is performing many tasks at the same time. Ironically, as good as these IT managers are, with their breadth of knowledge, they are always looking for a way to offload some headaches. So the opportunity arises: can the solution provider come in and solve their problems?

Another group of executives a VAR may want to approach are the line of business managers. There are times where a person in charge of a certain section of a business decides that they need to move faster than the IT department.

Ninety percent of the time a business line manager’s problem is either a collaboration issue or a content distribution issue. For instance, in a collaboration issue, there may be a need to share a specific data set in a work flow fashion across the country; this allows multiple users to access applications like Excel simultaneously. This is definitely a good cloud storage opportunity for the VAR.

Let me know what you think or please feel free to share your own sales insight with others.

The following is in excerpt from our March Webinar on Cloud Storage: Identifying and Selling Cloud Storage Opportunities with George Crump, CEO of Storage Switzerland.

Sales Insights: How to Handle Security Issues in a Cloud Storage Sale?

Ramon Vela — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:47:43 +0000

The following is in excerpt from our March Webinar on Cloud Storage: Identifying and Selling Cloud Storage Opportunities with George Crump, CEO of Storage Switzerland.

One of the challenges in the market regarding cloud storage and cloud computing are the issues of security and reliability. Here’s the first thing I would do: initiate a level setting.

Cloud storage has been held in a much higher regard than regular internal storage, perhaps more than it should have been, but it is not inferior in security level.

The question really comes to this: Is the data center really more secure than the cloud? For instance, many of you may have seen instances where people have been left alone in data centers, where they could have easily walked up to a machine and tampered with its data or worse. In the news there have been countless instances of users walking out of data centers with terabytes of data on USB drives. So really, is the data center really more more secure than the cloud?

This should definitely be discussed with prospective customers with some prudence. Keep in mind, there is still lots of education and trust building but this is first challenge you have to overcome. And this challenge, right or wrong, is mainly in how the customer may view the idea of cloud storage and security.

But that’s your job as a sales person, right? Let me know what your experience is?

CXOs: How to Position Yourself as an Industry Expert through Social Media, Content, & Speaking

Ramon Vela — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:17:26 +0000

Space is limited. Join us for a Webinar on May 13

Today’s competition is stronger than ever. So how do you stand out and get that sale (hint: this works for sales people too) when people aren’t as loyal as they used to be? How do you get their attention in an ever growing sea of noise when they’re so often swayed by price rather than quality? How do you build trust in a post-recession economy? One answer is to become recognized as an expert in your industry, someone other people seek out for information.

Join me, while I interview Dave Sobel. As the CEO of Evolve Technologies, Sobel has successfully positioned and branded himself as a trusted resource whom people seek out for information and consultation. He is a blogger, regular contributor to SearchSystemsChannel.com and ChannelInsider.com, author of “Virtualization: Defined – A Primer for the SMB Consultant”, sought after industry speaker (frequently speaking at Microsoft events), and participant and facilitator for HTG Peer Groups in the United States and around the world.

TOPICS
On our webinar, you’ll learn the secrets, shortcuts, and steps to becoming a sought-after-industry-expert (or “Industry Rock Star), including:

• Why get started – the value of content and celebrity
• How to get started writing and promoting a blog
• How to use video to communicate your value
• Tips on how to write, publish, and promote your first book
• Tips on how to write and publish your articles
• How to use social media to brand and position yourself
• How to extend your personal brand to your company and employees
• How to promote yourself as an industry speaker

ABOUT DAVE SOBEL
Dave Sobel is the founder and CEO of Evolve Technologies, a consulting firm that provides information technology (IT) and computer networking services to the small business, faith-based and nonprofit communities in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Evolve Technologies provides a wide array of services including server installation, virus protection, network security, backup services, and complete information technology outsourcing.

Date: Thursday, May 13, 2010

Time: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

We look forward to your participation in this exciting event!

Want Better Results? Let Your Personality Drive Your Marketing

Ramon Vela — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:21:58 +0000

Just because you’re marketing to businesses, doesn’t mean you have to hide your personality. Many solution providers tend to de-emphasize personality. They shy away from using their CEO, president or some other spokesperson in their organization. I’m not sure why perhaps it’s because they believe, incorrectly in my opinion, that it is not professional. However, using personality to help drive the marketing of a business can be highly profitable. In fact, some of the largest tech companies are run by people with oversized personalities and these personalities are used to market the business in some form or fashion. Think Apple or Microsoft.

WHY APPLE IS SO SUCCESSFUL
The personality of Apple is intertwined with Steve Jobs’ personality. Steve Jobs is bigger than life as is Apple Computers. When you think Apple, you think of Steve Jobs. He is outspoken and vocal and whether it’s a new laptop, tablet computer or a new phone, Jobs is out in public announcing the product…and sometimes, discussing the product’s flaws. It is his strong personality that helps drive the company and make it successful. People know about Jobs, they know him to be a genius and this translates to trust and believe in him. That is why Apple products can sell at a premium. Jobs isn’t featured in every product ad but his personality permeates the company and its image. He appears at trade shows and other events and helps to generate buzz for Apple.

PERSONALITY CAN BE A DIFFERENTIATOR
People—whether consumers or your business clients—buy from a person, not just a business. By using a personality to help market, you are building trust with your customers, positioning yourself in the marketplace and building your brand. People always like to say they’re buying from Joe Smith of XYZ company—that guy in the commercial with funny glasses or the guy who was interviewed in the newspaper. It’s easier to market and differentiate a company when there is an individual, not just a staid corporate entity.

Think about the products you use. Chances are you recall them far more readily if you can think of a person behind the product. Remember, when Ray Kroc appeared in commercials for McDonald’s? Walt Disney used to promote his theme parks and television programs. TK Dyson appears in advertisements for his company’s vacuum products. Remember the Colonel (okay I’m dating myself here)?

WHEN MARKETING TO BUSINESSES YOU STILL MARKET TO PEOPLE
You should not assume that marketing to businesses is so different than marketing to consumers. You’re still selling to individuals—and a human as the image of the company or product remains one of the strongest ways to sell the product. Sometimes, the connection is not even direct. For instance, sometimes you see a sport star in a commercial for, lets say a consulting company. What does the sports star have to do with consulting; probably nothing. But it’s the connection, even if subtly.

You have to promote your expertise and the solutions that you can provide to your clients. But a valuable message can be the personality of your company CEO or the personality of someone who represents your company. If you’re not lucky enough to have a “personality” within your company, then find someone. Look to a local sports figure. For a modest fee, the sports figure can represent your company at events or do commercials for your services. After all, players have to think beyond their playing days so they may genuinely be interested in moving into a business venture.

THE BOTTOM-LINE
• Having a “personality” associated with your company is a positive.
• If you don’t have someone at your company who can be the “face” of the business, hire someone for this role.
• Your expertise and solutions are still critical but if your clients know your “personality,” this may end up being a key differentiator against a back drop of faceless competitors.

Let me know what you think.

Is this Kid the World’s Greatest Salesperson?

Ramon Vela — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:50:27 +0000

I’ve always thought kids are some of the best sales people. Especially since they rarely take no for an answer. But watch this kid. He’s got some mad sales skills.

Btw, if you are sales person check out the other videos in this series. They are from a contest by Olgivy (an ad agency). The contest is called “The search for the World’s greatest salesperson.

Let me know what you think?

For Solution Providers, Branding Should be All About the Customer

Ramon Vela — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:29:53 +0000

When discussing marketing, you hear people talk about “branding.” Usually, what pops into mind is the color of a company’s logo or some bells & whistles on their website. To me, this is not branding so I discourage clients from using this phrase until they understand what branding really means.

Branding is more than little visual tricks that identify your company. It’s a way of saying who you are, what you are and what you do—it’s how you can position your company in the marketplace. If you’re spending millions of collars on marketing and advertising, then you can worry about the cosmetic—the colors and shape of your logo or packaging. But if you’re a small or medium sized tech company or solution provider, your brand is all about what you are and what you do for your clients.

It’s not just your insignia but a quality that permeates everything in your company from how your receptionist answers the phone; how your work is delivered; customer service before, during and after a sale to how you interact with customers, your community and others in your industry.
Instead of creating a logo, spend some time asking customers how they perceive your company. Ask the following questions:

1. What do they see when they view your marketing brochure?
2. What do they feel about your service?
3. Do they understand the company’s mission?
4. Do they see that mission articulated in what you do?

YOUR BRAND IS WHAT YOU DO
The heart of the matter is what you do! That’s your brand. There’s no point trying to brand yourself in a way that doesn’t connect with what your customers say about your business. Think about your own choices as a consumer. Target says it provides quality goods at a low price but the retailer’s return policy is stringent—and certainly has annoyed many shoppers. Instead of extending the positives of the Target brand, the store’s return policy is a negative to the shoppers. Who wants to shop in a store that is so focused on its own policies that it’s willing to lose customers?

As a business, the first person your customers will speak to when they call your company is usually the receptionist. Have you ever called your receptionist without identifying yourself? Is she or he polite and enthusiastic or hostile? The receptionist is the first person that a prospective customer encounters and this “first meeting” is part of your brand. If the receptionist is rude or unhelpful, you may lose a new customer before you even had a chance to get their business.

LET YOUR CUSTOMER COMMENTS GUIDE YOUR BRANDING
Ask your customers what they think about your customer service. If a customer had a problem and called your customer service department, what would happen? Can your staffers figure out almost anything to solve a customer issue? These are the important issues to consider if you’re thinking about your branding. Your brand should reflect the “reality” of your company.

Many companies resist asking these questions. The real reason they hesitate is that they’re afraid of the answers. You need to be prepared to hear criticisms. If the person talking is still your customer, you have room to improve. The answers you receive will provide you with the good, bad and ugly about your business and you need to be receptive to the comments.

It’s probably easier to ask questions of existing customers but you should also try to speak with prospective and new customers. You want to start off a relationship on the right foot so you should try to find out whether your company is fulfilling the customer’s expectations.

GATHERING CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Once you have a clear sense of what your company is doing right, this is the message that you want to incorporate in your branding. Your service and what distinguishes your work from your competitors is what makes your brand.

For instance, when you talk with your customers and they provide you with examples of your work, you will probably hear some phrases that you can incorporate in your branding. You might hear something like, “When we call, you guys are always able to sit down, analyze the problem and figure out a solution.” Maybe the client says, “No problem is too big for you.” That’s a great phrase and you should ask the client if you can use his or her quote in your marketing material. Joe Smith of XYZ Technology says that “No problem is too big for TK Company to solve.” This kind of quote is far more convincing than any slogan you could invent.

On the flip side, your customers may also have some criticisms. If they say that another company outperforms you, ask how you can improve or what your competitor does that is superior to your work. Maybe you’ll hear about something that you’re doing that you didn’t think was special. If several customers compliment a particular service, then you may want to highlight that in your branding and possibly rebrand yourself.

GATHER EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK
You should also ask your employees about how you’re doing. Periodically, we take a half a day so employees can give their views on customer service and other issues. It’s extraordinary but sometimes your employees’ perspective is completely different from your customers’ perception. But if there is a discrepancy between your customers’ views and those of your staff, you should worry. It means that your customers could leave you because they’ve stopped trusting you. And, if they don’t trust you anymore, the customers will resort to the least common denominator and that is price. No one will pay a premium for lousy service; they will switch to the cheapest company. That’s why you should worry about a discrepancy in your message.
Instead of focusing on the cosmetic (colors, logs, website design), examine what your company is doing. If you’re doing a first-rate job and doing what you’ve promised, let the world know. You don’t have to say it in a fancy or expensive way but if your message matches your performance, you’re on the road to success.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Branding is much more than an appearance. Your brand is what you do for your customers and whether you deliver on the customer expectations. To create a brand, you need to get feedback from both your customers and your employees. If you hear criticisms, then you need to rethink your policies. If your company is praised, use these words in your branding message. A client endorsement is stronger than a creative slogan.

Let me know what you think. You can reach me at rvela@streetsmartsolutionprovider.com.

Happy Easter from StreetSmartSolutionProvider, LLC

Ramon Vela — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:30:14 +0000

For everyone who celebrates Easter, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Positioning the Cloud with Customers: Augmentation or Replacement?

Ramon Vela — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:41:40 +0000

If you look out into the market, everyone now is a cloud vendor. As buzzwords go in tech, this one is the latest and greatest. Which, as a solution provider, could actually help you in your sales efforts, here’s why?

Your clients are probably trying to understand and figuring out how, if at all, it can help them with their business. In other words, it gives you a reason to speak to them about it. But before you start pitching you may want to figure out first, what is the best way to position the cloud; Is it a replacement (lots of pure cloud vendors would like you to do this) or an augmentation?

FOR NOW THE CLOUD IS AN AUGMENTATION
I’ll get straight to the point. Based on our experience with end-users, we would suggest if you are a solution provider, that you always position the cloud as an augmentation not a replacement. There are still a lot of fears over security and liability, which quite frankly we aren’t at the point yet, especially from a connectivity stand point as well as other issues, where we can say that you can run everything possible on a cloud. You can maybe run a lot of things on a cloud but not everything, so it’s safer and more prudent to position cloud storage and cloud computing as an augmentation.

From our experience, there are two groups that make cloud decisions: the IT manager and CIO and the business line manager. (We’ll cover this topic of who to best target for cloud opportunities in a later post.) For now, let’s focus on IT. We are seeing more and more that these folks have begun to look at this as way to augment IT and not as a replacement. A big reason why? Most of these IT execs are dealing with two big headaches that can be solved with the cloud. This issues are archive and backup.

Let’s give you an example from George Crump, president of Storage Switzerland that I think helps to illustrate our point about augmentation vs replacement.

George: I was actually working with an end-user about 2 weeks ago and he had a huge retention requirement. Interestingly enough, it was in the energy space and his legal counsel made a sudden change in decision on how they would retain data, from pretty lackadaisical way to keeping everything for a 7 year period.

The CIO who I was speaking to at the time, said it was not an issue to go out and acquire the storage, the issue was where do I put it. There was no room left on the data center. You couldn’t get more power to the data center. So even if he had all the money in the world it wouldn’t matter and actually that was almost an exact quote. So instead, what we talked to him about was ok, what if you leveraged an external source to put this data. What would the cost ramifications be and things like that.

This is a great example of how cloud storage became an indispensable solution for this CIO’s archiving problem.

BOTTOM-LINE
Lastly, one thing to keep in mind when selling cloud storage or computing opportunities is that its knowing who to talk to and knowing what you are going to recommend and also knowing what the ROI delta is between keeping it internal and keeping it external that makes a huge difference.

In almost every case that we have seen: internal storage hard cost is always cheaper then cloud storage hard cost. Where it becomes less expensive is when you factor in things like space power cooling as well as time to manage. So being prepared and knowledgeable from a sales perspective is crucial.

We’ll have more post regarding who to talk to, how to talk to them, and who are the best prospects, and what industries are ripe with opportunity.

Let me know what you think?

This article was written by Ramon Vela, CEO of StreetSmartSolutionProvider. It is based from a March 23rd Webinar titled “How to Identify & Sell Cloud Storage Service Opportunities” with George Crump, president of Storage Switzerland.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Jumpstart your cloud computing sales by becoming more knowledgeable, prepared, and ready to immediately position, identify, qualify, discuss, sell, and close “Cloud Storage or computing” opportunities. If you are ready to build up a cloud storage practice then inquire about our customized half day, full day or two day live or web-based consultation, services, and training packages. Please call 1-800-505-5972 ext. 11 and ask for Ramon Vela.

Marketing 101: What’s the Long Term Value of a Customer?

Ramon Vela — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:47:03 +0000

What is the most common business mistake made by solution providers? Don’t worry I won’t hold you in suspense. In my nearly 20 years of sales and marketing of technology products and services and working with the channel, I find that the most common business mistake is: many solution providers do not regularly invest their own funds in marketing.

Furthermore, I find that this costly mistake is really a lack of understanding of the concept that I refer to as the “long term value (LTV) of a customer” or LTV for short. In business there are all sort of ratios that you should be using to run your business, so think of this as something along those lines. And in terms of importance its should rank high in importance. Why? Let’s explore it now.

In regards to investing your own funds in marketing you business, it’s easy when you’re marketing a particular product from a vendor such as HP or IBM. These manufacturers provide marketing dollars to promote their products. You know that a percentage of the sales can be applied to marketing, provided the manufacturer’s guidelines are followed. But when I suggest that solution providers should spend their own money on marketing, they’re resistant, again, primarily because they don’t understand the long term value of a customer.

I also understand why you might be hesitant to spend funds from your own pocket. After all, you’ve got limited resources and if the vendors aren’t helping to defray the costs, it’s hard to justify paying for a marketing campaign? However, if you approach the concept of marketing differently and with some creativity, I believe you’ll see why it can have a positive impact on your bottom line.

DETERMINING LONGTERM VALUE OF CUSTOMER
So what exactly is LTV or the “long term value of a customer”? Simply put it is the net profit from a customer. You need to start by understanding how much money you’re making from a particular customer now and in the future.

Assume that a particular client stays with you for a few years. Based on their existing purchasing patterns, how much in sales would you make over the next year…two years…three years? This isn’t complicated but it isn’t easy either (but who says business is easy), it just takes some hard analysis, some smart selling and customer service and a commitment that you are going to do everything you can to retain customers.

You need to examine the buying patterns of your clients. How long do they stay with you as clients? How much net profit do they generate? (By the way, you should be doing this analysis anyway. Doing this will help you determine customer retention strategies as well as what services can you provide that will increase margin.)

EXAMPLES
Once you understand how much profit the client generates for your business, you can figure out whether a marketing expense is reasonable. For example, let’s say you’re trying to get six new customers that meet your customer acquisition strategy. It will cost an estimated $1,200 per customer, for a total of $7,200. Now if each of these clients provide more than $30,000 in profit annually, then the $1,200 marketing cost seems pretty reasonable, right? If you take your projections out farther, if each client is likely to generate $50,000 or $100,000 in revenue over the next few years, then the ratio of expenditure to earnings is even more appealing.

MARKETING AS AN INVESTMENT
Let’s look at it another way. If there was a guaranteed 5% return on an investment opportunity, you’d jump at the chance especially in this market. Unfortunately, the stock market offers no guaranteed returns and even bank accounts are paying so little in interest that you’d be hard pressed to get a guaranteed return anywhere these days. But if you could spend $30,000 in a marketing campaign and generate close to a million dollars in revenue, then those marketing dollars are clearly the right investment for your business. Just as most stock market investors are in the market for the long haul, you have to view your marketing dollars as an investment for the long term future of your business.

BOTTOMLINE
The bottom line—you have to know the long term value (LTV) of your customers. Once you know this, then you’ll be able to assess your marketing expenditures. Marketing among solution providers is much the same as it was 20 years ago. Solution providers are still reluctant to spend any money marketing their services.

However, by knowing the LTV of customer, it can help you plan your overall long term strategy. It enables you to figure out how much to spend on resources overall within your company. Also, you’ll be able to determine what you will or won’t spend per prospect or per campaign. Over the past few years, solution provider businesses flourished.

But now with the recession, it’s all the more important that you be more creative to keep your business successful. During boom times, little mistakes may not have a dramatic impact on your business but in a tight economy, any type of mistake or blunder can have a huge impact on your business’ bottom line.

EVALUATING LTV – QUESTIONS TO ASK:
• What is your ideal target client?
• Which clients are giving you the most revenue and the most profits?
• How are you tracking your deals? (Knowing which of your clients has spent money on what—i.e—a server—lets you market another product—i.e. virtualization—to them.)
• What is your net profit from each of your customers?
• How long do customers on average stay clients (and why)?
• What makes clients leave?

Remember your customers’ needs change over time as their business expands. That’s why long term value is not a static number. You need to look at the profitability of your customer for the next two to five years but you should be evaluating the LTV every month. This means you should know the profitability of your customers as well as the expenses you incur.

Let me know what you think? Did you find this valuable? Reply here or email me at rvela@streetsmartsolutionprovider.com.

Why in Sales, You Must Be Ruthless to Succeed

Ramon Vela — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:28:22 +0000

“I want my sales reps to be ruthless”. This is the feedback I received earlier this month from a regional sales manager at a solution provider client of mine. His comment got me thinking.

I honestly don’t know if he meant that he wanted his team to be a mean, cold hearted group of SOBs when it comes to selling. He may have. However, instead I think it was a little deeper than that.

I think what he meant was, something that I’ve noticed with a lot of folks both young and old. From the younger sales folks it seams like many expect too much for little effort. And from the older folks…well many have been burned with what worked before not working now. And so many just don’t seek the risk and the reward enough, instead they seek shelter in a steady paycheck and less risk.

WHAT SALES IS ALL ABOUT
Believe me, I could understand that. Probably better than most and I have the scars to prove it. But if you want to be in sales, you should understand what being in sales is all about. Being a salesperson is about high risk for high reward. It’s about seeking the uncomfortableness of confrontation and rejection because you know that beyond that lies winning.

I know this truth isn’t what you want to hear. You don’t hear this from Anthony Robbins or the politicians in charge or countless others promising you, you’ll get rich. They make it seem easy. While I’m here to say it is not.

So to my friend the sales manager, I say I agree.

SALES REPS MUST BE RUTHLESS
Your sales reps should and must be ruthless. Not SOBs but they must be ruthless in their action. They must make sales calls when others won’t. They must keep going when others stop. They must run right through walls when others prefer to knock, and they must keep going, going, going. Ruthless in their sales actions and ruthless and voracious in the desire to fail, learn, and win, preferably in that order.

Let me know what you think. And I don’t mind if you disagree. Constructive confrontation is a great way to learn.

(Btw, I know there is no such word as uncomfortableness. I like it anyway.)

Sales Webinar: How to Identify & Sell Cloud Storage Service Opportunities

Ramon Vela — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:00:20 +0000

When offering cloud storage services to your customers, your job as a sales person will be to show them the value that you could add to cloud storage services, and how you will protect them from reliability and security threats posed by it.

Join me, Ramon Vela, CEO of StreetSmartSolutionProvider, and George Crump, President and Lead Analyst for Storage Switzerland, as we discuss client pain points and considerations that drive a potential cloud storage services opportunity. Here’s what we will cover:

• Is cloud storage reliable enough for customers to use for storage of critical data?
• What does a typical prospective cloud storage customer look like, in terms of company size and business needs?
• What are the key considerations for customers that are planning to use public/private cloud services?
• Are there integration services that a solution provider can offer around cloud storage? And how to identify them?

We’ll provide tangible answers to each one of these areas.

>> Sign Up Now!

About George Crump
George Crump is President and Founder of Storage Switzerland. With 25 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US, he has seen the birth of such technologies as RAID, NAS, and SAN. Prior to founding Storage Switzerland he was CTO at one the nations largest storage integrators where he was in charge of technology testing, integration, and product selection.

About Ramon Vela
Ramon Vela, an entrepreneur, author and speaker, is a foremost sales and direct-response marketing expert. He “cut his teeth” working for, building, and starting VAR and channel organizations, and uses straight talk to pinpoint the critical elements that make the difference between sales success and failure. He can be contacted by visiting www.StreetSmartSolutionProvider.com.

Become an Expert and Trusted Advisor, Not Just a Seller of Products

Ramon Vela — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:06:39 +0000

Every street smart solution provider should see themselves as an expert—and position themselves that way in the eyes of their clients. Not following this strategy is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

Instead of trying to become the expert, too many SPs rely on their vendor’s marketing and brand. This focuses the attention and the customer awareness on the product and the vendor, not on your expertise. Think about it—if your customers keep thinking of NetApp, IBM, HP, etc., they’re less likely to think of you as an important and indispensable resource.

A solution provider should describe themselves as a partner and trusted advisor. You need to communicate to your customers that “you understand their business and challenges and that you can help them.” Unfortunately, very few SPs position themselves in this way. Actually let me restate that. Many SPs say they are experts but they show little proof of this expertise. Which bring us to the next section.

TANGIBLE WAYS TO BE SEEN AS AN EXPERT
As I am fond of saying, a confused mind chooses what it knows— and for your clients that usually ends up being price. However, if you position yourself as an expert—by having a content such as a blog, newsletter, articles, ebook or book—you will gain a leg up on the competition. Creating this “expertise” is not as hard as you think.

For example, let’s say you wanted to create an audio series. Your tech department should be able to provide a few 3-4 minute responses to some pressing IT problem that may be common among you’re your customer and prospect base. This audio then becomes content and could be used and leveraged in tons of different ways.

When I first started a blog, I wasn’t sure whether it was worth the time involved. Was I wrong! I ended up getting a $40,000 project because of it. Someone read my blog and asked me to ghost write a blog for an Fortune 100 tech executive.

Other ways to position yourself as an expert include:

Speaking
Writing a report that you can provide to current and prospective customers
Webinars – I suggest you regularly hold webinars. The cost is reasonable (about $900 annually) for a service that will handle the logistical details. Sketch out a list of current and potential customers and invite them to a webinar. You should also have the webinar captured and recorded so you can make it available to people in the future. You can invite prospects to download it, and capture their contact info and send it via email or in snail mail with a note like “Here’s my recent webinar on X topic that I thought you’d find useful.”
Because you’re writing and speaking, your customers will quickly change their perception of you. You’re no longer just a product reseller but you’re a valued expert with important knowledge that can help them with their problems.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Adopt the model used by consultants. Position yourself as an expert whom people will want to hire. You don’t want people choosing to hire you because of price. You want them to choose you because you have handled similar projects for other clients and you are knowledgeable in the field. An indispensable expert and trusted advisor.

Let me know what you think?

Regular Communication With Your Customers and Prospects is Key

Ramon Vela — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:34:29 +0000

One of the biggest mistakes solution providers (SP) make is the belief that their customers only buy from them and not their competitors. The fact is, large companies buy from several SPs. That’s why it’s very important that you communicate regularly with your customers. If you’re not doing so, then you’re leaving the customer in the hands of a smart competitor.

By assuming your customers have been exposed to someone else’s products and services pitch, you know that you could lose these customers unless they are constantly reminded of the value you bring to the relationship. This means that you have to communicate with your customers on a regular basis. You have to let them know about discounts, promotions, technology solutions related to the solution you designed for them, etc.

HELP THEM MAKE BETTER DECISIONS
You should follow up by sending your reports, whitepapers, videos, podcast about the next steps. You could do lunch and learns and briefings. In other words, provide them valuable information so that they (the customer) can make better decisions. You can communicate in a variety of different ways — via email, faxes, even snail mail but you must be doing it on a regular basis.

A great way to view this is from the perspective of long term value. How can you interact regularly with your client to build a stronger relationship? What can you do to add value to your relationship so that the client thinks of you, not your competitors?

A sale is just the start of a long-term relationship. To establish this alliance and build trust, you need to talk to your customer often.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Your client relationship shouldn’t end with a sale or at the completion of a project.
Communicate regularly with your existing customers and prospects.
Maintaining an ongoing dialog will distinguish your services from other companies.
Let your clients know about pricing, technology, new services and anything else that they will find relevant, valuable and basically help them make better and smarter decisions.

Let me know what you think?

War Room Discussion: Prospecting in the Age of the Internet

Ramon Vela — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:03:26 +0000

The War Room is a monthly call and podcast where you get no B.S. technology sales strategies and techniques in 30 minutes or less. If you are serious about sales and have a no-holds bar desire to win then this live call is for you.

This month, join me, Ramon Vela, and Glenn Donovan, Founder of B2B SalesTalk, as we tackle this month’s “War Room” topic: Prospecting in the Age of the Internet.

When: March 11 9am PDT / 12pm EDT
Register

We’ll discuss:
1. Develop killer strategies for your high value opportunities.
2. How to get to the right people
3. How to create a ‘digital signpost’ on the internet for yourself.

NOTE:
This call is live. If you want to chime in with questions please log on using the GotoWebinar info and use the chat room function for questions.

If you are on the road, please use phone option and email questions to rvela@streetsmartsolutionprovider.com before the call.

All registrants (whether you attended or not) will receive a copy of the podcast.

About Glenn Donovan
Glenn is a 25 year veteran of technology sales. Today he provides tools and training to sales people, helping them use proven sales techniques in a 21st century context. He can be contacted by visiting www.b2bsalestalk.com.

Why the “War Room”?

Sales is civilized warfare. If you find that metaphor too brutal, or if you are not prepared to fight, you should not enlist. As long as aggressive competitors exist – and in this rich and dynamic world they always will – you will be under attack. Your competitor’s job is to capture business and then defend that new perimeter. So is yours.

Now, a lot of sales is creative. It’s strategic. Cerebral. But eventually you must make a move – and then the fighting begins. Even the most brilliant campaigns suffer occasional setbacks, and it is during those moments of crisis that the true mettle of the sales team is tested.

– Adapted from William H. Davidow’s Marketing High Technology – an Insider’s View

Beware Vendors: Why Solution Providers are the True GateKeepers

Ramon Vela — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:47:10 +0000

One of the goals of StreetSmartSolutionProvider is to empower solution providers (SP) as gatekeepers. As the expert bringing knowledge, advice and offers, YOU are the ‘owner’ of the relationship with your customers. Don’t underestimate the power in being the gatekeeper.

I think it’s because of the recession, solution providers have forgotten how important they are to customers. It’s true that large vendors like IBM or HP have huge sales forces that seem to dominate the enterprise market but for the many small and midsized businesses, solution providers are essential. Too often, however, we don’t fully accept or appreciate this role.

In order to fully appreciate it, you have to invest in your own marketing to find and keep customers as well as grow your business. It seems much easier to sit back and let the vendors provide back-end marketing money. Unfortunately, then, you are beholden to that one vendor and its guidelines. This isn’t the way to build your business. You own the relationship. The customers are yours, not the vendors and you should be choosing which vendors are best for your customers.

Here What You Need To Do
You need to look at marketing differently. Stop focusing on just short term sales and learn the art and science of finding what customers want and need, in other words: marketing. Remember too, that the best time to market as a Solution Provider is when you don’t have to market. But in these times, its simply a matter of survival.

Here are four key steps toward becoming an empowered gatekeeper/solution provider:

1) Establish your own identity as an expert. If you sell one vendor’s products and the vendor has its logo on everything, you lose your identity in the eyes of your customer. Essentially, you’re turning your customer over to the vendor. Your value—expertise, marketing and a personality—is what a vendor cannot provide to your customers.

2) Have your own marketing plan and budget. You can work with selected vendors but their money should supplement your current marketing budget & strategy. Without the right strategy, you’re likely to grab onto the latest buzz word without any planning. Without a plan in place, offering the ‘latest’ or ‘greatest’ won’t be successful.

3) Understand your customer. What are your customers talking about? What do they want? Analyze your customer base to help determine where you should be going.

4) Accept that marketing isn’t a panacea. Good marketing can’t fix bad economics. If you aren’t selling the right product mix, if your margins are to low, if your services are not priced correctly, if your customer service is lousy, if you aren’t managing your business efficiently, then the best marketing in the word won’t help you. Know the long term value of your clients. Make sure you are tracking your marketing sales dollars and ROI. And please, if you need help managing your business, find help don’t live in denial.

The Bottom Line
All Solution Providers need to be the gatekeepers to their customers. To insure your customers are loyal to you, not a vendor, you need to invest in your business, specifically marketing. If you can’t afford to pay for your own marketing then there is something wrong. You need to build in marketing expenses in your overall budget; use your vendors help but make sure you have allocated some investment.

Let me know what you think?

Best Practices in Solution Provider Marketing

Ramon Vela — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:58:23 +0000

When speaking with solution providers, the questions I constantly get are what’s working? What’s getting results?

My answer is usually that there is no magic bullet or quick fix. Sure, there are tactics that work for a time but soon even those tactics run their course. I know that’s not what most people want to hear because that’s the truth. This isn’t a sitcom where a challenge or problem is addressed and fixed in 30 minutes.

The fact of the matter, its not complicated to be success at marketing technology but it does take work.

With that said, I do want to leave people with something to work with. These “best practices” are things that you need to keep in mind, when building a set of marketing activities for marketing technology. Here they are:

- Marketing activities need to be consistent and frequent
Deliver the same value message in all marketing materials and vehicles, and frequently deliver that message on a regular consistent basis.

- Marketing should ideally use multi-touch approach
Using multiple ways of delivering your marketing message, such as email, direct mail, tele-prospecting, social media activities, etc.

- Marketing should utilize marketing to build trust with clients
This can be done in two ways: First, use content and second, positioning oneself or company as the expert and authority in the marketplace. As an example you can do this by using content and social media, videos, and blogs to illustrate expertise in a given area.

You don’t have to have the most creative, dazzling, awe-inspiring marketing (although that nice to have sometimes too) in order to be successful. And you don’t have to be an expert. Just be consistent, frequent, communicate your value to them in various ways, and look for ways to build trust so they feel assured that you can help them solve their problems.

Let me know what you think.

Webinar: How to Effectively Sell & Market Deduplication – February 23rd

Ramon Vela — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:06:39 +0000

Slick sales techniques are nice, but if you really want to gain your prospect’s trust and make more sales, there is nothing like understanding your customer’s pain points, what drives them to choose a particular solution, and whether a particular solution is good for them.

Join me, Ramon Vela, CEO of StreetSmartSolutionProvider, and George Crump, President and Lead Analyst for Storage Switzerland, as we discuss “Deduplication” from a sales person’s point of view.

We will discuss client pain points and considerations that drive a potential Deduplication opportunity. Here’s what we will cover:

• What customer pain points are potential drivers for a Deduplication opportunity
• Which projects could be good entry points to selling a Deduplication implementation
• What good qualifying questions determine if Deduplication is good fit for a client
• What potential projects could compliment or follow a Deduplication implementation

We’ll provide tangible answers to each one of these areas.

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About George Crump
George Crump is President and Founder of Storage Switzerland. With 25 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US, he has seen the birth of such technologies as RAID, NAS, and SAN. Prior to founding Storage Switzerland he was CTO at one the nations largest storage integrators where he was in charge of technology testing, integration, and product selection.

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What did you learn in 2009?

Ramon Vela — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:15:59 +0000

I don’t know about you but I will not miss 2009. And I am so glad it is over.

With that said, I have learned more about my business, my customers, my partners and myself in the last 365 days than I have in the last 40 years. So before we get rolling in 2010, let’s take summary of what we learned in 2009. What would you do differently? What did you do right?

THAT DAMN RECESSION
Like many in this country, I wasn’t prepared for the recession. So when business literally stopped in late 2008/early 2009 for a few months, lets just say I was hit with a painful slap from reality. I boy when she hits, she hits hard.

Around this time, a family member also became more ill and we had some insurance problems which only added to our financial problems.

WHAT I LEARNED
However, one way or another I made it. Someday, I’ll elaborate on the details but for now just know that things got really hard for a while but somehow we made it. From a business perspective, here’s what I learned and some things I’ll do different:

1) When Disaster is eminent, get the hell out of the way (and fast). I saw what was coming but I didn’t act fast enough. I could have started cutting back sooner. I should have analyzed my financials and done what was necessarily but I procrastinated. I chose to do nothing, hoping things would just get better. Boy was I wrong.

2) When you have to let someone go, do it fast and quick. Once you know what you have to do, I have found it is better to just do it quick and get it over with. I hate letting people go but when you have no other choice it is better to just do it. Do it with respect but you have to do it.

3) Count your beans no matter how boring it is. I love my business. I love selling. I love speaking with customers and helping other business owners grow their business. What I didn’t love was keeping the books straight and keepng an eye on expenses. I had so much money coming in at one point that I didn’t pay attention to what was going out. Bad move.

4) Reinvent your business, often. I always prided myself on observing and learning what customers needed and wanted and designing programs that met those needs. However it wasn’t until I was forced to really look at my business that realized how many things I should have changed. Now, I examine everything about my business and often find things I can improve and I often find ways to save money while still running things more efficiently. Its amazing what you see and what you can do when you are forced.

5) Save and prepare for a rainy day. Somehow you think you are prepared but then you find out you really aren’t. I made the unconcious decision, that money was going to keep pouring in to my business that I din’t prepare sufficently.

Here’s a few thing I did do right:

6) Keep your customers close. I count myself as fortunate that I have great customers. And have always made it a point to speak with them often to hear what they are up to, what they are challenged with, and what they want to get done. knowing this was essential in reinventing my business.

7) Keep your customer close, but keep your family closer. I love my business and anyone who knows me that I work all the time. 12am, 2pm, and on and on; you’ll find me working. I can’t help it but I love it. But I learned that it is only business. If it wasn’t here, I’d survive. The same thing with money. It’s just money. I can earn more. I can rebuild my business. But my family that is something you can’t get back easily once you lose. Thank God I didn’t lose it. Thank God I have a family who believes in me and supports me (and who sticks with me through thick and thin).

So there it is. A very honest and forthright post to start the new year. I figure that as bad as 2009 was, it was good because I learned a lot about myself and how to be a better entreprenuer, salesguy, and most importantly, a better husband and dad.

So how about you? What did you learn in 2009 and what are you going to do differently? Let me know, I really like hear from you.

What Does 10% Unemployment Mean To Your Technology Sales?

Ramon Vela — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:12:30 +0000

Today, the unemployment numbers came out and it is now 10%. Let’s face reality. That’s 17+ million people out of work. It will take several years to get them back in the system. So, you need to be prepared to face a few years of a sluggish economy.

Here’s what you need to understand.

1) People (clients) have and will continue to change their buying behavior so you need to keep adapting to their behaviors if you want to sell effectively. I believe that people have changed their priorities and the most important thing they are looking for is expertise and leadership. More on this later. Also see my “selling in a recession” video.

2) Create conversations to find out your client’s challenges, problems, and objectives for the coming year(s). Take this opportunity to speak to the business side, expand your reach within your accounts. By doing so, you can figure out what services and technologies you need to add or emphasize that will help them solve their problems. Now is the time to truly be a problem solver, a Trusted Advisor. Take the focus off products and let your expertise drive the sales and drag the product.

GOOD NEWS!
There is good news. Now more than ever, your customers need your help. They are crying for help. And it is up to you as a sales, marketing or business owner to step up and lead them through this financial malaise.

There is business out there if you can communicate your expertise and connect how “what you do and what you know” helps clients solve their problems.

YOUR MINDSET IS YOUR KEY DIFFERENTIATOR!
With all this in mind, please take a moment to view this videos. Any time I feel down, these videos help remind me of my inner strength and the need to improve and to not let the challenges we face rob us of the prosperity that we’ve work so hard to earn.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that the biggest success factor in anything we do is our mind set? Don’t the let media and others poison you with doom and gloom, refuse it!

MUST WATCH VIDEOS:

Sales Not Going the Way You’d Like?

Feeling Knocked Down By All The Negative Financial News? – Watch This Video!
You Want Something? Go Out and Get It. Period. Weekly Strategy Video – Who Decides What You Can Do In A Downturn? Here's to Great a Week and please share this blog post. P.S. Look out for Monday, I am releasing a completely free, no sign up, 10 video course on adapting your sales skills for the new post-recession economy. Feel free to post your comments on my blog, or send me an email at rvela@StreetSmartSolutionProvider.com. Here's to Reinventing, Reigniting, and Revving Up Your Sales! Ramon Vela CEO, StreetSmartSolutionPovider