Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something:
Enabling Your Sales Channel to Effectively Sell Your Products
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
@compellingpm
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
DFW Product Group
• DFW Product Group is the premier product management and marketing association in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex
• 300+ active members
• 2013 - 2015 roadmap includes webinar series, networking mixers, and ProductCamp DFW
• Website: http://dfwproductgroup.org/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2796125
• Twitter: @DFWProductGroup
• Email: [email protected]
• Actively seeking new members, volunteers, and sponsors
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Special offer from CompellingPM at the end of the webinar.
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Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something:
Enabling Your Sales Channel to Effectively Sell Your Products
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
@compellingpm
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Presentation Agenda
• Typical challenges with sales teams
• Why this happens
• What you (PM) can do to improve the situation
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PM2 Levers of Control™
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Executional LeversProduct
•Define Whole Product
•Effective Requirements
Price
•Value-Based Pricing
Place (Channel)
•Sales Tools
•Sales Enablement
•Channel Programs
Promotions
•Product Marketing Tools & Content
•Product Marketing Programs
Go-to-Market Strategy
Target Markets PositioningCompetitive
StrategiesMessaging Platform
Alignment to Business Drivers
Market Analysis
VOC Competitive Analysis Ecosystem Analysis
Poll Question 1
Who in your organization is responsible for making sure the sales team/channel effectively sells your products?
a) Product Management
b) Product Marketing
c) Marketing
d) Sales management
e) Not sure
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The Scenario
Product (Smart Credit) targeted for creditissuers to better manage credit lines andinterest rates based upon the credit risk of theirclients/prospects, resulting in more balancebuild and less delinquencies and write-offs.
“The events depicted in this presentation are fictitious. Any similarity to
any person or company, living or dead is merely coincidental."
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
The Lead
• Sales meets an IT Manager of credit card issuer at a trade show.
• IT Mngr – “I need a solution to detect payment fraud. Can you do it?”
• Sales – “Yes we can!” (liar)
• Sets face-to-face visit
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The Prep
• Sales to Marketing – Create new collateral that shows “our payment fraud solution.”
• Sales to Sales Engineer – Help me with a new presentation about “our payment fraud solution.” And while you’re at it, create a new demo that shows “our payment fraudsolution.”
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The Sales Presentation
• PowerPoint Presentation
– Let me tell you how great our company is.
– Now, let me describe our Evolutionary Statistical Algorithm (ESA) and how great it is.
• Demo - Now for another “cool” feature.
• IT Mngr – “Do you have feature A, B, C?”
• Sales – “Yes we do” (liar)
• IT Mngr – “Here is RFP, Send a proposal”
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The Proposal
• Sales to Marketing – Create a new proposal template for payment fraud.
• Sales to Sales Engineer – Create answers for this RFP.
• Sales to Engineering – We must have features A, B, C in the product now to win this deal. We have a final demo in three weeks.
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
The Close
• IT Mngr – “The VP of Fraud decided to go with Competitor X, which is used by companies a, b, c for the exact solution we need.”
• Sales - Discount the price!
• Sales - Discount it some more!
• Sales - Send in the cavalry (executive team)
• Sales - Oops – we still lost it – Why?
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The Why?
• Opportunistic v. Targeted Opportunity
– I.e., high unlikely to win to begin with.
• Never engaged executive that owns the problem
• Sales message was technical v. speaking to business needs
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The Impact
• Wasted resources on long shot opportunity.
• New features in the product that nobody needs.
• A frustrated and irritated executive team.
• Confusion in the market place on what the company does.
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
The Real Why This Happens
1. That’s just the way sales people are.
2. They were never properly enabled with the right knowledge and tools.
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
The Real Why This Happens
1. That’s just the way sales people are.
2. They were never properly enabled with the right knowledge and tools.
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
PM
The Solution
Sales Enablement
Who owns it?
Who owns the message?
Product Marketing
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Sales Enablement Defined
Sales enablement is a strategic, ongoing processthat equips all client-facing employees with theability to consistently and systematically have avaluable conversation with the right set ofcustomer stakeholders at each stage of thecustomer's problem-solving life cycle to optimizethe return of investment of the selling system.(Forrester)
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Poll Question 2
How well can your sales team carry on valuable discussions with executive buyers in your target market?
a) Rarely meets with executives, mostly users & managers.
b) Sometimes meets with executives but not highly effective.
c) Often has highly effective meetings with executive buyers.
d) Should they be meeting with executives?
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Evidence of Sales Enablement Problem
• In 43% of losses the reason was “Lost funding or lost to no decision (Forrester)
• 39% of executives say that meetings with salespeople are valuable. (Forrester)
Failure to Show Value
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Goals of Sales Enablement
• Improve sales team productivity.
• Enables sales to have valuable conversations with the right buyers.
• Ensure consistency and clarity of messages.
• Focus on right opportunities.
• Provide better buying experience for prospects.
• Improve sales success!
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Starting Point of Sales Enablement
• Deep Understanding of Customers
• Who they are
– Buyer Personas
• Why they buy
– Problems they want to solve
• How they buy
– What is their buying process
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June 11 Webinar
http://compellingpm.com/developing-a-deep-understanding-of-your-target-markets-
the-starting-point-for-great-product-management-marketing/
Sales Enablement (Base Components)
• Product Backgrounder
• Needs Discovery Guide™
• Executive Level Presentation
• Message Driven Demo™
• Competitive Weapons
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Product Backgrounder
• Target Markets / Segments
• Market Needs / Challenges
• Buyer Profiles - Personas / Needs / Challenges / Goals
• Key Messages– Value Proposition
– Points of Differentation
• Talk Track
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Needs Discovery Guide
• Aka - Pain Sheets / Solution Development Prompters
• One per buyer role per market segment
– Challenges / Impact / Capability / Benefits
– Match to your sales methodology (if any)
• Use buyer’s language/terms
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Executive Level Presentation
• Market / Buyer needs
• High level discussion of how your solution addresses needs.
– Remember the key messages
• Benefits / Value Proposition
• Case Study
• 10 to 15 slides
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Message Driven Demo
• Communicates key messages.
• Show how buyers needs are solved.
• Build it as story.
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Competitive Weapons
• Competitive Comparison Matrix
– Value/benefits oriented
• Competitive claims and your response
• Questions to raise competitive weaknesses
– Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
• Don’t misrepresent or make false claims!
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Poll Question 3
Which of these tools can you best use to have the biggest and quickest impact on sales team effectiveness?
a) Product Backgrounder
b) Needs Discovery Guide
c) Executive Level Presentation
d) Message Driven Demo
e) Competitive Weapons
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Getting Sales Buy-in
• Have an executive sponsor (Sales VP/CEO).
• Train them and train them some more.
• Test them on their knowledge via certification process.
• Make the tools real (not ivory tower)
• Show how this will make them me their objectives
• Cannot be perceived as imposed by product/marketing
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Closing Thoughts
• Train the sales team & then test them (certify)
• Review on a regular basis.
• Make sure marketing and the executive team participate.
• Use for sales channel.
• Much of info should already exist - MRD, Market Strategy, etc.
Enhances your role as market expert!Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Go-to-Market Webinar Serieshttp://compellingpm.com/go-to-market-webinar-series-with-dfw-product-group/
Webinar Title Date
The Strategic Role of Product Management & Product Marketing in Driving Product Revenue & Success
Apr 23
Developing a Deep Understanding of Your Target Markets – The Starting Point for Great Product Marketing
June 11
Define a Powerful Go-to-Market Strategy That Sets Your Product Apart June 25
Great Requirements Form the Foundation for Successful Products July 16
Profitable Products Sell Value: Why Value-Based Pricing Wins August 13
From Messaging Nightmare to Messaging Delight: How to Create a Powerful Messaging Platform
Sept 17
Create Effective Sales & Marketing Tools That Actually Get Used By Sales & Prospects Oct 15
Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something: Enabling Your Sales Channel to Success Nov 19
Driving the Marketing and Sales Funnel to Close Deals: What Product Marketers Must Know and Do
Dec
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My Next Webinar
Driving the Marketing and Sales Funnel to Close Deals:
What Product Marketers Must Know and Do
Dec xx, 2015
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Upcoming Austin PM2 Training
• Optimal Product Management & Product Marketing
– Dec 7- 9
• AIPMM Certifications – Certified Product Manager (CPM)
– Feb 16 – 17
More dates/locations - www.280group.com
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Free 1 Hour PM/PMM Consult
• First ten to submit information on form
• http://compellingpm.com/freeonehour/
• Please include background on topic or issue
• Must include company info (no Gmail)
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Thank You!
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
@compellingpm
www.compellingpm.com
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