Nothing happens until someone sells something sept 2011

Copyright 2011- LÛCRUM MARKETING

Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something:Best Practices to Enabling Your Sales Channel to Effectively Sell Your Products

Presented by:Tom Evans

Lûcrum Marketing

September 14, 2011

Copyright 2011 - LÛCRUM MARKETING

Presentation Agenda

• Typical scenario with sales teams• Why this happens• What you (PM) can do


The Scenario

Product (Smart Credit) targeted for credit issuers to better manage credit lines and interest rates based upon the credit risk of their clients/prospects, resulting in more balance build 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."


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!”• Sets face-to-face visit


The Prep

• Sales to:– Marketing – create new collateral that shows “our

payment fraud solution.”– Sales Engineer – create a new demo that shows “our

payment fraud solution.”– Sales Engineer – help me with a new presentation

about payment fraud.


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 of every conceivable feature (isn’t this neat).• IT Mngr – “Do you have feature A, B, C?”• Sales – “Yes we do” (liar)• IT Mngr – “Here is RFP, Send a proposal”


The Proposal

• Sales to:– Marketing – create a new proposal template for

payment fraud.– Sales Engineer - answer this RFP.– Engineering – We must have features A, B, C in the

product now to win this deal. We have a final demo in three weeks.


The Close

• IT Mngr – “We think we are going with Competitor X who has the exact solution we need (and is being used by companies a, b, c).”

• Sales - Discount the price!• Sales - Discount it some more!• Sales - Send in the cavalry (executive team)• Sales - Oops – we still lost it – Why?


The Why?

• Opportunistic v. Targeted Opportunity• Sales message was technical v. speaking to business

needs• Never engaged executive that owns the problem


The Impact

• Wasted resources on an opportunity that was a long shot.• New features in the product that nobody needs.• A frustrated and irritated executive team.• Confusion in the market place on what the company does.


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.


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.

PM


Goals of Sales Enablement

• Ensures everyone (marketing, sales, executives) is marching to the beat of the same drum.

• Defines clear target market.• Communicates clear & consistent messages.• Enables sales to talk with the right buyers.• Pursue target opportunities that company can win.


Sales Enablement (Base Components)

• Product Backgrounder• Needs Discovery Guide• Executive Level Presentation• Message Driven Demo


Product Backgrounder

• Target Markets / Segments• Market Needs / Challenges• Buyer Profiles - Personas / Needs / Challenges / Goals• Market Messages

– Value Proposition– Positioning Statement– Key Messages– Key Benefits


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)• User buyer’s language/terms


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


Message Driven Demo

• Communicates key messages.• Show how buyers needs are solved.• Build it as story.


Now What?

• How do you get sales to use these new tools?– 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).


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 Plan, etc.

Enhances your role as market expert!


Thank You

Tom EvansLûcrum Marketing

[email protected]+1-512-961-5267@compellingmktr

mailto:[email protected]

Nothing happens until someone sells something sept 2011

Business

lcrum marketingthe

payment fraud

payment fraud

lcrum marketing

sales engineer

marketing

properly enabled

sales channel