Positioning Professional Services for Success

• 1. New rules of Positioning PS in 2014Ambareesh Kulkarni2014

2. Why Professional Services? Customers who purchase services, usually come back andbuy more software. Without services, we risk our software becoming shelf ware. Enterprise software always requires services for successful deployment. When negotiating with vendors, we expect to pay for Software,Maintenance, Services & Training - Procurement @ Merck. 3. Why Professional Services? Customers have complex problems. And these require deep Industryknowledge & consulting expertise to solve. What kind of problems do customers ask us to solve? Reduce touch points and increase automation. Reduce impact of software delivery to desktops. Help us reduce Software & Hardware spend. What should our next-generation desktop strategy be? Services is our Insurance Policy! 4. Why Professional Services?We help shorten the sales cycle 5. Include an Acceptance Criteria in the SOWQualification Give the customerSales CycleQualificationan exit clauseMove to procurementLengthy &expensive processTIMETypically need to discount heavilyto get the deal closed fasterAcceptance ProcurementSales CycleProof of Concept /reference calls etc.Might move forwardwith a limited purchaseAddress customers perceived risks 6. Whats in it for the customer?Rapid Time To ValueStartWithAcceptance criteriaWith traditional approach of a POC.FullyDeployedFully DeployedTIMEStart 7. What a combined Sales & Services strategy can do for usPotentialexpansion90,000Coca-Cola Bottling Company30,000seats2011 2012+XYZ EnterpriseUnit 1seats; multipleproductsProduct 1 & 2 Product 3 Product 4 & 52011 201430,000 seats > 90,000 seats with multiple products 8. Rule #1: The bad economy, is so last year Prospects have money to buy, they are open to interesting and relevantconversations and they are making decisions to move their businessforward. Many believe that they can get by without consulting. Clients can now draw on deeper internal bench strength to meet theirconsulting needs. 9. Rule #1: The bad economy, is so last yearAs long as you believe that the economy is bad, ourrates are too high and you keep telling yourself thatbuyers are not buying .. guess what? You are absolutely right! 10. Take Chers advice 11. Rule #2: Play to Win-Win Dont give away anything for free, especially services. Dont spend too much time selling to organizations that are notgood targets. Dont sell to people too low in the totem pole to make decisions. Many times we discount heavily thinking that we are positioning ourselvesto win someday. Guess what?- As John Fogerty says..Someday Never Comes 12. Rule #3: Re-examine your value proposition Prospects must want our services. Our service offerings must Resonatewith them Prospects have to see why we stand out from other options. We have todifferentiate ourselves. Prospects have to believe that we can deliver on our promises. We have tosubstantiate. 13. Create new conversations: examples What are the top 3 things you would change about yourcurrent desktop systems management solution? What are your top 3 challenges with managing yourdatacentersat the moment? How efficient and agile is your IT compared with yourcompetitors? 14. Rule #4: Introduce Services early Our prospects are busy, they want our advice immediately. Prospects react much more favorably to suppliers whorecommend, rather than just salute and execute. You have to be able to say, This is where I think you shouldgo (engage our experts). This is what I think you should do(speak to our consultants). Dont be afraid to say it. 15. The right time to introduce Services1.0Identify2.0Qualify3.0Propose4.0Negotiate5.0Deliver6.0SupportLeadOpportunity ProjectSales Process Delivery processPipeline BacklogSalesServicesDelivery team 16. Who are we selling to? Increase in number of consultants has led to so many former consultantsnow being buyers (they are more sophisticated buyers). The odds are 1 in 3 that we will be selling our services to a formerconsultant. Put the technical buyer at ease. We are not here to take his or her job! Find ways to leverage the buyers skills and fill the gaps with ours. 17. Create new conversations: more examples Our consultants can manage and deliver projects from start to finish soyour resources can continue to focus on other more critical projects.Would you like to learn how? Our consultants, over the years have a proven methodology, developedbest practices, repeatable solutions and workflows to accelerate projectimplementation. Would you be interested in speaking to one of them? With the value that our consultants provide, cost of engaging ourconsultants is usually less than implementing the project internally. Wouldyou like to know how? 18. Rule #5: Know thy tools and use them wisely Develop a winning and compelling SOW and describe the services in a waythat excites the prospects. Reference prior consulting success stories. I dont want to be sold to. Have a good understanding of my situation, thensit down with me and lay out a detailed solution. Show me how its workedbefore. Show them the path to success using a project plan or Gantt chart. Prove that we have been there, done that. 19. Rule #5: Know thy tools and use them wisely Become familiar with all of the different types of services offerings. Get to know the consultants and their background. Each and every one ofthem is hand picked and have expertize in one or more areas. Dont discuss rates till we have had a chance to demonstrate value. Our rates will be high, only if we havent created enough value when sittingacross the table. 20. The Team Over 200 years of collective SystemsManagement Expertise. Industry & Thought leaders. In the last 5 years we have worked on close to500 different projects*. We see the bigger picture and take a holisticapproach to delivering IT Efficiencies. 21. Benefits of Engaging Professional Services Direct access to Industry experts. Reduced implementation times. Improved overall operational configuration. Increased & quicker return on investment.