Dear [ ]
Welcome to the first issue of 4S - Solutions, Systems & Services Selling - the free, focused monthly ezine about Return on Investment for Sales and Marketing professionals in the IT industry. While selling in any industry is a challenge, the Information Technology industry has its unique characteristics that demand radically new marketing approaches to succeed.
Some of the topics we feature are, the importance of concentrating on verticals; simulating the buying instincts of the customer, identifying the positive motivating "pain" in oneself and prospect organization, and the real factors that cause sales upsurge.
We hope you find this useful. It's important that you strengthen it - as a reader and as a contributor. You're welcome to write about your professional learnings and insights that could be helpful to friends in the sales fraternity.
Happy Reading.
Regards, Edit Team
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In recent years, decision makers have become particularly inquisitive of the performance payback of IT purchases. They are more inclined towards a more knowledge-based understanding of IT investments and its relevance to their technology needs. The landscape too has changed. It's no longer a question of a prospect buying something at the first pitch; he has moved to the outbound position of having to be sold.
Due to these subtle changes in the sales model, the key to success today in technology, software and professional service sales is premeditated, outbound selling to identified business verticals. Some suggestions:
Pick three business verticals for which you have client references and focus on those verticals. Stop chasing every industry.
Develop a "vertical language dictionary" that is typed and documented. Use it as a sales tool when talking to industry prospects.
Identify the top five individual business pains of each vertical. Your source material can be trade publications, trade associations, and third party research firms. Understand the issues in each industry, and study why they need to buy your service or product.
Develop industry specific marketing materials using the terms in your "vertical language dictionary" to position your firm as a specialist, not a generalist.
Stop wasting money on generic trade shows where your firm is positioned as a generalist who can do everything. Instead, go to industry shows where prospects see you as a specialist.
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| Five buying stimulators to increase your sales | |
The following five powerful buying stimulators in your ads, web pages and other sales messages can get more sales without increasing your costs.
Convert benefits into feelings
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People usually buy a product or service because they expect to feel a certain way after the purchase. Use vivid word pictures to dramatize the pleasant feeling your customer will experience when enjoying the benefit produced by your product or service. |
Dramatize the feeling of loss
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After telling your prospect what they will gain from buying your product or service, tell them what they will lose if they do not buy it. Most people fear loss more than they desire gain. |
Reduce product choices
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Promote only one product or service each time you advertise. Most people have difficulty selecting one product to buy when their decision forces them to delay or reject buying something else they also want. When prospects cannot make an easy choice they often make no decision at all -- and you lose the sale. |
Increase buying options
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Offering choices of what to buy reduces your sales. But offering choices of how to buy increases your sales. Offer many different ways for customers to buy from you. The same method is not convenient for everybody. Prospective customers are more likely to act immediately when their favorite way of ordering is available. |
Simplify the buying procedure
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You get more sales when you make it easier for customers to buy from you. Look for ways to make your buying procedure easier and faster. |
A qualified lead must represent a real problem. There must be a pain to be considered worthy of the investment. We must recognize and distinguish between the enterprise level, which is often also the buying level, and the implementation level, as each has different bottom line goals, needs and pains. This necessitates top-down selling, focusing on business benefits, combined with bottom-up solution selling and excitement generation.
Here are some key points to consider when rethinking your sales process:
Identify the roles of the multiple stakeholders in an organization, and address their individual pains. Even if not directly involved in the purchase, they can be influencers.
ROI is the most prevalent financial metric used in making investment decisions. Understanding the pain will present a blended view the investment and position.
Be sensitive to your customers' needs and be willing to modify your approach and tailor your solution to relieve the specific pain of your customer.
The more complex the solution and the more parties to the process, the greater the effort and the lower the closing rate. Today, more than ever, your marketing and sales activities should be very diligent in qualifying and quantifying the problem and the benefits of the solution, ensure they are targeting the right level, and provide product and service solutions that deliver sustained value to the customer.
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| Sales figures: seeing through them | |
When economy is generally good, and demand is high, it is but natural that sales figures rise. The line between competent and incompetent salespeople become increasingly blurred in such times. Management compares to previous year's figures and is thrilled. But they choose to ignore the fact that their margins and market share are stagnant. When the management comes to grips with the reality, they are faced with questions that they normally wouldn't have to answer.
Read an interesting article | By Dave Kurlan.
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| Why did IBM choose Microsoft? | |
Here's some business trivia that legends are made of.
One of the commonly bandied about stories is that IBM had put together the PC and needed an OS quickly. For some reason they thought that Microsoft (then a fledgling outfit) made CP/M (the then standard version of DOS). When they went to Microsoft, Bill Gates suggested that they talk to Gary Kildall, President, Digital Research which made CP/M. IBM then went to Digital Research but Gary Kildall snubbed them and went out flying his airplane.
IBM felt slighted and went back to Microsoft, and at that point Gates made a pitch for the OS. Gates bought the product off Seattle Computer Products for $50,000 (which was really a rip-off of CP/M, written by Tim Paterson) and Gates was in the DOS business. And Digital blew one of the biggest deals of the century.
Another version says that an IBM Executive (Akers) and Mary Gates (Bill's Mom) knew each other professionally. When Mary Gates came to know that IBM was looking for an OS, she did not miss the opportunity to plug her son.
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