By Craig Nelson, CEO, iCentera

Maybe there was a day when selling B2B technologies, like software and telecom, was easy but I sure don’t remember that day.  As many have said, the high tides are behind us for the foreseeable future.  It’s always been tough to get decision makers to pull the trigger, and getting a “yes” gets tougher every year.  No question, advancing a sale is challenging in today’s risk-averse environment as buyers just have too many people, technologies and problems vying for their attention and their budget dollars.  And buyers are smarter today thanks to the Internet and our always-on, interconnected information dissemination machine.  As products and competitive solutions continue to churn out at an ever-increasing pace, sales pros must work harder and more efficiently to stay one step ahead of prospects and competitors in order to advance the sale and ultimately get that coveted “yes.”

For these reasons and more, getting the attention of your (direct) sales staff and having them focus on building the value of the deals they are working and serving as trusted advisors is not easy.  They’re very busy trying to round up decision makers and get them the right information at the right time, while staying abreast of the market, the customer’s business, the competition and your latest product releases and technical developments.

And those are your employees where you surely have some vested mindshare and influence.  Now magnify those problems by 5X as it relates to your indirect sales channel.  A typical indirect partner sales rep (partners, VARs, distributors, and so on.)  is likely responsible for representing 5 or more vendors’ product lines, so creating mindshare, influencing and motivating these folks to sell your product is the challenge (or conundrum) of virtually every channel manager.  To compound the situation, your partners’ reps are typically scattered across multiple time zones and they travel frequently, speak different languages and consume information differently, so basic communication and information sharing is a challenge.  Channel partners also isolate the vendor from the customer, so gathering customer input, product feedback and market intel is difficult, and getting channel reps to report back the basics such as what is or isn’t working, or more specifically performance metrics and analytics borders on the impossible.  This reminds me of a great line from the movie “Jerry McGuire”, and it seems to fit the challenge that vendors face when attempting to convey why they need feedback from the partner, simply said “help me, help you.”  When is the last time you sat down and asked one of your channel partners this question?

This past week we announced iCentera for Sales Channel Enablement™ (READ PRESS RELEASE), the newest addition to our portfolio of targeted sales enablement solutions, to help mid- to large-size B2B  vendors overcome some of these core challenges associated with utilizing a direct and indirect sales model.  Over the years we’ve worked with many leading vendors, some who sell direct only, and many who leverage direct and indirect channel sales models. Our experiences lead us to release the new sales channel enablement solution.   To quote one of our most vocal customers, a true sales enablement solution must serve as “a single source of truth” that direct AND indirect sales can count on.  This is a powerful statement in my opinion. We see it all the time, but it is bewildering to watch as companies push to drive partner sales performance using a completely different and less comprehensive enablement solution than what their direct sales is using.  If you agree with my earlier points, don’t your partners need even more help than your direct reps?   Why wouldn’t direct and indirect sales reps receive the same level of support and enablement using the same platform? I believe a key part of any enablement strategy is that direct and indirect sales have access to the same role-based sales enablement solution that provides what every reps wants, a single source of truth for the products they sell complete with tools and resources that help close more deals thus enabling more commissions.

Here we go Again!  Build or Buy…
By Craig Nelson, CEO, iCentera

Today we’re focusing on the ways in which Sales Enablement can be delivered to the marketplace.  In a nutshell, there are basically two choices; 1) build the Sales Enablement solution on-premise or in the cloud, or 2) leverage an on-demand Sales Enablement solution delivered as a software service.  For mid- to large-size companies, the first option has historically been in many cases the only route, but today things have changed.

With option #1 it’s important to learn from the past. For those of us who have been involved in the software development business for the past 20 years, we know the complexity and risk of building custom software. This is not a new topic. For years organizations such as Carnegie Mellon University have made research available that explains why software projects fail 94% of the time to meet three basic software development objectives:

1)    deliver on-time,

2)    deliver on-budget, and

3)    meet the requirements of the business user

One of the key deliverables of the Carnegie Mellon research is the 5 level Capability Maturity Model (CMM).  This model can be used as a tool for objectively assessing your organization’s ability to develop custom software.  The question of the day — is your organization capable of delivering and evolving a custom solution, and furthermore (I think this is the bigger question) is custom software development part of your company’s core business and do you have the subject matter expertise to deliver the best solution?  It’s no surprise that the software development approach of numerous companies remains immature with many at level 1 on the CMM scale building custom software in an ad-hoc fashion.  Let’s say your organization is very mature at building software. I believe the more important question is does your organization have the subject matter expertise to deliver a solution that is better than a dedicated provider who is specifically focused on a particular software discipline that is delivered as a service on-demand?

I recall in the late 80s the introduction of CMM and CASE tools (computer aided software engineering) to help businesses of all sizes develop custom software.  Knowing the inherent problems with software development, I joined a CASE tool vendor and had the opportunity to work with Charlie Bachman, Edward Yourdon, and others who are considered pioneers in the area of software modeling and design. As we all know today, this phase is the first and most important step in understanding the business requirements for the software well before even starting the software build phase. And even if you can get the business requirements right, what we all learned in building custom software is that it’s incredibly difficult, costly and time consuming, especially for those teams lacking in-depth subject matter expertise in the specific business discipline where the problem/need exists.

Flash forward to today. When we launched iCentera back in 2003, it was our belief that providing a best-in-class solution delivered as a service was a better way, both from a vendor perspective and from a business perspective. We are certainly glad we did.  Over the years much has been written about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as an effective platform for vendors to deliver solutions and for the customer to realize value within weeks.

Not to over simplify, but in cases where the software service targets a business problem, is cost effect, and is available on-demand, all parties involved (business users, IT, Vendor) win.  Yet based on some of our customer discussions, I have to say “Here we go again.”  We see myriad companies attempting to build custom software with the hope of delivering on the Carnegie Mellon holy grail of custom software development  on-time delivery, on-budget, and on-target.  The on-target business requirement is always the most suspect.  And, if custom software isn’t your game, it becomes a distraction to your core business.  Given the first 1.0 release invariably won’t meet the business users’ needs, this will mean an ongoing disruption to your business for months or years to come as each new release comes plodding along.  In the past we called this… perfective maintenance and it never ends.

It’s my opinion that best-in-class solutions delivered on-demand as a service will continue to provide the quickest and most cost effective time-to-value.  And for those of us who have built custom software the old fashioned way (ad-hoc), I honestly would never want to go back.  Let’s focus on making your business users successful by empowering them with powerful, best-in-class business tools. And at the same time allow you to focus on running your core business.  In the end, that’s the surest path to success for them, and for your organization as a whole.

Changing Tides Makes Co-Creating Value with Your Customers Essential
By Craig Nelson, CEO, iCentera
My Guest blog from 1to1 Magazine

In the not too distant past, the old saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” was true for many markets.  It didn’t seem to matter your industry — incredible growth and expansion meant that many firms benefited from the high economic tides that brought double and, in some industries, triple-digit annual growth.  To drive and support growth, the management team simply needed capital and a plan to expand sales channels to achieve revenue growth.  Ah, yes, it was all about the top-line revenue number, the need to increase revenue, just adding “feet to the street.” We all miss those high-tide days.

Flash forward to the present.  As we begin 2010, we’re faced with the reality of lower tides, with less demand for the products we sell – hence, an increase in competition for the opportunities that do exist.  Reflecting on 2009, many would agree we’ve learned there’s an inherent need, in every customer conversation, to create value, to create a sense of urgency for the customer to do something –anything!  This year, it suddenly became incumbent on sales teams to build ROI models to help the customer justify the need for its products, for virtually any size deal.  From a revenue-growth standpoint, tighter capital markets prevent us from simply adding those “feet to the street” as we did so often in the past.  What all this means is that management must now pay attention to the bottom-line – profits — and truly get more from existing sales channels. 

So, what does this entail?  Marketing and sales management must optimize the way they market, train, package, and enable their sales channels — with a focus on the basics of selling value. 

Soon, the holidays will be behind us, and, as we get back on the treadmill (at the club and office), we will need to rethink the way we go to market.  What must sales and marketing do to drive growth while retaining customers in 2010?  Very few market watchers suggest that high tides will return any time soon! 

So, I’m here to tell you that, to drive revenue, marketing and sales had better focus on those two words: create value.  There’s actually a buzz out there today about the need for vendors to co-create value with the customer.  That notion changes the sales game in many ways.  Many “old school” sales tactics will simply not work in low-tide days! 

An entertaining example comes to mind: I recall being on customer calls with a rep that made it a point to bring fresh cookies on every customer call.  The self-proclaimed “cookie guy” was quick to point out that customers remembered him because he always brought fresh cookies to every call.  One could argue today that, in virtually any market, this will no longer make a difference.  I mention this story to underscore the point: the sales rep must now bring business value, not cookies, to every customer conversation.  

To co-create value in these times, the direct or channel rep must understand the needs of the customer and be able to demonstrate — or maybe better said — communicate the value proposition and prove rapid time-to-value.  Slick demos or even giving away the product doesn’t work anymore.  In many cases, proving value will need to be accomplished within months, or even just weeks.  Often, only top-priority projects that provide immediate value are implemented in these challenging times.  Mapping what your product does to business value has become paramount to advancing any deal. Can your sales channel effectively do this today?  In my opinion, and I suspect many others’, there has been no other time in the past 20+ years where the value that the vendor provides has been more scrutinized. 

The simple question is this: are your sales channels able to provide value in every customer interaction?  Then, once the prospect formally becomes a customer, what are they continuing to do to build on that value?  

My advice is to stop waiting for rising tides.  If you really want your company and your sales reps to be remembered and viewed as a trusted partner rather than a giveaway person, the secret is to ensure your sales channels have the information they need at their fingertips that is specific to each discrete customer’s needs.  As your customer finds that their business can’t do without your solution, they will return the rep’s phone call and, in turn, the passion of your sales reps to sell your product will naturally increase.

And that is a very good thing on all fronts.