SELLING TO ZEBRAS BLOG |
 |
|
Archive for October 2008:
October 30, 2008, 8:15 AM
 Of course the questions that are seemingly the most simple always have the most complex of answers. Here are the most basic elements that Zebra Jeff and I strongly feel are most critical to a good sales plan, stated as briefly as we possibly could.
1. Start with perfect prospects – Zebras where you have provided unique quantifiable value in the past. Be sure, as part of the Zebra creation process that you speak with Power in your existing customers to find out the Power-level issues your solutions solves for them and the resulting value created
2. Research each prospect to find evidence they have the same business issues
3. Contact Power and confirm they have the issues you solve and a desire to solve them
4. Schedule your first appointment with Power. Position the value you would create by solving these same issues. Value claims must be backed by actual customer success that is repeatable.
5. Ask Power to partner with you. Partnering involves identification of process owners they would trust to verify your value claim.
6. Verify your value claim with Power’s people and co-author a presentation back to Power.
7. Present back to Power including a proposal that includes EVERYTHING needed to virtually guarantee you they will achieve the desired results. This proposal should be robust so you can look Power in the eye and know you have everything you need to insure they will be successful.
8. Close the business and immediately schedule a “force success” meeting.
9. Conduct a “force success” meeting every ninety days to ensure the project is on target to fulfill the promises Power made that got the project approved.
October 28, 2008, 8:14 AM
 As this is certainly a hot topic on the mind of every sales person out there today, I thought the best way to address this topic was to post a copy of the letter that Selling to Zebras, LLC is currently sending to CEO’s at prospect companies that we are targeting. Zebra Jeff and I wrote the letter together quite recently, and I think it this letter shares several important strategies for success when times are tough.
An important preface to this letter; the definition of Economic Value Added, aka EVA:
EVA is the dollar amount of benefit after removing all costs including the cost of their personnel to run your solution and the cost of capital used to purchase your solution. Most importantly, EVA allows a prospect to assess the value your project creates over and above the value created by any other way that they might choose to spend those same dollars.
And without further ado, here is our current prospect targeting letter:
Dear CEO,
These are tough economic times. Our book might help. Please enjoy the enclosed copy of Selling to Zebras, HOW to CLOSE 90% of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE FASTER, MORE EASILY, and MORE PROFITABLY.
Account targeting isn’t unique, but our approach is. It’s simple so people will use it. We start with a Zebra – the perfect prospect, and then evaluate all prospects against perfection.
Your sales team is competing for business in a market driven by fear and noise from the current financial crisis. Competition will come from like companies, and from every other alternative use of your prospects available capital. One possible way for your sales team to get past the fear and the difficult economic environment is to create a business case driven by the Economic Value Add (EVA) your solutions create. EVA is probably the most prolific value claim any company can present.
Zebras and EVA create a powerful combination. Would you like to know more? Please read out book and visit our website at www.sellingtozebras.com and our sales blog at http://sellingtozebrasblog.com/.
Respectfully,
Jeffrey A. Koser
Founder and CEO
Selling to Zebras, LLC
October 27, 2008, 2:06 PM
Monday, October 27, 2008 at
Jeff and Chad paid a visit to the WFRV CBS 5 set for
“Wisconsin Works” (business/business news) with Paul Evansen.
They chatted live for a few minutes discussing how to increase
your business profitability by using the Zebra methodology.
Didn’t have a chance to see it?
Watch Now!
CBS WFRV 5-Interview Selling to Zebras
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 8:50 AM CT
Jeff and Chad chatted live with Mark Concannon
On WITI-TV Fox 6 “Wake Up” show.
Mark was a gracious host and talked with Jeff and Chad
about creating your business Zebra and the benefit
during these tough economic times.
October 24, 2008, 2:04 PM
The Entrepreneur
How To Identify Your Best Sales Prospects
By Marc Kramer, The Bulletin.
10/24/2008
Marc Kramer considers, Selling to Zebras, one of the best sales books he has read in the past decade.
Read his interview with Jeff.
The Bulletin-Marc Kramer Interview with Jeff Koser
October 22, 2008, 8:13 AM
 According to a little background research I did on the phrase at Wikipedia, “I approve this message” is spoken by candidates for federal office in order to comply with the so-called “Stand by Your Ad” provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) enacted in 2002.’
By now you may be asking, “Where is this all going, and how does it apply to sales?” Well, ’tis the season for election after all, but no, I’m not going to get into politics here on the blog (or in any other public place for that matter). I’m also not going to try to further link sales to politics, because as sales people we often have a hard enough time trying to get people to like us as it is.
The sales tie-ins to the politically influenced title of this blog are two-fold:
1. When you get to Power, you must have a message to communicate that is directly meaningful to that individual. A message “Approved” by Power.
2. It is critical that you find a way to establish credibility and some form of sponsorship at the Power level before committing further resources dedicated to engaging that prospect at the operational level (working under Power).
Since we already covered the topic of authoring a message that is meaningful to Power in our blog on September 22, today I want to focus briefly on the later of these two worthy sales-topic candidates.
If Power agrees that you have a compelling value message, but delegates a person or team working under him/her to continue working with you, this is good because it indicates the deal has Power-level sponsorship, but it is also critical to make sure you keep Power involved in the process for the following reasons:
1. This is the only real way to make absolutely sure you are in a good position to win the prospect’s business
2. Failing to stay involved with Power leaves you vulnerable to being outflanked by a competitor
3. Avoid the biggest competitor at all: APATHY… the deal moving into non-decision mode.
4. It assures that your resources are only committed to working a buying cycle on a deal where you actually have a shot at winning.
How to make it happen
In the first meeting with Power, you position that the end result of your partnering process will be to present the “co-authored” results back to Power. These results are “co-authored,” because your team has partnered with Power’s team to verify the value that your solution would create. At the end of the buying cycle, the results gathered by partnering with those that Power trusts are coauthored and presented back to Power. As such, we’ve closed the loop on the buying cycle by starting with Power, and we ended at Power… the only place where a deal can actually be won.
Your sales target’s name is Power… and they will DEFINITELY approve this message!
October 21, 2008, 8:12 AM
 With the dramatic increase in the financial volatility in the past couple of weeks, it appears that the culmination of the Cloud Summit last week could not have been scheduled at a more appropriate time. A good summary of the details, as well as a good quote from Zebra Jeff accompanied by particularly “Presidential” photo of Zebra Jeff (also at left), can be found here at the Collaboration 2.0 blog, authored by Oliver Marks.
On a related note, here are the results from our Cloud Computing survey:
1. Cloud computing will impact your sales model.
-Vast 12.5% -Significant 50% -Moderate 12.5% -Slight 0.0% -Zero 25%
2. Cloud computing necessitates that you articulate a predictive value proposition as a major component of your sales methodology.
-Agree 75% -Disagree 25%
3. In your opinion what are the compelling business reasons for companies to move to cloud-based solutions? (check all that apply)
-Costs less than comparable traditional or SaaS (software as a service) solutions 50% -Noninvasive implementation 75% -Reliability – works the first time, every time 37.5% -Allows you to sell your main product as well as your already proven expertise/methodology for selling those products 37.5%
October 17, 2008, 7:33 PM
10 Questions with Sales Expert Jeffrey Koser
About Bruce Richardson
Bruce Richardson brings more than 27 years of experience to his current role as chief research officer at AMR Research. Bruce has spent most of his career analyzing the software industry with a distinct emphasis on ERP and supply chain. Since joining AMR Research in 1988, he has been responsible for spearheading new market coverage and contributing to the company’s analysis of leading market trends in areas such as ERP, supply chain management, service-oriented architectures, software-as-a-service, software appliances, and virtualization and visualization.
October 14, 2008, 2:20 PM
Bruce Richardson from AMR Research interviewed Jeff Koser after they both attended the Cloud Summit Executive in October, 2008.
**View the Video** Cloud Summit Panel Discussion October 2008
Bruce Richardson’s panel at the 2008 Cloud Summit in Mountain View, California.
Note – for learn how you can sell today, even in these record breaking financial times, please advance "play" to: 20:40 How to sell – even in this economy.
Speakers:
Robin Vasan, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund;
Jeffrey Koser, Author, Selling to Zebras; and
Bryan P. McGrath, Equity Research Analyst, Technology Group, Credit Suisse"
First Thing Monday
Given the current economic climate, we thought readers could benefit from some new insights about improving the sales process and productivity. Mr. Koser graciously agreed to participate. Here are the highlights of our many conversations:
October 14, 2008, 2:08 PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Silicon Valley Computer History Museum /
Mountain View, CA
Moderator: Bruce M. Richardson, Chief Research Officer, AMR Research
Speakers:
Jeff Koser joined Bryan and Robin in the Selling the Cloud to Wall Street and Main Street session. They participated in an engaging exchange of thoughts, concerns and general questions on defining doing business “in the cloud”.
Oliver Marks, an independent consultant and blogger for zdnet.com and olivermarks.com, posted the following “quote of the day” from Jeff upon attending the ‘Selling the Cloud to Wall Street and Main Street’ session, “The number one reason executives don’t buy software solutions is because they don’t believe their staff will be able to operate it” This along with recession induced fear and apathy appear to be the biggest competitors to adoption in an environment hungry for cost effective solutions.
Focusing on people and their processes is a far more effective way of selling software as a solution to tactical problems than offering a software package as a cure-all panacea.
The inaugural Cloud Summit Executive was a huge success! Over 300 registered attendees from all over the Silicon Valley attended the one day event. We heard from executives and entrepreneurs in the industry, and delved into how the cloud is changing the computing landscape. One message was clear throughout the conference – this emerging $95 billion market (over the course of 5 years) is not going away.
October 10, 2008, 8:12 AM
Barnes & Noble – Tuesday, 10/22/08 – 7:00 PM
Jeff and Chad gave a 20 minute talk, Q&A, and signing.
Recent Book Signing Events
We want to thank Jennifer DeNicola, CRM, at Barnes and Noble Brookfield Square for hosting a spectacular event with Jeff and Chad on the evening of October 22nd. There was a great group of people that stopped by to listen to the authors and asked some very poignant questions. A good time was had by all! Thank you for stopping in and supporting Zebras. We also want to thank Barnes and Noble – Bayshore Towne Center in Glendale, WI and West Towne Mall in Madison, WI for 2 memorable and successful events.
Special thanks to Community Relations Manager – Barb Johnson and Danielle from Bayshore Towne Center and Community Relations Manager – Jeanne Huie – West Towne Mall. Each respective CRM and staff were accommodating and welcoming. We had fun, met some great people and signed some books. Thanks for supporting Zebras!
You can purchase Selling to Zebras HOW TO CLOSE 90 % of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE FASTER, MORE EASILY and MORE PROFITABLY at your favorite Barnes and Noble Bookstore.
|
|
