How to accelerate revenues from early sales to repeatable enterprise sales.

1. Revenue Acceleration
Bring Value to Customers
John Akbari
john@JohnAkbari.net
JohnAkbari.com
May 2012

2. Scaling to enterprise sales
Buyers…
 Risk averse
 Not open to change
 Prefer to keep status quo
 Not interested in “science projects”
 Not buying
 Not investing
 Not looking
Image http://www.healthdump.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Brain-Power.jpg
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3. Buying changes...
Time & money
P&L Barriers to Buying
Research ...including “no sale”
Run the business
Grow the business Selection
Improve the business
Cash flows Explore
Risk Problem
Payback
Hurdle rate Investigate
IRR What is technology x? I need x.
Solution
Analysts Use Cases
Research Metrics
Benchmarks What product I need a
should I use? vendor.
Solutions RFI
Tools PoC
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4. ...so selling changes
Time & money
P&L Barriers to Buying
...including “no sale”
Run the business
Grow the business
Improve the business
Prospects are
Cash flows
Risk
Payback Not aware of solutions
Hurdle rate
IRR Not aware of good solutions
Not aware of your solutions
Not aware of you
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5. Consultative selling  ?
Images from amazon.com
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6. Improve your customer's business
 Add value to your customers, not your product.
 Your real value is cash flow improvement for your customer.
 Approach potential customers with a way to improve revenue.
 Find potential customers you can help – before they find you.
 Work with the customer, for the customer, on shared goals...revenues
follow.
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7. Barriers to Buying…
 Your competition is not your (only) competition
 Other business drivers
 Other investments
 P/E ratios, cash flow, profitability
 Your offerings will be ranked by
 Investment required
 Timeframes
 Risk
 Payback
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8. …must be overcome
 Focus on your customers’ business first, then the technology.
 Suggest how you can help the business.
 Approach the business early-on to create budget.
 Predict your impact, with specifics:
 Results
 Time to results
 Investments
 Payback
 Risk of execution
 What the prospect needs to do to achieve results
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9. Convey confidence through competence
Sell to installed base and new customers by focusing on
 Customer's revenues
 Customer's risk
 Customer's timeframes
By showing
 Your knowledge
 Your experience
 Your performance
 Your commitment
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10. Help customers invest to achieve results
 Avoid “no sale” – approach all stakeholders early
 Business, financial, technical, operational, end users
 Leverage them as your internal sale team
 Avoid “we'll get back to you”
 Partner with prospect through an investment process
 Qualify upfront (improve close rate)
 Compare prospect's metrics with other customers' metrics (value)
 Proof of Concept as Proof of Value (reduce prospect's risk)
 Avoid surprises (reduce your risk)
 Win over other investments and create budgets by predicting
 How much? (cost and payback)
 How long? (time to results)
 How sure? (implementation risk, costs, partners)
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11. Consultative selling  revenue improvement
Suggest Ask
Discover
Revenue
improvement
project
Diagnose Deliver
About
possible
projects
Design
Concept adapted from Exceptional selling, Jeff Thull
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12. Sell with revenue improvement projects…
delivery
?
Value
proposal Hit and run
deal signed
Time
Concept derived from The innovator's dilemma, Clayton Christensen
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13. …repeated over time…
Cumulative
Value
Short-term results
over the long term
Time
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14. …to grow margins, deal size, close rate…
Cost of
sales
Project 1 Project 2 Project 3
Time
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15. …and success
Customer
and Vendor
Cumulative
Value
Project 1 Project 2 Project 3
Time
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16. Revenue improvement is a cycle...
Suggest
Discover
Revenue
improvement
project
Diagnose Deliver
Design
Concept adapted from Exceptional selling, Jeff Thull
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17. ...for both vendor and customers
Trusted Revenue
advisor improvement
Vendor Technology
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18. Begin with customer and end-customer KPIs
 Metrics on your customers and their customers
 Proof of Concept should be Proof of Value
 Financial, technical, business, operational
 Analyze how a new prospect's metrics compare with metrics of similar
customers
 Customize metrics per use case
 Approach prospects with those metrics
 Help your customer by helping your customer's customers
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19. Before/after KPIs are key
Metric Before After (Your impact)
Deals per year
Sales cycle
Close rate
Revenue per client per year
Revenue per sales exec
Global pipeline
Revenue to investment ratio
(cost of sales)
Avg margin
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20. Accelerating sales
Use case 1 Use case 2 ...
Analysis
 Sales, marketing, support
 Win/loss
 Financial details (ROI,
RoR, TCO...)
 Customer feedback
 Competition
 ...
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21. Repository
 Selection criteria
 References
 Demonstrations
 Sales tools
 Technical documents
 Qualification matrix
 ...
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22. tC
ec
tB
Approach customers and
t
ec
p
c
os
p
pe
A os
prospects
Pr
os
Pr
Pr  Warm calls
 Leverage partners
$ $ $  Demonstrations
 Qualify
 ...
Factory image http://www.flickr.com/photos/loryraffa15/4038160902/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Catalog image http://www.flickr.com/photos/theinspiredheart/5347766844/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Concept adapted from Consultative Selling, Mack Hanan.
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23. Selecting revenue improvement projects
 Easier to quantify cost-savings than revenue increase
 Cost-savings
 Cash flows
 RoR = Σ NPV year
 Payback
 Profit
 Revenues
 Evaluating future potential, not actual
 Many uncontrollable variables
NPV expected from revenue projects
Profit index = -------------------------------------------------
investment
Concept adapted from Consultative Selling, Mack Hanan
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24. Triggers for new revenue improvement projects
Competitive
analysis
Partners Consultants
Financial
filings
Contacts Annual
reports
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25. Evidence shortens the sales cycle
 Technical buyers  Business buyers
 Architecture  References
 Demonstrations  Value delivered
 Evaluations  Time to deliver
 Technology press  Risk
 Benchmarks  Press coverage
 Endorsements
 Operations buyers  Finance buyers
 Time to deliver  Market share
 Migration  Vendor financials
 Training  Risk
 Risk  Third party support
 Third-party support
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26. Core competencies + partners
Supply
Core products Solutions
•Product 1 •Core technical
•Product 2 •Client-specific
•With partners
Partner
Leverage
Delivery Support
•Professional svcs •Core product
•Training •Client-specific
•Partners •Partners
Apply
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27. Image: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1998-09-06/

28. Resources
For recommended books and blogs on value-based selling, pricing, and
competitive analysis, visit
http://www.johnakbari.com/resources/
John Akbari
JohnAkbari.com
john@JohnAkbari.net
+1 (917) 675 3197
www.JohnAkbari.com