Coaching coders on the terms and basics of direct sales

Selling for Codersby Mark Milligan

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Copyright 2013-2014 Mark Milligan

Mission

Teach the basics of Tech Enterprise Sales no question is stupid goal to make you sell ‘smart’

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About Mark MilliganDigital marketing software seller at IBM 15+ years direct sales experience 6 startups & IBM and Sybase/SAP CS degree / using Rails now From Virginia, moved to ATX August

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http://about.me/markmilligan

http://about.me/markmilligan


Topics To Cover

Sales Terminology Prospect Pro-gress Close

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Why Sell?Money Flex schedule Meet new people Travel Support / scale your start-up

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Negatives to SellingGet measured - daily Chair kicked, fired Competitive - not a big team sport Emotional / drama Travel Lack of respect Not comfortable

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TerminologyAccounts ( Fortune500, Inc. ) Contacts ( Steve Smith, CIO ) Activities ( 4/5/13, Onsite demo ) Opportunities ( $500k, Widget abc, 8/1, 40%, Validated, S. Smith, R. Jones, TCO preso )

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Accounts

The company, government or non-profit you want to buy your product

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Contacts

People who are employed by the Account Get their title, email, phone, address

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Activities

Events involving your Contacts and Opportunities Email, phone call, conference call, meeting, proposal sent, demo, etc.

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Opportunities

The potential revenue from an Account buying your product THE MOST IMPORTANT DATA TO CAPTURE, UPDATE AND REPORT ON Opportunities make up your Pipeline

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Why Opportunities?

Lets you, investors measure revenue progress and success Easy, automated way to collect data Reality check versus where you think you should be

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Pipeline

All potential opportunities For a given period of time What’s my Q1, 1st Half, Full Year pipeline?

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Forecast

Opportunities you think will close For a given period of time What’s my Q1 or 1H forecast? And rank them with probability, or other types like solid, risk, stretch

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Sales StagesDescribes how qualified the opportunity is Lets you rank opportunities Shows progress or lack of progress for opportunities No standards for stages ( i.e., don’t get hung up on naming ; agree on a few )

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ToolsSaaS-based ( Salesforce.com, Netsuite ) On-premise software ( Oracle/Siebel, SalesLogix, Goldmine ) The old-fashion way: spreadsheet, or a database Buy a notebook

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Sign up at events.developerforce.com/signup


Prospecting

It’s a numbers game - most leads or prospects, won’t lead to a sale ... NOW Warm ( marketing ) and cold ( target accounts ) Multiple attempts and regular Don’t take it personal

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Bad prospects for now

Going through re-org, merger New CIO Other project taking priority and resources PUT YOURSELF in their shoes

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Cold - Getting ContactsConference lists Google / LinkedIn searches, by job title, product & account ( VP IT, Hadoop, FortuneABC, Inc. ) Jigsaw, iProfile ( paid access ) Learn email structure ( first initial + last name, first name . last name ) Google HQ switchboard number

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Sign up at events.developerforce.com/signup


Cold - Contact Methods

Email Phone / voice mail Mail ( brochure, t-shirt ) Social media ( LinkedIn ) - be careful

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Pro-gress

The deliberate process of moving opportunities down or out of the pipeline/funnel You can’t move a mountain by yourself The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

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Update v. Pro-gression

‘Waiting on IT Director to commit to nth demo’ v. ‘Invite his worker-bees to a local tech event’ ‘Cold call another LOB contact about same project’

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Types of BuyersEarly Adopter

This person sees major competitive advantage in buying a new technology

Everyone Else This person sees risk in a new technology; will only buy when other companies have bought the same product.

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Early Adopter

Can be a person or an Account If person, often someone w/ a personal agenda - to make a name for themselves Look for articles quoting them or speaking at conferences

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See MoresContact asks to ‘see more’ information about your product Often does not have authority to buy or approve Can be a sign the opportunity is not qualified DO NOT think that helping See Mores is pro-gressing

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Very Important Top Officer (VITO)

The top person who can make a decision/approve Keep it simple - they don’t do details or jargon -WHY? Talk business value ‘my software can save FortuneABC $3m / year’

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http://www.vitoselling.com/ Tony Perinello

http://www.vitoselling.com/


People Buy From People They Like

Cliche, but true Not just you, your company How to get liked?

Have EMPATHY Do what you say Earn trust

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DEMOs‘They want them’ oh See mores... They do check off a box / don’t close Get something in return

‘We’ll demo if the VP attends’ ‘If demo goes well, will you submit budget request’ USE AS A QUALIFYING EVENT

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Sales Teams

Inside Sales Direct Sales Pre-Sales Engineer Post-Sales Support

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Inside Sales

Cold call and respond to leads By phone and email If they get a live voice, try and get call / meeting for direct sales rep They fill the pipeline

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http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/the-trend-that-is-changing-sales/ !Harvard Business Review on Inside Sales growth

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/the-trend-that-is-changing-sales/


Direct SalesYou get ‘face-time’ with Accounts and contacts Are tagged with pre-sales technical / product experts Your job is to pro-gress and close opportunities Good direct sellers also PROSPECT

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Pre-Sales

Make or break a company Experts on the product Present and demo Do Proof-of-Concepts...

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Proof-of-Concepts

Treat them like Demos - only if necessary Get something in return Limit scope - limit even more Necessary if competitive Use as qualifying events

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Partners

You get out what you put in Partners sell for sellers they like Empathy Can be icing on the cake

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Compensation

Base pay + Variable compensation Types of Comp Plans

Target incentive & % of quota Eat what you kill

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% of Quota

Quota is $1m revenue Target incentive if quota achieved = $100k Close $500k - rep gets $50k 500/1000=50% x $100k = $50k

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Eat What You Kill

Still have quota - to judge you 8% of every closed opportunity ( an example ) Close $500k - rep gets $40k $500k x 8% = $40k

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ClosingConvert an opportunity into a signed order and contract Cliche but true - most sellers do not ask for the order Lean In / Pressure - whatever you call it - most times, sellers have to push things along Understand the steps to close

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Example StepsYour formal quote Purchase order ( request ) PO approval Legal reviews/changes your license or usage agreement Point: Your buyer saying ‘Yes’ does not mean ‘Done deal’ anytime soon

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LingoGoose egg Sand bag What are you calling? Hope is not a strategy Sc$#wed the pooch Punt

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Coaching coders on the terms and basics of direct sales

Technology

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