So What About So What?

Here's an interesting addition to (and warning about) the "So What?" question I wrote about in "Three Simple Questions" earlier this month. Peter Cohan, author of Great Demo! writes about the So What Fallacy. In his post he explains the dangers of using a "so what" (SW) type methodology during a demo.

His example:

Feature Statement: “We provide support for the software in 22 languages…”

So What Statement: “We provide support for the software in 22 languages, so that your team can access the software anywhere in the world using their native languages…”

The Risk: The customer says, “Everyone in our company speaks English and we want to make sure that all information is captured consistently in the system, so that everyone can access all information equally – without having to learn 21 other languages…”

The Additional Risk: The customer adds, “…and we don’t want to pay for the additional 21 languages, since we won’t be using them – so either take out the support for those languages for our implementation or reduce your price accordingly…”

 

And he is right - it can be a dangerous thing to do. "So What" is the difference? Sorry! The version of SW I wrote about is a question that you ask yourself before the demo or presentation. You need to be able to answer that question, as well as "Who Cares?", otherwise you shouldn't show or speak about the feature/capability/item etc. You should know, based upon your Discovery or Research, that mentioning the 22 languages will get you into trouble. Simplistically, you only talk about the 22 langaue support if you can add "which is something that you told us you needed."

 

Where I do disagree a little with Peter is his comment about "and we want a discount as we don't need the 21 languages." Based on what I have seen, this isn't a tactic that customers use anymore - as there is almost always something in the product/service/solution that they won't use or don't need. It's a fact of life. (I cite the example of Excel or Word - you don't get a discount from Bill Gates because you don't use all the features).

 

That's a minor point, because where we are both violently in agreement is that if you don't know why you are discussing any item/screen/feature/benefit with the customer then you are potentially walking into the unknown - and that is not a good place for an SE to be when selling!

The SE Job Market

Wow. This is the first week since 2007 I don't know a single Sales Engineer anywhere in the world who is out of work and looking for a job. That is amazing. I usually have a list of 20-30 people. The market seems so hot right now, with many SE's rotating out of the bigger names into small start-ups and mid-tier companies.

Although the job market may be horrible ( at least in the US), for anyone under 25, it seems that if you have a couple of years of SE experience you can take your pick. And the more exoerience the better. A friend showed me six (that's SIX) job offers he received in the last 4 weeks when job hunting.

Once you have bene in the business for a while you learn that these things are cyclical. The moral of the story being if you want to make a move and trade up, down or out - now is the time.

August News

This month’s lead article is all about Three Simple Questions that can keep you out of trouble. They are not questions that you ask the customer – they are questions that you ask yourself. If you ask yourself these questions, and have a sensible and concrete answer to them, before every single customer interaction I can guarantee your meeting will be more focused, productive and profitable.

Ready?  So What? Who Cares and Says Who?  : Not that difficult is it?

I’ve also had a few conversations in June and July with presales leaders who measure “The Technical Win”. To me, it’s an almost worthless metric, especially when exposed to sales and other organizations. Read more on my thinking about why it is a divisive measurement.

Ask John looks at Aggressively Attacking The Competition. A sales org gets brand new leadership. The new leader decides to attack their #1 competitor – in print, in sales calls and at every opportunity. What’s a poor SE who wants to develop a trusted relationship with their customer to do?

The August book is Brian Burn’s “Selling In A New MarketSpace”. After a rough start, it really hits its stride and has a couple of fabulous chapters about setting a vision. If you are an SE in a smaller non-mainstream product company or an SE looking to move into Sales – it is a good read. It gets you inside the head of a successful salesrep with a mixture of war stories, rules and overall non-standard strategy.

Finaly – a heads-up on a couple of MTS activities I am working on. The first is a couple of SE-leader specific sessions at Dreamforce in September (San Francisco Sept 19-20). The second is a teaser – get ready for my latest course announcement in the September newsletter. You’ll love it!

Why I Don't Have A Corporate Overview

Interesting call yesterday. A reader had invited me to participate in a webcast with some of his manager peers to discuss their Professional Skills needs and a potential customized class they wanted me to develop. I’d fully prepared beforehand, researched the company and discussed the call format with my coach.

After the basic introductions, the senior manager present said:

Cust:      “John – why don’t you start off by presenting your Corporate    Overview?”

John:     “Actually I don’t have one. I have never needed to build one.”

Cust:      “Surely you must have needed one in the past. How do you let people know about all the things you do?”

John:     “Well, that’s what I use my website and the book for. In fact – I believe starting off with a Corporate Overview is wrong because it’s all about me. You are the customer, we should start with you. How about you tell me about what you do in the Professional Skills area now for your SE’s, how that is working, and what could be improved upon? For example – what do your sales partners think about your team?”

They talked for 50 minutes and all I had to do was affirm, reconfirm and ask them to explain a few acronyms. I uncovered some major pains, and pointed out a few items that they hadn't even thought about.

So my customer got a free preview of how I wanted them to sell. No customer wants to hear “Who We Are And What We Do” until they know that you care and that you understand them.

If your customer sessions start with “Hullo, I’m Joe, your account executive. Our company was started in 1995 by our three founders and we went public in 1999 and are now listed on the NASDAQ with the ticker symbol BOZO. We have 600 employees in 19 different countries serving over 60,000 users. This is a picture of our new corporate headquarters. Now for the next three hours here is my pre-sales engineer who will take you through every module of our product.”

Think again.

Between the July 4^th Independence Day Holiday in the US, and a 17-day European Tour I am making in July – the month is going to be a little hectic. So the July updates have already been applied to the Mastering Technical Sales site, and the newsletter will be released on Tuesday July 10^th.

The July lead article is The PreSales-Sales Partnership. It’s an edited transcript of a Q&A session I held with about 20 presales managers at a recent sales kickoff. At the end of the piece I’ve included a page relationship summary sheet – that should help you judge the quality of the partnership between Sales and PreSales. It’s important, as without an effective partnership, everything and everyone suffers.

That’s followed by an updated version of 31 Great Tips – a TipA Day To Keep The Webcast Blues Away. It’s a collection of “great ideas” taken from my Remote Demos and Presentations Workshop. Unless you’ve already been through one of my Perfect Pitch Workshops I am sure you’ll pick up a few ideas from the sheet.

Ask John revolves around Presales Readiness for new product launches. So many companies are focused on just “getting the product out” that they neglect the sales and presales personnel who actually have to sell ‘it’ – whatever ‘it’ is! I encourage a more aggressive approach in demanding training and collateral before product release and setting up a stakeholder go/no-go meeting to get some leverage.

The July SE Book Of The Month is “All-In”. It looks at how some of the best and brightest leaders around the globe have motivated their teams – big and small. Once you get past some of the “well, duh..” obviousness there is actually a god concept hiding underneath it.

As far as the European Tour. I’ll be in Amsterdam on July 5^th, and will be zipping through Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia over the course of 14 days – featuring some work and some play.

Its Black And White

My wife and daughters will readily volunteer that I am one of the last people in the world who should give out fashion advice. However – here is my case why “Black Is The New White” – at least for PowerPoint presentations.

 After every single speech or seminar I give – people comment on my use of slides with a black background.

“It’s Different”  

“They Got My Attention”

“Very impactful to drive home your key points.”

“They look SO much better than our boring standard white slides”.

You get the idea. So here, with apologies to my friends all over the globe in Corporate Marketing, is my reasoning.

1. White is jarring on the eyes. It is bright; it tires the eyes and psychologically fatigues the brain. A common trick we “black hats” use is to sneak in a slide with a white background after 10-15 dark slides – the audience gasps in horror and covers their eyes.

2.  In a dark room (sales kickoff, big seminar event), the use of white hurts even more because of the contrast with the surroundings.

3.  Pictures and images display so much better – as they usually blend in better with a dark black/grey background than a white one. That means no ugly white border strips.

4.  Look at me! Maybe this is the trainer’s ego – but I want the audience focused on me, once they have read the minimal text on the slide and processed the image. Bright white light attracts the eyes away from the speaker.

5.  White=Bad. Many presentation gurus and bloggers equate white slides with the Pavlovian experience of previous really awful PPT pitches. The last bad PPT was in white, so this one must be bad too. Sometimes you do just need to be different and give the brain a chance

6.  It works for Apple. OK – that may not be a completely valid argument, but they are doing pretty well with it.

Think About It.

Give Black A Try. Maybe for an internal presentation when you don't have to worry about branding - see what happens.

The June MTS Newsletter

The June Newsletter is being released on Tuesday June 5th.

The lead article examines "Moving Beyond ROI". Even though we have been trained to look for key business issues, financial returns, economic buyers and speak a little less about our technology - there's more to making the sale than a simple ROI. Customers buy for two reasons - economics and emotion. If you have the economics but forget the emotional side of the sale - you'll probably lose.

Then continuing with my theme in May of "Pick Up The Phone" - I look at some of the reasons why you need to take your hands off the keyboard and actually speak with someone. It may be internal, like a rep or support analysts, or it may be external such as a customer contact. There are times when you can cut through all the broken processes, CYA and other emotions with some good ol' fashioned conversation!

Ask John deals with "My salesrep used to be in pre-sales; and is driving me crazy!" Enough said.

Book Of The Month is "The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook" by Green and Howe. It's a good read. I've started work on a Trusted Advisor class fopr several clients and it was great research material. Worth the read if you are being told to become the Trusted Advisor" to your client. (My entire recommended reading list is on the website).

Good Selling!