If you're selling technology, you know how hard it can be to get your customers to understand the performance-enhancing business value that your company actually provides.
That's why I think you'll like Cloudy, With a Chance of Rainmaking, a new ebook by Eric Beckman, EVP at Executive Conversation, Inc. It's focused on how to translate the value of cloud computing, but its message applies to anyone selling technology.
If that's you, you'll definitely want to download it and read the whole thing. Here are a few takeaways from this new ebook that I think youll find valuable.
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Attention Cloud Sellers: Got Business Translation?
Adoption of cloud computing presents today’s sales professionals with one of the greatest opportunities in decades. However, translating technical solutions into business value pushes many sellers outside their comfort zones.
This is particularly true with cloud computing where value often hinges on fundamentally changing an account’s operating model.
Recognizing that moving to the cloud is both a business and technical decision for your accounts, here are three considerations to keep you ahead of your competition.
1. See Growth As Your Window of Opportunity
Growth remains the decisive spark for adopting transformative technology. In fact, by 2015 some 50% of Global 1000 enterprises are expected to use cloud computing for their top 10 revenue-generating processes, according to Gartner, Inc.
Helping buyers see the connection between your technology and their growth — revenue, margins, cash flow — must anchor your every strategy. Yet far too many sellers rely solely on cost savings to financially justify their solutions.
Recognize, however, that few projects both generate revenue and reduce costs. And while cost reductions can often be predicted with greater confidence than revenue growth, the reason growth reigns superior is because it speaks to market share, new customers and winning.
2. Express Interest in Your Account’s Planning Processes
To link your value to customer growth, it helps to understand your customer’s growth plans. Be honest: Are you in your customer’s plans – or not?
Sales professionals regularly miss opportunities to insert themselves into their customer's planning cycles. They mistakenly believe that strategic planning is a process the customer alone must own. Becoming a part of your customer's growth plans positions you to:
- win the deals that make a difference.
- sell throughout an account.
- preempt vs. beat the competition.
In general, companies operate with strategic plans and operational plans. Strategic plans define the direction and character of the organization, while operational plans detail how the strategies will be accomplished. To be sure, your goal is to be recognized in both as the diagram below shows.
3. Earn the Ear of Business Decision-Makers
Any strategy to engage higher within accounts comes with a harsh reality—you’ll be delegated down to the person you sound like.
Eager to tell accounts about your cloud computing capabilities, it’s easy to lose sight of why prospects actually care. Earning the ear of business decision-makers — leaders empowered to accelerate investment decisions — requires you demonstrate how your solution will improve their business performance.
Cloudy, With a Chance of Rainmaking provides step-by-step guidance for applying these ideas to your accounts and opportunities. It's a quick read for anyone selling technology.
Eager to tell accounts about your cloud computing capabilities, it’s easy to lose sight of why prospects actually care. Earning the ear of business decision-makers — leaders empowered to accelerate investment decisions — requires you demonstrate how your solution will improve their business performance vreq vfw
Posted by: escort kızlar | 09/29/2011 at 05:12 AM