A Sales Survival Strategy -- It's Not Just About Closing Deals Anymore...

by OnTarget

Introduction

In today's highly sophisticated marketplace, the enterprise technology salesperson can no longer be successful with outmoded sales processes and reliance on tactical skills that win one-off deals. Customers now demand strategic, creative solution-delivery partners who not only understand the overall corporate IT function and the company's complex and dynamic business needs, but also possess knowledge and expertise across all business and service units within the company.

Thus, today's technology salesperson must discover, facilitate and manage all channel and alliance relationships required to deliver a complete technological solution to satisfy the business needs of the client. In addition to being an expert deal closer, he must be a multi-dimensional account manager -- an account marketer, an advisor, a business manager, a market manager, a partner/alliance manager and a virtual team leader.

The Change Drivers

In the "good old days" of the technology industry, the market was so strong and major account portfolios so focused that traditional deal management worked, and worked very well, especially for companies on the short list of preferred vendors in each technology segment. The competitive posture of the technology provider -- augmented by the salesperson's selling skills -- played a significant role in the seller's ability to close the deal.

But market needs and organizational conditions have dramatically changed, completely transforming the role the technology salesperson must play. Although technology has in the past been used to support operational effectiveness, it is now being viewed as a means to true competitive advantage in an increasingly global marketplace. As a result, buyers are becoming far more sophisticated, and are demanding development, delivery and support of a complete technological solution in a turnkey manner.

The need for complete IT solutions is forcing technology providers to establish partnerships consisting of software developers, hardware/platform suppliers and professional services firms. These partnerships must work in concert to identify and supply the complete solution to support the business needs of the customer.

Moreover, as the IT market has matured, solutions providers have responded by broadening their scope of offerings. Competition and technological requirements are forcing software, hardware and services firms to target a wider range of market segments including horizontal, vertical and mid-market.

Transformation is the Winning Ticket

These change drivers can spell disaster for technology providers, applications developers and professional services firms that ignore the need for a transformation in their sales organization.

To succeed, technology companies need to rethink, realign, and reallocate their sales processes and resources. These changes are considerable, impacting individual people, sales teams, relationship management methodologies and account focus. And at the core of these changes is today's account manager -- a dynamic, multi-dimensional version of yesterday's dealmaker, who must embrace and excel in a greater range of capabilities.

So what expertise does today's composite account manager need to bring to this new, expanded role?

Account Marketer/Purveyor of "Good News"

Wearing this hat, the account manager is responsible for "directing and connecting" the key differentiating messages to all technology and service providers involved in the development and implementation of the solution. This isn't a traditional marketing role, but rather one in which the account manager delivers the "value messages" to all members of the partnership. Unfortunately, reliance on his company's traditional "belly to belly" marketing techniques won't work; because of their disparate market views and approaches, the unique business value delivered by the partnership must be articulated separately for each specific audience. To ensure the appropriate messages get communicated to each partner company in a method that makes sense to them, the account manager must be the champion of frequent, programmatic, high-impact internal marketing activities. Successful programs include joint business planning sessions focused on specific accounts/clients/markets, Technology Exchanges, joint white papers, jointly sponsored "C-level" conferences, jointly-sponsored seminars focused on horizontal practices, etc.

Advisor

Market knowledge is an absolute requisite for the account manager. He must have a deep understanding of the horizontal and vertical markets into which he's selling, insight into all the players offering products and services to these markets, and a strong grasp of global factors that may impact the sale. The intense noise in today's marketplace normally causes a tremendous amount of angst for the purchasing decision-maker. It is the responsibility of the account manager to eliminate the market noise for his customer, positioning the competitive advantages of his own company's solution and how they align with the business needs of the customer. Armed with market and competitive knowledge, the account manager can make insightful recommendations on partner-created and delivered solutions that will meet the customer's business needs.

Business Manager

In this role, the account manager is responsible for helping his customer uncover and understand the "compelling event" precipitating the need for the IT solution. This involves evaluating the customer's "pain," quantifying the value of the proposed solution, and articulating the anticipated return on investment. Once the solution is matched to the needs of the customer, the account manager must map out a timeline for the buying, development and implementation process. Moreover, the account manager is responsible for ensuring that all members of the partnership stick to the timeline, and communicating immediately to the customer if the timeline must slip for any reason.

Market Manager

Here, the account manager must be able to view and manage the account as a market unto itself. Technology salespeople tend to stay within their comfort zone, selling into the customer's IT department. But as technology-supported operations become less centralized, IT solutions are increasingly being sold directly to non-IT departments. To be most successful in full penetration of an account, this strategic role demands that the account manager gain sufficient insight into the needs and concerns of all functional and operational departments within the company. Taking this robust view arms the account manager with tremendous ammunition to cover and penetrate the entire organization.

Partner/Alliance Manager

Because no single technology provider can deliver all the components of the requisite solution, cooperative partnerships between hardware developers, applications designers and professional services firms are essential. While end-users understand the need for these alliances, the account manager must assume the burden of shaping and positioning the value of specific partnerships to his customer, and dealing with any vendor biases that may be voiced by the customer. If the vendor's executive management isn't yet innovative enough to have placed someone in the actual role of "alliance manager," the account manager will likely end up facilitating and managing the relationships between the members of the alliance. Since partnerships in the technology industry may well be "co-opetitive," this can be an exceptionally precarious role to play. One of the most critical skills the partner/alliance manager must possess is an understanding of how to leverage both channel and alliance partners.

Virtual Team Manager

To bring a solution to market today, a virtual team consisting of development, management, sales, marketing, technical support, and customer service personnel exists at each company in the partnership. Because distributed knowledge across the entire team is critical to the success of the solution development and implementation, the account manager is frequently tasked with managing these virtual teams. Success in this role requires the ability to influence the behavior of a vast number of people with distinctly different views, responsibilities and operating methods -- a significant challenge as none of the virtual team members report directly to the account manager. Clearly, excellent leadership and communications skills, mixed with a healthy dose of motivational know-how, are musts when the account manager is wearing this hat.

Conclusion

In today's highly competitive and complex sales climate, winning the deal is no longer enough. To be truly successful, today's technology salesperson must win the customer. This can only be accomplished when the salesperson possesses the knowledge and savvy to provide exceptional support to his customers and to the virtual teams delivering the solution. Functioning as a multi-dimensional account manager, the technology salesperson sets the stage to establish an ongoing relationship with the customer that delivers a unique and highly profitable business value to all parties.