Category Archives: Business Planning

Innovative Technology Compensates for Clumsy Sales and Marketing

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Technology innovators targeting enterprise business and other large organizations in the public and not-for-profit sectors should look to product development for substantial, defensible barriers to competitor entry. Entering today’s ultra competitive markets for traditional solutions (for example, ERP) requires highly sophisticated sales and marketing. Human resources with the right skills for these sales and marketing requirements may not be available to start ups. Nevertheless, a very keen eye for products is required to determine precisely the right markets for product development.

It’s worth spending a brief moment simply highlighting the very high level of sophistication required of successful enterprise sales personnel selling into highly competitive markets. Merely a careless harsh phrase, or a momentary lapse in judgement can push promising sales opportunities off a cliff. Please understand that in these highly competitive markets, the true driving force is not the product or service, rather, it is precisely the sales person who is the driving force for customer interest. Betting a business on sales personalities is at best a highly risky endeavor and, at worst, a strategy with a highly limited upside. This mediocre scenario plays out clearly in the contract technology consulting business where a limitless number of businesses compete to deliver human resources with the same skills to enterprise customers. In fact, it is not uncommon in this marketplace for the same IT consultant to be present to the customer by multiple consulting firms.

Better to take the time to study markets very closely to determine aspects of IT operations and processes that are broken and in sore need of repair through open ended conversations with enterprise prospects who are directly involved in these very same procedures. Building specific fixes for one or more of these aspects can pay off with the required revenue to launch a promising business. These niches do not have to be dramatic. Rather, through engaging in carefully structured conversations with industry participants information can be gathered that will illuminate probable marketplace value for a method of fixing an aspect or two of an important IT system. Better to take this approach than to be on the lookout for exceptional sales personnel who can flawlessly handle any high pressure engagement with prospects. In our experience these sales personnel are in very short supply. Engaging with a talented individual can end up to be a very costly exercise for an early stage business.

If you are embarking on a new business effort and understand the value of sampling marketplace opinion about IT operations and processes, then we would like to hear from you. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

Maintaining a familiarity with marketplace perceptions of software technologies targeted to enterprise business must be Standard Operating Procedure

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If your business has an offering in a complex market for enterprise business software like business intelligence (BI), it behooves you to maintain an ear to the ground to collect marketplace perceptions of your product category. In turn, your marketing communications should be tuned to conform to these marketplace perceptions. Of course, where the pervasive take is wrong (and you can substantiate why) then, of course, it makes total sense to take the voice of a marketplace leader and suggest a different path or conclusion. Nevertheless, you must have an accurate understanding of current marketplace perception of your industry, which ought to be reflected somewhere in your communications.

This call for attention to marketplace buzz or chatter may seem to be a no brainer, but if it is so obvious, then how would one explain the frequent hyperbole that characterizes some of the product benefit claims produced by entrants into this market? Here’s just a snip from an Oracle® Corporation website (http://www NULL.oracle NULL.com/webapps/dialogue/ns/dlgwelcome NULL.jsp?p_ext=Y&p_dlg_id=10541677&src=7328026&Act=11&sckw=WWMK11054269MPP001 NULL.GCM NULL.8344 NULL.280): “[a]n effective Business Intelligence strategy drives profitable growth and operational efficiency.” Of course the key operand here is “effective”, but the communications piece neither highlights the term, nor includes a caveat. We think this type of communications is rather ineffective. We think that the credibility of Oracle would have been enhanced had they opted to include the following caveat that, in fact, was included by Microsoft® Corporation in a white paper on the BI topic: “Businesses, in an effort to stay one step ahead, collect large amounts of data ranging from demographics, buyer behavior, and customer loyalty to financial and operational data. Unfortunately the data is useless for decision making, its intended purpose, without a way of organizing and displaying it as meaningful information”. In the Microsoft quote the writer at least states the pervasive marketplace perception that “the data is useless for decision making” and, thereby pays his due marketplace perception. (We do need to note that the Microsoft piece is not entirely free of hyperbole as the writer goes on to suggest that, with “a way of organizing and displaying [the data] as meaningful information” once may get to something useful “for decision making”, which is still a point of contention in the marketplace).

We think that marketing communications for enterprise business software products must support an effort to characterize an innovative tech business as something of a trusted business partner. Acknowledging prevalent marketplace perception is one method of magnetizing some of that trusted marketplace brand. We are keen on discussing opportunities to help innovative technology businesses better craft marketing communications to meet marketplace realities. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

Implement Sales Methods that are Appropriate for Targeted Markets to Ensure Success

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Software Sales teams targeting enterprise businesses and other large groups of users in the public or not-for-profit sectors can spend months, even years (if funding is available) wandering in a desert of low productivity that results in few, if any sales. Sales does not exist within a vacuum. Every other program with which a business is engaged impacts upon the success of sales efforts, especially marketing. Nevertheless, where marketing is working fine, then the actual sales method plays a dominant role in the success or failure of selling efforts. If this method is wrong there will be few if any sales. End of story.

We could use the remainder of this blog post to beat up on methodology that we think does not work for enterprise software sales. There are lots of these methods on the market today. Nevertheless, focusing on negatives delivers little value to anyone, least of all our precious readers. Rather, we need to focus on what works for us, from which, hopefully, the reader may extrapolate some value. We think that the Complex Sale methodology formulated by Jeff Thull of the Prime Resource Group (http://www NULL.primeresource NULL.com) provides the best method that we know of to deliver successful selling efforts for the type of markets that we are after.

The specific feature of this method that we would like to focus on for the remainder of this post is the “discover” stage of engagement with potential sales prospects. What catches us about this stage is the opportunity it presents to sales — as well as to a prospect — to fairly determine whether or not it makes sense to pursue a particular prospect or not. In the world of enterprise software sales the days of “any prospect represents a sales opportunity” are long gone. Time is in precious short supply; therefore, it makes complete sense to objectively study an opportunity presented by a prospect to determine appropriateness before committing more resources. Further, compiling a portrait of a prospect business in detail (which is, after all, the result of successful completion of this “discover” stage) will provide specific areas of opportunity, as Jeff Thull is careful to point out in his book, “Mastering the Complex Sale” where one’s solution can significantly lower costs for a prospect and, thereby, be worth a prospect’s consideration.

We have excellent recent experience dealing with enterprise markets for software products and services. We welcome opportunities to expand on discussions such as this one. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

On the Need for Enterprise Sales Staff to Play the Role of Diagnosticians

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In 2012 it is essential that sales planning for IT products and services targeted to enterprise businesses and other large organizations in the public and not-for-profit sectors allocate as much time as required for the compilation of a comprehensive diagnostic report on any/all prospects. As we have written elsewhere in this blog, purchase decisions are now generally much more complicated than heretofore; therefore lots of information needs to be accumulated on each aspect of how a purchase decision might be framed by a typical customer for a specific product or service, or integrated solution. This diagnostic process (we credit Jeff Thull, author of “Mastering the Complex Sale” for coining this phrase) provides sales with an opportunity to facilitate prospect movement along a path towards identifying needs (now commonly referred to as “pain points”).

We characterize many of the prospects with whom we have engaged over the last 2-3 years as “dysfunctional” decision-makers. Dislodging dysfunction is far from an easy task; nevertheless, we have obtained very good results through a thorough analysis of prospects, requirements, etc. By walking prospects through this information fact finding mission we’ve managed to help them clarify what they really need to do about all of the factors that influence a purchase, from budgets, to targeted areas for cost savings, to business units, etc. In the best of cases this process has produced sales. In the worst of cases this process has helped us to manage our time and move along to better opportunities. Regardless of outcome, we can say that this diagnostic process is the optimum way to engage with the type of enterprise prospects for the products and solutions that we have represented.

The complement to this type of purchase decision-making is an entirely online process where prospects identify what they are after, research possible solutions and simply approach vendors for pricing and availability. Typically this type of engagement — simply shopping price and timing a purchase — is characteristic of a commodity purchase; but we have seen this type of purchase occur, this year, with regard to complex intangible solution. The best method of fostering this type of sale is to optimize web sites with Search Engines for the most helpful set of keywords possible. Social media certainly may play a role in prospect decisions for these products, but the subject of how to leverage social media, effectively, to nurture sales, is still in flux.

We are most interested in hearing from innovative tech companies looking to improve sales team performance.

IMB Enterprises, Inc. is most interested in opportunities to work with IT innovators who wish to approach market opportunities with an effective sales strategy. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

Connect IT Systems to Business KPIs to Begin to Understand how Purchase Decisions Arise at Enterprise Business Prospects

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Enterprise businesses, large organizations in the public and/or not-for-profit sectors make use of key performance indicators (KPIs), scorecards and data dashboards to, as Dr. Michael Hammer noted in his 2007 article, “The 7 Deadly Sins of Performance Measurement and How to Avoid Them” (http://hbr NULL.org/product/7-deadly-sins-of-performance-measurement-and-how-t/an/SMR241-PDF-ENG?N=4294958507&Ntt=+&Nao=5700), to “[design] and [use] metrics to track and improve operating performance.” Oh, if it were only so easy! Dr. Hammer noted in his article that ” . . . there is a widespread consensus that [KPIs, balanced scorecards, data dashboards, etc] measure too much, or too little, or the wrong things, and that, in any event, they don’t use their metrics effectively.” Nevertheless, analyzing operational performance with these tools is a rich area of interest for nearly all businesses and organizations in this class. After all, the search for a means of deriving accurate and useful metrics on business performance that will support predictive modeling is as close as one can likely get to identifying a “search for the holy grail” like endeavor for these prospects. Therefore, top product marketers will keep ears and eyes open when prospects share information about these endeavors.

In fact, IT innovators targeting this class of prospect will do well to study a related comment made by Ms. Carole J. Haney, Process Owner – Process Management and Process Performance, The Boeing Company, Integrated Defense Systems, Rotorcraft Division, Mesa, Arizona, that is included in the MIT Sloan Review Article on Dr. Hammer’s research on this topic. Ms. Haney notes that her group “took an evolutionary step toward a process point of view by implementing ‘shared metrics’ across [their] value stream. Customers are now involved as part of the process team when creating process definition; a process team that comprises cross functions, including the customer, is more readily postured for success.” As we have written elsewhere in this blog, the slow pace of complex sales may be attributable to a dysfunctional decision-making process that is, nevertheless, a real factor for customers. By participating alongside customers within a process of determining needs and solutions (to cure this dysfunction) IT innovators, who can afford the time the process may take, will substantially differentiated their value for the market from their competitors. In fact, and as noted by Jeff Thull in his book “Mastering the Complex Sale,” the final product may be entirely unique and solely available from the IT innovator who spent this time with the prospect.

Analyzing KPIs, balanced scorecards, etc is equally valuable for the indicators that will, in all likelihood, be forthcoming on operations afflicted by “pain points,” as well as business operations that are “bleeding” cash. Of course, these indicators promise very rich returns for relevant products and/or services.

IMB Enterprises, Inc. is interested in opportunities to work with IT innovators who wish to approach market opportunities to collect the type of high level/very high value information characteristic of KPIs, etc. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

Pharmaceutical Product Managers Could Still Use a Dose of Michael Porter’s Five Forces Competition Theory

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We read a blog post by Dr. Jim Anderson, Product Managers Could Learn to Love Lipitor (http://www NULL.theaccidentalpm NULL.com/marketing/product-managers-could-learn-to-love-lipitor). We were interested to learn the steps that Pfizer has publicized that it will take to protect market share once its patent for Lipitor® expires. According to Dr. Anderson, these steps include:

  1. offering cards directly to current retail customers that will not expire when Pfizer’s patent expires. These cards lower out of pocket co payment expenses for these customers to $4.00 per month
  2. Directly delivering the product to retail customers. In addition, Pfizer will notify retail customers who choose to participate in the program when prescriptions need to be refilled
  3. Negotiating with Health Benefit plans to ensure that the cost of Pfizer’s drug is completely aligned with the cost of generic alternatives

The common theme that runs through each of these three steps, as we see it, is an effort to lower cost for retail customers (only) and improve access (for retail customers only) to this medication. The third step, negotiating with benefit plans, could end up benefiting Pfizer at the expense of benefit plans.

If, in fact, Pfizer has taken these three steps as Dr. Anderson contends, we think they could have done a much better job had they paid some serious attention to Dr. Michael Porter’s Five forces (http://hbr NULL.org/2008/01/the-five-competitive-forces-that-shape-strategy/ar/1). As long as Pfizer has demonstrated that their production costs are lower for Lipitor than is the case for their competitors and, further, that they can retain profit margin despite keeping retail customer out of pocket costs at no more than $4.00 per month, then the card program works. Ditto for the notification program.

Nevertheless, we think they should have attempted to identify customers using their drug for unexpected conditions with an eye towards identifying higher margin markets which, if developed skillfully, would permit Pfizer to retain present pricing levels despite a pending onslaught of generic competition.

Further, we hope that Pfizer thoroughly briefed its benefit plan partners about its planned three steps well in advance of notifying the public of its plans. All three steps could end up benefiting Pfizer at the expense of its benefit plan partners — not a skillful tactic over the long run. We think that methods of defending Pfizer’s market position could be formulated that would benefit benefit plans as well as Pfizer. These latter methods deserve study in that we don’t think that Pfizer should hastily burn its bridges with benefit plans. After all, benefit plans provide very high volume conduits into the marketplace.

If you are interest in product management approaches and are grappling with products in commodity markets, then we would like to hear from you. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

Social Media Communications will be Adopted by Enterprise Business

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Opportunities to publicize products, promote sales and build prospect and customer relationships over electronic media should be exploited by tech innovators marketing products and/or services to enterprise businesses as well as large groups of users in the public and not for profit sectors. In fact, ignore these opportunities at your peril. When this group of buyers needs to purchase a solution they will research markets, and select purchasing options through online activities, including Internet search along with a review of web page content that speaks to their needs. All of this translates into a general tendency to reach out to sales at a later stage in a purchase decision, generally when pricing and availability need to be determined.

We need to presently add “gauging vendor reputation” to the above list. The fact is that social media is playing a significant role in the online behavior of buyers today. Therefore, tech innovators must maintain thorough familiarity with their online reputation as well as with prospect perception of product and services. After all, massive businesses like Dell Computers, HP, etc. have crafted social media features into their online customer support options. We think these companies gain important perspective on just how a marketplace perceives their brand through participation in these venues. Further, we think that certainly, over time, this specific class of buyers — enterprise business and large groups in the public and not for profit sectors — will make even more use of social media. The realities are that successfully implementing an internal Twitter, or FaceBook like online feature will cost substantially less than the cost of hosting legacy user conferences, etc.

These buyers are making the requisite effort to get these online social venues to work. For example, we have learned recently of a coming approval for NewsGator (http://www NULL.newsgator NULL.com), a social media add on for Microsoft® SharePoint® by a very large asset management firm headquartered here in the United States. This approval is important. The approval demonstrates that even within a heavily regulated business sector like Asset Management, businesses are taking the necessary steps to craft social media into authorized tools. In our opinion the obvious justification for this level of effort is the tremendous cost savings that these firms will realize through implementing a successful social program with their external counterparts, meaning prospects, customers and other industry participants.

We are very interested in this type of development. If your firm would like to learn more about this industry trend, then please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

An Integrated Marketing Method is the Best Solution for Ongoing Production of Sales Leads

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In 2012 an integrated direct marketing method is the best option for tech innovators who need to sell products and/or services to enterprise business and large groups of technology users in the public sector.

What Is Integrated Direct Marketing in 2012
We use the term integrated direct marketing to refer to simultaneous implementation of the following 6 product promotional tools:

  • Online Content including so-called web 1.0 and web 2.0 activities
  • Search Engine Optimization for targeted key words
  • Product Promotion via Social Media
  • Direct Mail Product Promotion
  • Telephone prospect contact including telemarketing and teleprospecting
  • In person prospect contact including visits, conference participation, etc

We are confident that tech innovators, regardless of market engagement strategy (under the radar vs overt), can successfully build long term sales leads programs through a product marketing program that includes each of the above 6 components

Why are 4 of the 6 tools specific to electronic media?
As the result of substantial improvements in the quality of information delivery methods, principally over Internet data communications protocols, more potentially relevant information is available to buyers than ever before at substantially lower cost. This information cornucopia, together with several years of global economic downturn, has spawned the development of “new” buyer who generally will not engage with sales personnel until:

  1. Business needs have crystallized into a tangible form and
  2. An Initial set of potential solutions have been collected that can satisfy (1)

Therefore, tech innovators need to build and manage online content that will appeal, persuade, convince tech buyers in 2012 to reach out to establish contact. This imperative does not preclude the use of direct marketing tools like targeted email, direct mail and outbound telephone contact campaigns. Rather, this imperative provides a complement that, depending upon specific milestones in a business plan, may, in fact, prove to be essential to the success of a business plan. To put it simply, ignore online to your peril in 2012.

If you share our point of view, then you should be able to understand why the best method of addressing these market realities for enterprise tech products is to either install an internal function vested with oversight over this integrated marketing method, or to secure the services of a firm that can outsource this function for your business. We think it makes total sense (in terms of cost) for early stage, funded, tech innovators to opt to outsource this function. We welcome opportunities to discuss this method. Please contact Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

Lead Generation Programs Should Produce Opportunity Rich Meetings for Sales Teams

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Tech innovators focused on selling products and/or services to enterprise businesses and other large groups of users in the public sector should establish metrics to gauge the value delivered from lead generation programs. We think that recording the number of meetings with decision makers at targeted prospects who are in the market for relevant products and services is a useful metric for this activity. Of course, other objectives — for example, collecting the opinions of a market segment about pressing short term, or long term needs in a specific market place — will require different results for a determination of the actual value delivered from a lead generation program. Nevertheless, if driving sales is the overall objective of an investment in a lead generation program, then counting the number of meetings that match the above noted criteria makes a lot of sense.

In fact, there is little, if any reason to pay for anything less than these types of meetings. Paying for names and contact information for leads that are at an earlier stage of maturity; for example, without any identified needs or decision makers, will require sales personnel to assume the burden of lead development. We don’t think that sales personnel have the requisite skills required to nurture leads through the maturation process; therefore, otherwise promising opportunities may, in fact, result in a dead end that could be avoided had lead generation efforts finished their job.

Our lead generation efforts, therefore, deliver substantial value to our clients. The leads they receive are contacts within prospect businesses who have been completely verified as decision makers. Further, we have completely verified that prospects are in the market, at the point in time when we deliver leads, to purchase products and/or solutions that broadly approximate our client offerings. Finally, each lead is willing to meet with our client as a potential supplier for the sought after solution.

Sales personnel are free to pursue other promising opportunities while we undertake the nurturing required to manage a lead through a maturity cycle. The revenue they can, therefore, deliver while we handle lead generation in some cases exceeds the cost of our service. In these instances our offering is, indeed, a “gift that keeps on giving.”

We share the same method of establishing that a lead fits acceptance criteria with our clients to ensure that all parties are operating on the same principles. For example, we provide daily activity reports on all leads. These activity reports include a score for each lead. With leads scored our clients can determine likely lead pipeline volume as well as the amount of time that will be required to deliver a targeted volume of leads.

If you are in the market for the type of leads that we have described, then we would certainly like to speak with you. We offer monthly and annual plans. Please call Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved

Implement a Lead Scoring System to Gain a Useful View of Revenue Prospects for Technology Products

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Product marketing plans must include prospect profiles for businesses and related contacts. In parallel, a typical maturation cycle for leads must also be assembled. With a prospect profile and a typical lead maturity cycle in hand, then a scoring system can be implemented for leads. Through the application of this lead scoring system a useful picture of present, near term future and longer term future sales activity takes shape. This picture will become more valuable over time as more data is incorporated within calculations.

Using a scale of 1-10, where 1 represents the lowest value, a numeric value can be assigned to any and all leads. This numeric value directly correlates to a stage of lead maturity for a specific prospect interaction, as follows:

  1. Gathering Information from Prospects
  2. Communicating Information to Prospects
  3. Formulating an Initial Needs Assessment for an Opportunity
  4. Collecting a List of all Contacts within a Prospect who must be included in steps 1-3 above
  5. Establishing the authenticity of decision makers as well as presumed requirements through additional conversations with contacts at the prospect business
  6. Utilizing internal and external contacts to schedule a meeting with decision maker(s)
  7. A meeting with contacts who appear to be decision maker(s) to discuss potential requirements for products and/or services
  8. A meeting with a decision maker who needs to find a solution to a specific requirement for products and/or services manufactured by our company
  9. Presenting this decision maker with a specific proposal, complete with cost information
  10. An Engagement Letter is signed, or a purchase order is received for our product or service

Steps 1-6 in this maturity model are the responsibility of lead generation personnel. Step 7 can include lead generation and sales personnel. Steps 8-10 are entirely the province of sales personnel.

Utilizing this lead maturity model it is possible to obtain very efficient results from sales personnel who ought not be involved in steps 1-6. Sales activity should be categorized into each of the 10 steps. Usually, at an early stage of implementing this method, sales activities will overlap lead generation activities. Management can use this information to require changes in sales activity to eliminate duplication of effort. Indeed, for very early stage businesses with lots of leads scored as a 1-6 value, there is little need for sales involvement at all. Rather, we recommend that sales personnel utilize these early stages for product and market training. Better to leave the task of nurturing leads through stage 1-6 to lead generation experts who can be much more effective at this task.

IMB Enterprises, Inc. specializes in identifying sales leads for information technology companies targeting enterprise business and large user groups in the public sector. We nurture leads through stages 1 through 7. We collaborate with sales on stages 7 and 8. We offer monthly and annual services plans that will produce targeted lead levels to be determined by our clients. Please call Ira Michael Blonder at +1 631-673-2929 to further a discussion. You may also email Mike at imblonder@imbenterprises.com.

© IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved