Helping Your Customers See the Smoke Before the Fire

Posted on August 28, 2015 by douglaswallen

I spent a couple of days last week in the beautiful San Francisco Bay area. Like many of you, when I travel I like to ask taxi drivers about some of the local happenings that I have read about or seen on the news. When I asked one particular driver about the wildfires raging in northern California and whether they were having any effect on him or his family, he had no idea what I was referring to. Thinking that it may have been due to a language barrier, I asked the question a couple of different ways, mentioning that the human and natural impact had gotten a considerable amount of attention in the world news. He insisted that he knew nothing about any wildfires in the state of California. He did switch the radio to NPR, which may have suggested he wanted to find out what he had missed. Or he just wanted me to stop talking to him.

It occurred to me that this discussion mirrored a few that I and my employees have had with customers throughout my career. Perhaps you have experienced it as well – you ask your customer about a recent press release, earnings report, or news story about their company and they have no idea what you are talking about. Or perhaps you have brought up an emerging business technology trend that will impact the way your customer does business or the manner in which the individual you are meeting with will do their job and they are equally uninformed. Recent trends such as cloud computing and big data come to mind when I think of areas in which a few of my customers have only recently begun to grasp the possibilities of how these new solutions can help them transform their business. Similarly, customers choosing not to upgrade their existing solutions to the latest supported versions of products often create “fires” that both customer and supplier would rather avoid. The smoke on the horizon can indeed come in many forms.

These types of situations are perfect opportunities to engage with your customers and differentiate yourself from your competitors. In fact, such discussions should be a regular part of your post-sales customer care conversations. First, take the opportunity to educate your customer about forthcoming product releases and your company’s support plans for the solutions that they already own. This can be done via some type of “health check”, reports from your product support organization or a custom crafted scorecard. Then provide information about complementary offerings that they should be investing in and the current and future business and technology needs addressed by those investments. This may include educating them about products from your company that they already own but have chosen to not implement or may be used by another division of their company. Finally, spend some time on issues affecting their specific industry and their profession. Recent changes in the regulatory environment, trends you are seeing from your other customers, and information you have gathered from your colleagues can always create new conversations with customers about how they can get more value from their relationship with you.

Although my cab driving friend may have been completely oblivious to the tragedy that many of his fellow Californians were experiencing, I don’t hold it against him, as the nearest fire was nearly two hours away from where he lives and does business. The smoke was not even visible to him. But in the case of your customers, the next fire that impacts their business may be much closer. Imagine the impression you can make if you help them prepare for it before they can see the smoke.

Book Review: “Creative Confidence”

Posted on August 18, 2015 by douglaswallen

This work by brothers Tom and David Kelley of Stanford University’s “d.school” is subtitled “Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All”. The authors make well on their promise to provide new ways of thinking about the development of new products and offerings for businesses as well as problem solving in general. Their “design-driven innovation” method generally consists of 1) Inspiration, or discovery via natural observation, interviews, and behavioral analysis; 2) Synthesis, or the recognition of patterns, development of solution frameworks, and making sense of what has been discovered; 3) Ideation & Experimentation of potential solutions via exploration and experiential learning; and 4) Implementation into the marketplace. This enables the innovator to go beyond end-user design and how someone uses a product to also consider WHY they use it. The result is, in both theory and practice, a more effective solution for the target market. Their approach utilizes techniques such as storytelling, iterative development/prototyping, reframing, and the development of “empathy maps” to get inside the heads and hearts of the users of a particular solution.

Although their methods are very appropriate for organizations that develop new products and services and the authors discuss many of their successful engagements with both startups and established companies, I was often challenged as I considered how their methods could be used by a sales organization. After all, it is our responsibility to help customers invest in the products and services that are already released, generally available, and “on the truck” as opposed to developing something new. Most often, we are helping our customers innovate their business using solutions and offerings that already exist rather than coming up with our own new products. One idea that I landed on most often is that the authors’ method of storytelling and “empathy mapping” could help us convey the user experience from several different perspectives. It can help us:

Work with our customers to envision what THEIR customers will experience when they are using the new solution.
Model what our customer will experience as they implement and support the solution.
Model what our customer will experience in their business relationship with us should they choose to invest in our solution.
Model how the solution will interact with and fit into their current technological landscape

These viewpoints will enable the customer’s decision makers to see the true impact of choosing your solution. From there, we can help our customers find what the authors refer to (via Venn diagram, naturally) as “the sweet spot of feasibility, viability, and desirability”. Respectively, this is the point at which the technical, business, and people aspects of a particular solution are in balance and will provide maximum business value. The authors spend too much time on anecdotes about how they have helped organizations and individuals get over the fear associated with using their methods, but, after all, the book is called “Creative Confidence”. I recommend that you read the Kelley brothers’ work and consider how you can use their techniques to tell your complete story and set your vision with your customers.

Midyear Maintenance

Posted on May 9, 2015 by douglaswallen

Like any recurring good habit that can be marked by time, the middle of the year is as good a time as any to ensure that the professional image that you are presenting to your customers and your industry does not become stagnant. So block off an hour or so to…

Update your resume. I am constantly looking for candidates to join my organization. And I am constantly surprised by the number of professionals, regardless of the stage of their career, who either need a few days “to get my resume together” or provide me with something that hasn’t been updated for years. I don’t want to engage in any discussion about the effectiveness of different resume styles, lengths, etc., as I am more concerned with the basic act of keeping it updated. I will, however, urge you to avoid bad habits such as including a superlative-laden “career objective” section that says nothing about your abilities, focusing on jargon-filled responsibilities rather than results, and spending a lot of space listing out every acronym and technology that you have ever touched. Your resume should be saved as a PDF file that can be readily sent to an interested party (no one likes to be annoyed by the opening of Word or Pages just to read a document, particularly given the increased use of mobile devices). And be sure to include a link in your resume to your LinkedIn profile, because the next step in your midyear career maintenence is to…

Update your LinkedIn profile. In my recruiting efforts, I am equally amazed at the number of incomplete or nonexistent LinkedIn profiles. I tend to think of it this way – if someone has chosen to take the time to create a professional profile on LinkedIn, then why did they choose to do it in such an unprofessional manner? Is this an indicator of other unprofessional behavior that I should be concerned about? Do they have a habit of leaving activities incomplete or not following up? Is this the sort of person that I can trust to engage with my customers and present themselves and our solutions in the best possible light? As a customer, can I be sure that this individual will be thorough in exploring the needs of my business bringing me the appropriate solutions? Gaps in employment, ignoring education, and merely listing one’s current title/employer are the most common infractions. Your network and potential network is using this to learn about you, so you need to let them know what sort of professional you are. A final tip – I enjoy the music of Rush as much or more than the next guy, but that doesn’t mean that I should use a picture of Neil Peart in my LinkedIn profile (ok maybe on his birthday). The same goes for your pet ferret, your kids, or your favorite photo from that infamous frat party of yesteryear. LinkedIn is NOT Facebook.

One thought on length – given the space allowed, I recommend LinkedIn as the place to store the most complete picture of one’s career and experiences. The resume should be somewhat shorter, more focused, and include statements of results in order to capture the reader’s attention. Prospective hiring managers are going to look at both anyway, so you may as well use them both to tell your complete story. And that story is complete when you…

Update your “dust jacket” bio. Now that you have updated the details in your resume and LinkedIn profile, summarize it. Shrink it down into a maximum of four or five sentences describing you as a professional. Add a professional photo of yourself and save this as an editable document (Word or Pages). Having such a document at the ready will come in handy whenever a customer, colleague, or other interested party is in need of a brief introduction. It might be included in proposals, whitepapers, or other customer deliverables; organizational summaries that your management may be building; speaking engagements at your local college; or presentation opportunities at customer or industry conferences. Think of it like the brief author bios that appear on the dust jackets of your favorite books.

As a responsible adult, you likely take your car to the shop, visit the dentist, and get your home HVAC systems inspected on a regular basis. Your career deserves the same sort of attention. Consider adding this resume updating exercise to your other monthly or quarterly activities such as printing the account information and passwords from your password management software and storing them in safe place, printing out all of your contacts’ information from your e-mail or contact management system (remember, paper NEVER crashes), and updating the business results that you will eventually be submitting into your employer’s performance appraisal system at the end of the year.

Interviewing the Interviewer

Posted on March 6, 2015 by douglaswallen

“Whenever someone asks me to define love, I usually think for a minute, then I spin around and pin the guy’s arm behind his back. NOW who’s asking the questions?” – Jack Handey

In a past post I provided some ideas that technical sales managers could explore with candidates and the types of questions that candidates should be prepared to answer. To turn the tables a bit, let’s explore some questions that sales engineering candidates should be asking as they explore roles with an interviewer. These go beyond the standard responsibilities/expectations/pay/benefits/career questions that you should be asking and will help you discover additional details about the prospective employer’s business and how you can help them expand it.

What do your customers tell you when you lose a deal?

This is important because it will get the interviewer to talk to you about some of the realities of their business. In addition to evaluating your capability to execute a specific role, the interviewer’s job is also to sell their company to you. Therefore, they may have a tendency to spend most of the time talking about the ideal situation or focus only on the positive aspects. Getting a thoughtful description of some of the more challenging aspects of the business will inject some reality into the discussion. It will also help you think about ways in which you can address the challenges once you become an employee.

What do you think I am going to find the most challenging in my first 6 months and how do most people address those challenges?

Similar to above, this question will drive a frank discussion of the realities inside the business. It will help you understand what you need to be prepared for. Assuming you are offered and accept the position, you will be better prepared to address the challenges that arise. Having some examples of how others address those challenges will enable you to consider their experiences as you formulate your own approach. This question would be most effective when asked in conjunction with one requesting a description of a typical day in the life at the company. If you ask this question, you should also be prepared to answer any follow up “what would you recommend?” questions that the interviewer throws at you.

What makes you stay at this company?

This will provide you with some insight into the viability of this company as a long-term employer and a glimpse at the company’s culture. Does the interviewer list specific attributes of the company and experiences that they have had that resonate with you? People love to talk about what they do and what they have done, so try to draw specific fulfilling experiences out of your interviewer. Your personality and career goals may be completely different from those of the interviewer, but you should still get their perspective as a starting point. Their attitude towards the company will also give you an idea of their management style, which is particularly important if they are the hiring manager to whom you will be reporting.

How much time can I expect to spend with you once I am hired?

Assuming that the interviewer is also the person to whom you will be reporting, this will help you understand their approach to managing their team. Are they going to be more of a hands on player/coach with you in the field or will they assign those details to a trainer/mentor and spend most of their time focused on administrative responsibilities? Do they have so many people reporting to them that they can only afford to spend a small amount of time with each employee? There are benefits and detriments to many management styles that I will not go into here, but asking this question will better prepare you for the sort of working relationship you are going to have with your new manager.

I noticed in reading your annual report/10-K that you are seeing a decline/development in ProductLineX in MarketSpaceX (or some similar question that was inspired from your reading of their financial statements and corporate communications)?

Obviously if you are interviewing with a public company you will have read through their most recent annual report and SEC filings. So use your newfound knowledge of the company’s strategy and results to ask some questions about segments of their business, target markets, growth prospects, etc. Since you are interviewing to become one of the most important employees in the organization – one that drives new revenue for the company – you should be very curious about the perception and penetration of their products in the marketplace. Your interviewer’s answer to this question will help you get a better understanding of how you are going to personally fit into the company’s strategy. It may also lead to a specific conversation about pipeline and future product development. If the company is privately held, then you should be able to derive some idea of their market position(s) and growth prospects from industry reports. Finally, if the interviewer has no idea what you are talking about or is completely unfamiliar with their company’s official filings, you may not want to go to work for them. This is particularly true if the interviewer is also the hiring manager to whom you would be reporting.

As a manager, I find the types of questions that candidates ask to be excellent indicators of how successful they are going to be in my organization. Those who have taken the time to research, prepare, and inquire about many aspects of my business typically end up being the most successful, as they tend to ask similarly provocative questions of their customers. Always remember, the sole purpose of the interview is to get an offer. These questions will help you get a better idea of whether you want to accept the offer and what you can expect after you do.

Your Three Q1 Imperatives

Posted on January 10, 2015 by douglaswallen

For most in our business (and for many of our customers), a new fiscal year has begun. With that often comes changes in go to market models, sales coverage plans, management structures, priorities, and many other organizational aspects. This often leads to a great deal of consternation and “noise” in the system that creates distractions and can keep you from immediately pursuing success in 2015. So to help you get your head above the fray, here are my top 3 focus areas for your consideration:

1) Close out last year. And I mean right now. If you owe your manager documentation on last year’s performance, get it turned in today. If you need to send feedback on your colleagues to their management, get those praises aired now. (You should have been documenting both of these throughout 2014, so final submission should not be very arduous). If you thought that you would address any lack of hygiene in your CRM, forecasting, or reporting systems over the holidays but ended up spending that time with the kids on the new PS4, get those applications updated before the sun rises again. Even if it means pulling an all-nighter to get these tasks off your list so you can focus on the future.

2) Understand your management and colleagues. This is particularly true if your organization is changing. Knowing your reporting chain, the responsibilities of your colleagues, and your broader organization will enable you to more rapidly and effectively engage all of them to help your customers and pursue your goals. You will need your colleagues in the field with you and your customers as soon as possible. You will need your management’s support to deal with challenges and reward you for your success throughout the year. The faster you engage with both, the more confidence you will have with #3, which is…

3) Focus on your customers. Of course you know that this is always our #1 priority, but at the beginning of a new year we often have to address numbers 1 and 2 in order to give full focus to #3. This includes both your “old” and “new” customers. If your organization is altering coverage models or changing territories, introduce your customers to your successors who will be taking over those relationships. This will ensure a smooth transition and give your customers the confidence that your company, regardless of the individuals assigned, remains dedicated to their success. If you are getting assigned a new territory, dive into the details of those customers. Understand their current relationship and prior investments with your company. Download their 10-Ks, annual reports, and use services such as FirstRain and Hoovers to educate yourself on their priorities and industries. Most importantly, immediately start reaching out, introducing yourself, and getting together face to face with your new customers and lay the foundation for a mutually beneficial relationship. And remember, your customers are likely changing aspects of their organizations as well. So even if you do not have a new set of customers, you may need to begin working with new individuals at your customers.

Successful businesses are always evolving and the beginning of the calendar year is as logical as any time time to implement changes. Don’t let yourself get bogged down by the uncertainty that may be swirling above and around you. If you find yourself getting caught up in the maelstrom, clarity of your mission can always be found by spending time with your customers. Best of luck as you begin 2015.

Who’s Got Your Back?

Posted on December 20, 2014 by douglaswallen

We all have career defining moments when we know that we were part of something unique. I was part of a management team several years ago that had it all. We had a regional set of customers across several industries who were growing their businesses as well as their business with us. We had a dedicated group of knowledgeable sales and technical sales professionals who understood our offerings and how to help our customers use them to run their businesses. We had a leader who thoughtfully accepted their role and had a goal to deliberately create something unique. We had a management team that was dedicated to our customers, our employees, and each other. We were aligned with regard to finances & forecasting and were constantly collaborating on new ideas to help us grow our business. We openly discussed our employees’ performance across each of our sub-teams and freely shared praise and areas of improvement for each others’ direct reports. We were a well tuned, world class sales organization that had everyone in sales and technical sales rowing in tandem to serve our customers and grow our business. In short, we had each others’ backs.

As always, business evolves and talented people move on to other roles, organizations, and companies. Even though our merry band of managers has now dispersed (in fact, many of us are now competitors), about every year several of us gather to renew bonds and share in some professional revitalization. Our gathering this year reminded me of the power that organizational trust can have when a management team truly gels. Although we all recognize that our former team was somewhat of a perfect storm as a growing business met a talented sales force and a motivated management team with compatible personalities, everyone still agrees that it was one of the most collaborative and rewarding work environments that any of us have ever experienced. Our approach, enthusiasm, and results were noticed by upper management and we were asked to pilot several new coverage models and employee engagement methods for the company. This further expanded the experiences of the management team beyond merely driving revenue and customer satisfaction and opened up some new feedback mechanisms for employees. To this day, many of us strive to create that same environment within our current organizations, with varying degrees of success.

So how can such an organization be created? Several years removed from this experience, I have come to believe that such an organization cannot be forced. But it can be encouraged via:

Strong leadership. Someone dedicated to the principles of servant leadership and who is as much interested in the people as they are the process and the profits. And has specific ideas about how they will lead the organization.
Transparency. Each manager must understand their peers’ goals, financial incentives, products & offerings, and employees. From that the management team can develop a desire to help each other – which leads to helping customers and employees to achieve their full potential.
A belief in the possibilities. Every manager on the team must have a desire to create some sort of legacy for themselves as a manager. Managers who have a mission to build something unique for customers and employees will look at every situation with fresh eyes and push the envelope with new solutions.

As you close out 2014 and finalize planning for 2015, take some time to consider your level of organizational trust? How well do you understand the goals of your peers? What are you doing to help your manager create a culture that is focused on the success of your customers and employees? Do you have each others’ backs?

The Fundamental Framework: Partnering

Posted on August 12, 2014 by douglaswallen

The final focus area for the foundational framework involves service and relationships with the customer after the sale. The closing of a new opportunity is just the beginning of what should become a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the customer. After all, the real value for the customer comes in successful implementation of the solution and its business value to their company. To truly differentiate one’s company from the competition and secure a foundation for the business relationship to follow, the technical seller needs to:

Ensure the customer is taking advantage of training, additional services, etc. (i.e. follow up on all of the implementation readiness information that was provided during the Progressing stage, as sometimes this sort of information needs to be repeated to ensure customer awareness).
Educate the customer on the process (also provided during Progressing) and broker initial interactions with the support organization. Although the customer may initially believe that calling the technical sales rep with questions is easier, the supplier’s dedicated support organization is much more capable of troubleshooting, retrieving information about other customer experiences, and logging/tracking customer support questions than someone with other customer facing responsibilities.
Stay involved in key implementation activities. In particular, an on-site presence during particular “go live” milestones can be a very effective means of assuring the customer of the supplier’s dedication and allow the technical seller to act as an escalation point to the support organization if the need arises.
Provide the customer with information about and invitations to conferences, webinars, local user groups, etc. to enable interaction with other customers, understand future product direction, and explore the possibilities of complimentary offerings to help the customer’s business.
Always strive to understand the business value being provided by the solution — how is it helping the customer make money, save money, and/or mitigate risk?

I once read that few things can kill the productivity of a sales organization faster than getting bogged down in post-sales support. Similarly, customers are sometimes left with the impression that sales teams do everything possible to land a deal and then abandon the customer to their own devices after the sale. Both of these are likely true in some respects. Therefore, delivering a truly world class, best in industry customer experience requires the technical seller to follow up with the customer and ensure that the solution is delivering value for their company. As the Peter Drucker quote goes, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer”. Keeping and expanding a relationship with an existing customer is easier than creating a new one.

So there it is, a simple, foundational framework for operating an enterprise class technical sales organization. Driving the technical sales mission of assisting customers in the understanding, design, and deployment of solutions based on your company’s technology, thereby increasing customer business value and expanding your business is possible via Prospecting for new opportunities, Provoking customers with new ideas, Progressing opportunities through the sales cycle, and Partnering with the customer throughout solution implementation.

The Fundamental Framework: Progressing

Posted on August 11, 2014 by douglaswallen

The third element of the framework is simply the execution of sales strategy and the movement of opportunities through the pipeline to closure. It builds on the previous elements by taking the customer’s business needs, how the solution meets those needs, and the provocative ideas to establish the activities needed to help the customer acquire the solution. The bulk of the sales organization’s time is spent here, as this is where the actual blocking and tackling required to drive new revenue occurs.

The sales engineer must determine what it will take to achieve the “technical win” in the eyes of the customer. They must then work with the rest of the sales team and the customer to establish a plan to achieve it. Depending on the level of effort required by the customer, progressing opportunities may require some, many, or all of the following:

Understanding of the customer’s budgeting and purchasing process
Relationships with the customer’s decision makers, influencers, implementers, and anyone else who needs to bless or approve the solution
Knowledge of the customer’s decision timeline and timeline for solution implementation
Solution demonstrations
Delivery of technical artifacts to set the vision for how the solution will fit in the customer’s existing environment
Proofs of concept or pilot projects to test the solution in the customer’s environment (properly scoped with success criteria, execution milestones, and dates)
References from other customers and examples of how the technology has been used to run their business
Sample project plans to help the customer understand the level of effort required for implementation
Services and education proposals to help the customer jumpstart their implementation
Anything else required to positively differentiate the solution from the competition (and the customer “doing nothing” should always be considered a competitive threat)

There are many methods to track deals through sales stages, forecast revenue, and manage an opportunity pipeline. Every sales organization has their own process established by finance, CRM tooling, etc., so I will not spend any time discussing that here. I will only mention that the completion of the aforementioned activities are critical gates that typically have to be passed in order for opportunities to move from one sales stage to the next. It is the sales engineer’s responsibility to ensure that they are included in any opportunity pursuit plans and to lead the execution of these activities.

The Fundamental Framework: Provoking

Posted on August 8, 2014 by douglaswallen

I mentioned in my last post on Prospecting that the technical seller has the deepest understanding of how their company’s solutions work and how they can be optimally implemented to help customers run their business. The Provoking focus area is where the technical seller’s knowledge and enthusiasm for their business can really shine. First, let’s dispel any negative connotations or implications that can be drawn from the word “provoke”. By now the March 2009 Harvard Business Review article, “In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers” by Philip Lay, Todd Hewlin, and Geoffrey Moore has become somewhat ubiquitous; and titles such as Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson’s “The Challenger Sale” have cemented the cultural shift towards consultative selling that arose at the turn of the century. Enterprise customers’ need to constantly evolve the means by which they make money, save money, and mitigate risk means that they need their suppliers to constantly provide them with new ideas. Rather than the goading or inflaming that is typically associated with the word “provoke”, this is best done via proactive, thoughtful, professional quality proposals that can change the customers’ business – even just a little – for the better.

The high performing technical seller can use this opportunity to advise the customer of:

Methods to address trends in their industry
New methods to use their existing investment in the supplier’s solutions to run their business
New acquisitions and solution offerings from the supplier
New product features and the business benefits of such

Providing and supporting quality products and solutions is expected in the enterprise technology industry. Provoking customers with new ideas is one of the best ways that the technical seller can add additional value to the business relationship and truly differentiate their organization from its competitors. This requires the sales engineer to have a broad understanding of the customer’s current and future business and how their own organization’s solutions can be applied. Most importantly, it requires the assertiveness to develop a point of view, put it in front of the customer, stimulate their imagination of the possibilities, and incite them into action.

The Fundamental Framework: Prospecting

Posted on August 7, 2014 by douglaswallen

The first focus area is Prospecting. As step zero in the development of any business, this is, quite simply, an examination of the customer’s business and how your solutions can help them run it. There are those who may contend that this is the responsibility of marketing or “pure” sales rep roles, but I wholeheartedly disagree. The sales engineer often spends more face to face time with customers than any other role in the sales organization. Therefore, they often have the most opportunity to gain a deeper insight into the customer’s business and how their solutions can be optimally applied.

Prospecting includes gaining a deeper understanding of the:

customer’s current environment as it pertains to the supplier’s particular solution offering(s)
customer’s business strategy, priorities, and the current state of their pursuit of such
customer’s industry and their position in it
position of the supplier’s competition at the customer
past experience of specific individuals at the customer with the supplier’s company, products, or services
specific individuals at the customer who are accountable for accomplishing their company’s objectives

Gaining this understanding will lead to ideas for how the customer can use the supplier’s solutions. Collaborating with the rest of the sales team should, in turn, lead to new business opportunities. From a management perspective, the primary metric for Prospecting is opportunity pipeline. Much as an army moves on its stomach, a sales organization moves on its pipeline. If a company is not constantly developing new pipeline for its solutions, there is no reason for that company to exist as a going concern. The technical seller is often the first and primary contact that many customers have with a supplier. The technical seller has the deepest understanding of how a technology works and how it can be implemented to help customers run their business. Therefore, the technical seller plays a critical role in identifying new opportunities for customers to expand their use of our solutions.

Winning Technical Sales

Driving Excellence Across the Sales Engineering Profession