ATCP, LLC

Google’s new development language was released, and I am shaking my head with the rest of the world. How does this enhance Google’s brand? Google has long since been known for/as a search destination, and their huge company considered devoted to search and only search.

From here:

What is the purpose of the project? More »

A colleague turned me on to an article here that talks about 5 stunningly awful mistakes for demos. I don’t think these are all that bad, and certainly not stunning, but I’ll include the 5 here, as we have a few more practical ones to add after:

1. Misunderstand the customer’s needs: “Harbor Cruise.” Don’t make a demo in the hope that your customer will eventually see something of interest. Inexperienced salespeople often inflict these demos on their customers as a replacement for doing their homework. Jaded sales engineers offer these demos when they receive little or no pre-demo information from their sales colleagues. Do the research to figure out what your customers need in advance. More »

Q: With the apparent shift from a direct software solution to one of a more bundled offering with OEM providers such as Dell and HP, could you share some thoughts as what is driving this trend?

This is an old shift, and it happens all the time. While every software vendor want to burn CDs and count their money, consumers don’t, well, consume like that. All software vendors create “solutions”. That is, if you ask them. In reality, though, they are simply applications-applications that need a machine to run in/on. True solution selling involves not leaving a single decision with the prospect/customer.

Unfortunately, if all you sell is one piece of the “solution”, you are leaving other decisions out of your hands. Many times, a prospect will consider the prospect of putting all these pieces together simply too difficult, and will dismiss the entire concept. So how do you battle this?

You “package” your software as a “solution”. You take all the guesswork out of the equation by acting as the expert you purport to be and put the software in a place/configuration where it is most effective. The reasoning is that prospect/customer is, understandably, the least qualified to make this combination in a way that will work best. Hardware is no good without software, and software is no good without hardware. So why would any software company NOT want to do this?

The reason is all about money. You figured it was getting to that, right? The first cloud on the horizon is that lead exchange programs are notoriously one-sided, and always lead to rough relations between partners. In other words, who owns the account? Should the hardware folks sell a solution that they didn’t write? Will a bad solution running on their box bode well for their image/branding?

The second problem is finger pointing. In the heat of troubleshooting, it is common to divert blame (I coined the term Blame Management in the mid-90s). The customer just sees a solution that doesn’t work, and a few responsible vendors acting, well, irresponsible.

Next is the problem whereby your partner, whom you are forced to combine forces with, has an inferior product. The result is that you look bad, and all they care about is moving product, not repeat business.

Finally, the question of support. When the solution stops working, who do they call? Will the software vendor require that the customer first call the hardware vendor to rule out their hardware before they pay to take a peek? What about the other way around?

If you were a prospect given the, well, prospect of these very likely and common scenarios, you might vote to put the pieces together yourself. The vendors might well even agree with you.

Q: Do you believe this is a trend that will continue? What are the product development trends?

Like I said, this trend is set on a pendulum. Pundits like Forrester and Gartner make their money telling companies how they should change what they do. If they came in and said the last folks that were there did a great job, they couldn’t very well justify a paycheck, now could they? So do the math. If you are buying components, they will suggest “solutions”. If you have “solutions”, they will suggest “best of breed components”.

If the company can’t afford to tell one of these companies what they want to be told, they can supplant this entity with a consultant. The result is the same.

pat
:)

Over the years I’ve heard a lot of sales professionals use these three terms incorrectly, so lets fix that now.

Demo
This is our software, with our data, and our use case(s).

Demos are used only after the opportunity is properly qualified. Showing a demo before the prospect is qualified leads to confusion. No demo will sell software. Seriously.
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This may be obvious to all you seasoned veterans out there, so skip this one if you are an expert job seeker.

I’d like to give you some background/insight/ideas on how to get a job in technology technology-with technology. I’m often looking due to the nature of what I do, and I’ve been at it for just over 10 years (Sales Engineering).

There is a wealth of tools on the Internet that weren’t available just a few years ago for job seekers. These tools bring the opportunities to the seeker, where in days gone by the seeker had to, well, seek. True to the “80/20 Rule”, I used to spend 80% of my time looking for an opportunity, then 20% actually applying for that opportunity. Now that ratio is gratefully reversed.
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