2. Key Decision Makers
Utility & Vendor
The utility sector includes a broad umbrella of companies who provide natural gas, electric-
ity, water, steam, sewage removal, and related services to a variety of end customers. In
the last 25 years, these companies have made sweeping changes to their delivery models
because of fluctuating energy demands, governmental regulation, volatile pricing, integra-
tion of renewable energy sources, and extreme competition. With ever-increasing pres-
sures to further modernize delivery, utilities are turning to solutions such as Advanced me-
tering infrastructure (AMI), automatic meter reading (AMR) technology, smart grid, end-user
consumption control, and demand based pricing to save money and gain more insight into
the utility usage across the grid.
IPenable is focused on electric power utilities. Electric power companies handle power
generation, transmission and distribution to the end customer. IPenable designs communi-
cations solutions around existing technologies for device vendors & electric power utilities
who are focused on Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Distribution Automation (DA),
and SMART Infrastructure solutions.
Key decision makers include the Business Decision Maker (BDM) and Technical Decision
Maker (TDM). At the utility level IPenable works with the power distribution project man-
ager and IT infrastructure network operator of the AMI/DA platform. Decision makers at
the vendor level are typically the CTO or the project engineering team responsible for the
device communications solution.
IPenable Sales Strategy
1
3. Understanding the Key Decision Makers
Utility Vendor
Job Title CTO
CIO
Chief Engineering Officer
-SVP/VP/Director/ Manager of
transmissions and distribution
Systems Analyst Manager/ Systems
Project Manager
IT Manager/Director
Project Engineer
Utilities Services Manager
CEO
CIO
CFO
COO
SVP/VP/Director of Business
Development
SVP/VP/Director of Research and
Intelligence/Strategy
Characteristics Mix of old-generation utilities veterans
and new generation; very different
mindsets based on old monopolistic
approach and new smart-grid
approach
- Long sales cycle with significant
upfront business development/
consulting
- Focused on improving
communications path to reduce error
Responsibilities - Increasingly expected to drive
revenue and reduce costs by way of
advanced technology implementation
- Align IT investments with business
goals and vision
- Ensure day-to-day operations of IT
infrastructure
- Reduce Inefficiency
- Utilize technology to enable
innovation and allow for reduction in
environmental impact
- Manage contracts and distribution
agreements
- Constantly evaluate and optimize
operational and project management
efficiencies
- Manage end-to-end design and
engineering of communications path
to minimize risk and liability
Challenges - Lack of universal standards makes
selecting technology difficult
- Large aging/manually skilled
workforce not always reliable
adopters; managing adoption and
utilization of IT solutions is a challenge
- Making Innovative solutions a reality:
Building out “smart grids.”
- Leveraging Public infrastructure/
networks with building out proprietary
infrastructure networks
- Communications link is a small but
critical component of the device that
requires skills that are not core to
device vendors
- Environmental issues continue to
drive change
- Adapting to consumer demand for
more efficient solutions to manage
smart grids
- Finding trusted advisors experienced
in Smart Infrastructure
IPenable Sales Strategy
2
4. Part of the sales cycle for customers in the utility and vendor space includes providing
an architectural roadmap & business justification for the IPenable solution as well as
actual design & schematics. IPenable will act as an extension of the vendor or internal
utilities engineering team. Vendors will often start with a small consulting arrangement to
address critical roadblocks and establish rapport prior to establishing a large, long term
partnership. Smaller engagements could be one-off consulting contracts, while larger
engagements would likely utilize a more formal RFI/RFP approach.
7 point approach Sales Strategy
Sales Strategies
• Prospecting is always the first approach to a sale and the least expensive. Making calls is an integral part of success
for a business model of any kind.
• Resources of social media such as Linkedin, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter are immediate and direct ways to
connect with KDM’s.
• Introductions through suppliers and vendors in an adjacent space work well to get the vision of our solution in the
hands of those who will make a direct impact with it.
• Conferences & Industry trade shows such as: DistribuTECH, CES, and formal partner events will grow our business
model
• Electrical & Utility Associations are key to driving our brand, image, and solutions.
• Online advertising, trade magazine, and direct mail are other sources of sales strategies
IPenable Sales Strategy
3
5. Execution
Sales Action Description Date
Branding IPenable company name established - ipenable.com 5/21/2013
Website - Branding IPconnect Website launched 6/1/2013
Promotion - Sales Generation LaunchRock Page Launched - Page views: 198, Sign-ups: 13 6/2/2013
Social Media Twitter Page Created - Followers: 6 6/2/2013
Branding - Business Development Business Canvas Submission for Course 6/4/2013
Customer Engagement Landys+Gyr Meeting 6/6/2013
Customer Engagement King Controls 6/6/2013
Customer Engagement Intellistreets Meeting 6/7/2013
Social Media LinkedIn Page Created 6/9/2013
Customer Engagement Contacted Sensus - Potential Customer 6/11/2013
Sales Generation SureveyMonkey Survey Created for potential customers 6/12/2013
Customer Engagement Verizon Meeting 6/14/2013
Social Media Google Page Created 6/14/2013
Customer Engagement PCCW Meeting 6/24/2013
Social Media Facebook Page Created - 5 followers 7/12/2013
Branding - Business Development One Page Prospectus 7/21/2013
Customer Engagement NAv6TF 7/22/2013
Customer/Business Development Stanford Mentor - Interview 7/23/2013
Customer Engagement Elster Meeting 8/1/2013
Customer Engagement Mesh Systems 8/10/2013
Customer Engagement CalAmp 8/15/2013
Customer Engagement Intellistreets Follow-up Meeting 8/20/2013
IPenable Sales Strategy
4
6. Summary
Customer conversations: 10 (Over 200 engagements)
Made a sale? Not yet - but we have several customer leads and are on track for developing the necessary breadth and
depth of our utility solution.
What has your team learned from these experiments? Our customer calls have proved that there is interest in our
solution. Our next steps are making more customer calls to increase our sample size to find out more about what the
compelling and unmet customer needs are so that we can continue to mold our business model.
Did it cause you to rethink any part of the business model? IPenable is working from what we call a “lean”
business model: i.e. we dynamically develop our business offering based on the feedback we receive from our
customers. Therefore, we rethink our business model with every customer engagement. As of now, we have a focused
pitch of three solutions that speak to customer needs: IPembed, IPmanage, and IPoptimize. These offerings enable the
IP communication integration, communication solution security and management, and communication solution analytics
across the grid.
If you couldn't make a sale, what did you learn that you need to change? We are less focused on what we need
to change, and more focused on how we want the business to develop. That means creating case studies and technical
specifications surrounding existing customer situations to establish credibility. A key next step would be to work with an
initial customer on a new technology build-out with IPenable design.
How long is the sales process for your startup from start to finish? The consultation, design, and build out for a
utility network is a long and varied process. Depending on the size and scope of the project, the sales cycle could range
from 6 months to 5 years.
Initial Sales Success & Failures
• Informational calls are most effective to communicate IPenable vision and offering. Conveying our story in a less
technical scope and focus on our value proposition will allow us to target company executives and customers who
may be less technical.
• Establishing a trusted advisor relationship and persuading them to pay for the service is difficult without understanding
their organizations strategy. In some cases where the organization lacks with strategy, IPenable must be able to
take a consultative approach to help the customer understand the value in our solution: they will be able to manage
multiple input streams and a massive amount of data by making sure the data is managed and routed correctly and
securely.
• Sales cycles within the utility sector can take a long time, by historical numbers it may take 5-10 years to make a
decision on technology. By 2020, analysts expect to see 50 billion devices on the network and a large part of those
numbers will come from the Smart Grid. By the same time, the AMI market is set to grow to $9,7 billion. There is no
more time to wait to make decisions in this sector. When aligned with the Key Decision Makers from both sides of
Technical and Business we will enable the grid with IP like never before.
IPenable Sales Strategy
5
7. Sample Sales Page
IPenable Sales Strategy
6
!
!WAN
APPLICATION!H/E!&!
NETWORK!MANAGEMENT
SECURITY!&!
AUTHENTICATION
DEVICE!MESH!NETWORK
FIELD!AREA!ROUTER
!U"lity'Requirements:!
• Mul%&service!Field!Area!Network!that!can!support!AMI!&!DA!
• Highly!secure!&!reliable!communica%ons!!
• Simplify!handling!of!mul%ple!proprietary!protocols!
• IPv6!addressing!
• Select!the!op%mal!communica%on!solu%on!that!can!evolve!to!support!future!requirements!!
!!
Device'Manufacturer'Requirements:!
• Augment!exis%ng!engineering!teams!with!IP!Communica%ons!exper%se!
• Meet!current!&!future!communica%on!requirements!
• Meet!the!Total!Cost!of!Ownership!(TCO)!targets!
• Combine!best&of&breed!components!
• U%lize!the!op%mal!design!
• Follow!a!lean!engineering!process!
'!
IPenable'Solu"on'Specifica"ons:!
• 802.15.4&based!IPv6!mesh!with!QOS!and!mesh!algorithms!to!op%mize!reach!&!reliability!
• 6LoWPAN!and!RPL!based!!
IPembed!
Firmware +
Engineering services
to embed low-cost,
highly reliable
communications
modules!
!
IPoptimize!
Services to support the
planning, building &
operating of IoT device
communications!
IPmanage!
Devices and
applications that
improve
communications and
data management!
!
Lean IP Engineered Utility Solutions!
