Secrets from Silicon Valley—How the Most Successful Technology Companies Create Breakaway Positioning Strategies and Messages that Work

Creating Break-Away Positioning Strategies Secrets of Silicon Valley By: Robert M. Wright1

Today’s Agenda What is Positioning? New Positioning Model 9 New Rules for Positioning Putting the Positioning Model In Action Positioning Strategies Launching Your Story2 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBRICK.COM

Inflection Points = Growth and Disruption New Product Inflection Points M&A Cloud Mobile Fast, More Frequent3

The Problem: Strategy to Revenue Point of Strategy Revenue Takes too long! Don’t maximize revenue opportunity!!4

The Root Cause is Not A Bad Strategy Product Channel Making Your Making Your Strategy Work Strategy Business Go-To Model Market5

Root Cause: Different Buyers, Competitors CIO? Cloud Computing Committee? VP Security? VP Applications? Data Center Executive Cloud Virtualization Computing Servers Platform6 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBRICK.COM

The Answer: Making Your Strategy, Work Point of Strategy “Go-to-Market” Journey Revenue Strategy Intelligence Positioning Strategy ✓ Sales Enablement Revenue Optimization Launch Strategy Is there a What is is my What my SALES REVENUE? STORY? STORY? conversations? ROLL-out? MARKET? accounts? Do I know DIFFERENT? Sales SUCCESS marketing momentum? DIFFERENT? these resonate? model? LEVERS? resonate? BUYERS?7

Definition of Positioning What is Positioning? “ …Positioning is in the mind of the prospect. Its how you differentiate your solution in their mind. It cuts through the clutter. If focuses on the perceptions of the prospect. Al Reis ”9 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBRICK.COM

You Know You Have a Positioning Problem… 1 Your slide deck is 30 slides . 2. Long sales cycles and lots of “no-decisions” 3. Blah, Blah, Blah – you sound like all your competitors 4. ask 3 people what you do …get 3 different answers 5. Your company is not considered a player in the market 6. You spent a lot of money on PR and got nowhere 7. Sales will call on anything that moves 8. You don’t have a viewpoint10 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

New Positioning Model12

For Example… Product Buyer Centric Centric • Release 1.5 PIM SaaS solution, • “Global brand execution”, GeoTagged, XML-based synchronize flow of product information • Release 5.0 Big Data analytics, • “How can you run your business Point-in-time recovery, Hadoop, without all the data”? Emergence Tiered storage of Big Data applications • User virtualization, Win 7 • “User complexity” is #1 CIO issue Desktop migration, Make Citrix slowing down IT-as-Service – desktop virtualization better managing millions of configurations 14COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBRICK.COM

7 Positioning Rules15

Rule 2: Who is your “Mary”17

Examples of personas “Avniash” “Aditya” “Kenneth” Change-Agent Early-Adopter Maintainers • Complex organizations • Regionalized IT ops • Business does not rely on IT for change • High pace of change • Heritage of experimentation • Steady state: legacy • Focus on revenue growth, Not • Need for game-changer cost cutting • Focus on budget costs • Reports to LOB • Reports to CEO • Reports to CFO • Optimize current IT • Results-based IT • Resources-based IT • Value: technical performance • Value: IT agility, shared risk • Value: cut costs, IT operational excellence18 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBRICK.COM

Buyer evolution model “Aman” Next 100 “Vijay” Next 50 “Mary” 1st ten19

Rule 3: Own a Problem20

What is the problem you “own”? Before After Product IP Problem Solved “Hyper-Relational “Applications Integration” Technology” Company Company “Customer “Decisioning, Predictive Lifetime Value” CRM” Company Company “Campaign Management” “Find More Revenue” Company Company21 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBRICK.COM

…And connect to a funded initiative22

Rule 5: Take a Corner of the Room24

1 Why you, now ? Good Stories Answer 3 Questions 2 How are you different ? 3 How will my life be fundamentally different? ?26

Rule 7: No Geek-Speak27

Does your message sound like this? New Software Development Kit Enables Users, Developers and Partners to Take Full Advantage of Vertica’s Real-time Parallel Processing Engine for Big Data BILLERICA, Mass., June 20, 2011 Vertica today announced availability of Vertica 5.0, the latest version of the Vertica Analytics Platform, which offers greatly improved flexibility and real-time performance for customers’ most demanding business intelligence and analytic workloads. The Vertica Analytics Platform analyzes data on a massive scale, with several customers analyzing more than a petabyte of data in real time. Vertica 5.0 delivers improved flexibility, extensibility and performance in how users analyze and manage their business-critical information. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH28 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Plain-Spoken Messages in Your Buyer’s Words PowerAdvocate is an energy intelligence company delivering supply chain applications that incorporate the world’s largest FactBase of supply market data, which help energy executives restructure costs and steer company performance. Only PowerAdvocate delivers a complete view and in-depth understanding of the energy supply chain market - every supplier, every spend transaction, and every commodity – as well as the data intelligence needed to navigate through volatile markets, economic swings, and an ever-changing regulatory climate. With PowerAdvocate, pace-setting executives see everything to better manage and deliver an order-of-magnitude improvement in performance. PowerAdvocate offers data intelligence to chart future growth and profitability. Executives can see the probability of cost changes, understand the impact on the cost structure of the business, and better manage their risk.30 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Rules In Action The Deliverables31

Good Positioning Feeds Everything Product Marketing Campaigns Thought Leadership/PR Positioning Story ppt. Direct Sales: Message Guide doc. Market Analyst Buyer Relations Conversations Online Channel Internal3 Messaging “Rallying Cry”232 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Rules In Action How To Tell a Powerful Story33

Typical Tech Story “Why we are so great” Slide 2: Slide 4: Our great Our great Platform Analytics feature Slide 7: Slide 9: A few cool Our wonderful screen shots executives3434 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Powerful Stories: “Why your company, now”Slide 1: Slide 2:Big results from Slide 3: Slide 4: Slide 5: Recent marketcustomers like Causing you a …And you may Traditional dynamics: youryou BIG problem lose your job approaches no world has changed longer workSlide 6: Slide 7: Slide 8: Slide 9: Slide 10:What you need The Answer: 3-4 reasons Cleaned up the Call to actionto fix the Our company customers like problem: Howproblem you choose us your life will be different35 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Rules In Action Differentiators: Positioning Pillars36

Positioning Pillars Turn Features Into Value Headlines Headline Headline Headline Secret Sauce Secret Sauce Secret Sauce Benefit Statement Benefit Statement Benefit Statement37

Some Examples Positioning Pillars38

Why Customers Choose Arcsight Keep Tabs Sift Through See Noise Everything Monitor Correlate Consolidate • Add real- • Correlation of • Bigger picture time, active data • Marry monitoring • Understand application, network • to SAP baseline • and physical Automate, streamli behavior, detect Universal Pane of ne collection of log • anomalies 0 • Glass: 360 view and privileged user Better understand Multi-system data what’s happening response, remediation Broader, More Complete View39

Why Customers Choose Echelon First Energy Control Network Smart, Fast Share Data Bullet-Proof Go One Step Local Decisions Across the Energy Reliability Further Network40 40

Rules In Action Creating Powerful Messages41

Messages the bring products alive Category viewpoint TippingPoint leads the advancement of network security with a modern network security IPS platform. Purpose-built to protect today’s next-generation data center, TippingPoint arms security executives with new capabilities to stopWho is this threats faster and protect the highest, multi-gigabit bandwidth networks from for ever-evolving, global security threats. What is the productBusiness TippingPoint is a powerful front-line defense that can be rapidly deployed in less benefits than two hours, providing immediate protection at critical entry and isolation points in the network. With TippingPoint, your business is protected 24x7. Further, TippingPoint solutions automate most security functions, freeing organizations from the growing cost burden and helping security executives drive to zero administration. Business benefit Over 6,000 of the worlds most demanding organizations trust TippingPoint to help secure the networks that run their business. Aspirational Business benefits 42 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Buyer-centric messaging Category Chordiant Software heralds a new era of Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions to help global brands multiply customer lifetime value.Point of view Chordiant Software, and its Foundation and Cx Solutions, arms customer service executives with a suite of predictive decisioning applications to deliver an order of magnitude improvement in customer experience.What is the Big Benefit solution Chordiant gives global brands a unified view and understanding of their customer’s behavior. Chordiant reshapes the way brands engage customers with Next-Best-Actiontm that dynamically guide conversations across every channel. These CEM capabilities are transformative in nature, enabling companies to deliver intelligent conversations based upon analysis of past customer behavior, as well as current responses and mood. Now, today’s fast-paced brands can engage more effectively with customers, quickly measure how the strategy is working and change at new levels of speed and economy. The net result: faster acquisition, improved competitiveness, less churn, and superior customer service. Business benefits Aspirational43 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Rules in Action Managing the Positioning Process44

Intensive, 8-12 week process Background Positioning Messaging Focus Group Investigation Workshop Guide Jan 9-11 Nov 4-23 Dec 7-8 Jan 15- Jan 31 Story Playbook 1:1 Interviews Development Jan 1 - Jan 31 Week of Nov 28 Dec 8-Jan 1845 COPYRIGHT 2011 FIREBRICK | FIREBK.COM

Positioning Workshop Agenda Day One Day Two 900 – 915 Introductions 900 – 915 Review Day One 915 – 945 What Are We Positioning? 915 – 1045 Positioning Strategy 945 – 1000 Define Objectives 1045 – 1245 Pillars 1000 – 1030 Perceptions/Challenges 1245 – 1330 Working Lunch 1030 – 1130 Primary Buyer 1330 – 1530 Positioning Story 11:30 – 1330 Category/Competition 1530 - 1700 Use Case Examples 13:30 – 1400 Working Lunch 1700– 1730 Next Steps: Review Cycles/Test 1400 – 1500 Differentiators 1500 – 1600 Business Problem Solved 1600– 1730 Positioning Options 1730– 1830 Viewpoint46

Rules in Action Launch Strategies47

web I http://www.firebk.com blog I strategiestorevenue.com/blog/ email I bob@firebk.com50

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Secrets from Silicon Valley—How the Most Successful Technology Companies Create Breakaway Positioning Strategies and Messages that Work

by NASSCOM EMERGE Forum on Nov 11, 2011

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Secrets from Silicon Valley—How the Most Successful Technology Companies Create Breakaway Positioning Strategies and Messages that Work — Presentation Transcript