Francesco Ciriaci Get Plone To Business!

Slide 1: Get Plone to Business! 1

Slide 2: A few words before About me About this talk ● ● Requires some – knowledge of Plone... ... not for developers – Business “biased” – About sales – Tries to help solving a – common problem Needs your feedback – 2

Slide 3: Summary Very short introduction to ● Marketing – Communication – Sales – Getting Plone to Business (Sales process) ● What's next ● 3

Slide 4: Marketing Marketing ● Communication – Sales – Plone marketing is ● Poorly documented – Something we shall improve – But great resources (plone.org, plone.net, forums, ● mailing lists, “web 2.0 style pr”, love.) 4

Slide 5: Plone is ? 5

Slide 6: Plone is 6

Slide 7: Plone is a product 7

Slide 8: Getting Plone to Business plone(ISellable).getToBusiness() 8

Slide 9: Sales: what could sales be Telling “stories” ● Building trust ● Pretending Plone is something it is not ● Knowledge transfer ● Consulting ● ... ● 9

Slide 10: Two main ingredients The Champion The compelling event ● ● 10

Slide 11: Main steps 1.Prospecting 2.Demo 3.Proposal work 4.Value proposition and final discussion 11

Slide 12: Prospecting 12

Slide 13: Be ready, calm and prepared Elevator speech ● Know who you're talking to ● Next appointment ● 13

Slide 14: Elevator speech is not easy (1) “Reflab: you don't know what they do, but they do it pretty well.” 14

Slide 15: Elevator speech is not easy (2) “Why don't you get a real job” 15

Slide 16: Elevator speech is not easy (3) (puzzled face) “... ahhhh, I see. You're a web agency, right?” 16

Slide 17: Some hints lot on who you're talking to Depends a ● CM is very “intangible” matter, try to make it more ● physical We're not all “building sites” ● Comparison with other softwares is ok, if “under ● control” Give a reference. ● 17

Slide 18: Some Keywords Web web 2.0 Innovation content management Sites Intranet Collaborative framework Zope3 adaptor 18

Slide 19: Who you're talking to (1) Pragmatist Innovator ● ● Will not trust you Will support – – Will ask for a Will invest – – smaller (then smaller) Will listen – (then even smaller) project Plone is quite innovative! 19

Slide 20: Who you're talking to (2) Consultant/technical CTO profile ● ● Interested in knowing Variable profiles – – more Focuses more on the – Focuses more on the product – framework Wants to go deeper in – Wants to go deeper in – testing You testing the software Plone is a very good product 20

Slide 21: ... cool I created some interest Next appointment 21

Slide 22: Demo 22

Slide 23: Demo... is all about preparation a)General software presentation b)Live demonstration c)Indepth: Q&A d)Larger group demonstration 23

Slide 24: General presentation - Overview Overview ● General description – Base functionnalities – Zope – Python – Other nice things that you love (at your own – risk) 24

Slide 25: General presentation - MoreInfo Licence ● Roadmap ● Community ● ... something that the person you're ● talking to will love 25

Slide 26: Common pitfalls ZODB (historically most famous pitfall) ● Versions mayhem (Zope2, Zope3, Five, CMF, ...) ● Hosting ● (add yours here) ● 26

Slide 27: Live demonstration Prepare, prepare, prepare ● Use scenarios if possible (if provided) ● Pre-populate with contents and users ● Take your time, don't rush, stay in the UI ● Starts with the basics ● 27

Slide 28: Plone live demonstration tips Leverage the importance of the extra-cool ● super-usable Plone UI Show the “how”, not only the “what” ● Focus on the default not on possible ● customizations 28

Slide 29: Q&A time Even more difficult phase ● Very important for trust-building ● Praparation again is important but more difficult ● In depth of strenghts and weaknesses ● Some questions could be (already) about ● market, competitors, references... 29

Slide 30: Q&A on Plone tips Do not avoid telling everything about Zope ● Python, if well presented, can be a plus. ● Market and competitors ● Where do Plone rocks? – (not, not on everything, sorry) Which are its main competitors? – References, numbers... (in your head) – Attend all sessions you can during this conference! 30

Slide 31: Proposal work 31

Slide 32: Proposal work - Do not do it alone! ... write, rewrite, sweat, improve (with ● your staff and the champion) Listen – Train – Improve – Listen – Improve – ... – 32

Slide 33: Competitive strategy Requires defined and clear evaluation criteria Frontal Flanking ● ● 33

Slide 34: Plone Strategy Tips Default, simple ● Leverage Plone power and flexibility here ● Single solution, not a collection ● Avoid the “all included/not included” trap ● 34

Slide 35: Value Proposition 35

Slide 36: Value proposition The bigger the project the more formal ● Aimed to the economic buyer ● Focus on ● Metrics – References – 36

Slide 37: Metrics examples Time to publish ● SEO ● ... ● 37

Slide 38: Building a value proposition for Plone Scarce formal material, yet ● Plone.net helps ● Mostly based on own data and experience ● References are also provider-depended ● 38

Slide 39: Then... repeat Final discussion ● Formal purchase order ● Implementation ● ... and repeat. 39

Slide 40: Thanks! francesco@reflab.com 40

Slide 41: What's next? 41

Slide 42: 42 slide nd See more in evangelism ML ● Friendly competition in marketing/sales? ● Support for Marketing ● Q&A 42