UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management We.docx

UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management
Week 4
Page 1 of 11
Sales and Customer Relations Management – Week 4
Evaluating Your Position in a Sale:
Red Flags – Leveraging Strengths – Buyer Response Modes
Selling can be a bit like investing in the stock market. If you are
lacking a
strategy, then your expectations for making a gain can swing
like a
pendulum from wild optimism to deep pessimism. Your
emotions will cloud
your judgement and keep you from forming an objective
assessment of
potential outcomes. Even worse, you’ll be unlikely to see the
true gaps in

your competitive position or, conversely the opportunities to
leverage
unique advantages.
The remedy for this ailment is to have a strategy that’s well
informed by
facts. Effective information gathering is the key to making an
informed
assessment of your true position for a sales opportunity. Any
gaps in your
view of the customer’s decision dynamics – such as not
knowing all the
decision makers, not understanding buying motivations, not
knowing which
of your product’s features and benefits will most impact the
customer - will
reduce your chances of making the sale.
The Strategic Selling framework provides an organized method
for
identifying dangerous gaps in knowledge (Red Flags) as well as
valuable
differentiators (Strengths to Leverage) in order to improve your
competitive
position.

Red Flags
The symbolism of a Red Flag highlights critical information
that’s missing or
unclear about your Single Sales Objective. Red Flags are not
“negatives”.
Image of a
Red Flag
Week 4
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In fact the symbolism of a red flag is akin to the situation of a
driver on a
winding mountain road. As he comes around a corner, he sees a
road
worker holding a red caution flag. The driver is grateful for the
advance

warning about an impending road hazard. He drives ahead with
heightened
vigilance. As a sales rep, your clear eyed assessment of
knowledge gaps
or other shortcomings is the first step in acting to remove any
obstacles to
making the sale. Examples of Red Flags are:
-contacted Buying Influences – if you
haven’t
identified or met all key buying influences yet then the
probability of
making a sale remains uncertain.
– any
organizational
or structural changes in the midst of a customer’s purchase
assessment will require you to redefine the buying group and
roles.
– has a new rival come on the scene?
– has a change in IT
standards caused your product to be considered non-compliant
– has a corporate standard been

established that all business units must recognize?
Any of these developments should prompt an aggressive
information
gathering effort to determine if your position has been
weakened in any
way. This is where having developed an internal Coach can be
very helpful
advantage in clarifying your position, countering any
weaknesses and
removing Red Flags.
Week 4
Page 3 of 11
Strengths to Leverage

Companies are always striving to establish aspects of
differentiation related
to their product features and benefits or their service delivery.
Differentiation helps thin the ranks of competitors and minimize
price
competition. Differentiated advantages can be derived from the
following:
e these advantages to improve your position by
highlighting the
benefits to decision makers and stressing that they are unique to
your
product/company.
current
sales objective. It must be something this customer cares about.

are
convinced of the benefits, and that they are unique to your
product
and company then price comparisons with your competitors
become
of secondary importance.
-to-apples comparisons
Image of
Barbells
Week 4
Page 4 of 11
Competition
Well…what about the competition? Where do they fit into the
Strategic

Selling framework? One thing is for sure – you never want to
let the
competition set the agenda. You need a proactive competitive
strategy
ce on how key decision makers
feel
about change (growth vs trouble)
matter to
the customer (Results) and personal benefits to buying
influences
that matter (Wins)
r your superior contribution
table is
totally unique and of high value
– patience, hard work needed to
broaden your contacts, find a weakness in their coverage of

customer’s needs
-priced supplier – emphasize perception of
value
and higher resulting ROI
– absent the
insights of
the strategic selling approach – it sets you up for a Lose/Lose
Competition Comes From Four Sources
People tend to think too narrowly about their competition. Sure,
there are
companies that sell similar products and face off against you on
a regular
Week 4
Page 5 of 11

basis. But think about the full range of alternatives to a
customer
purchasing from you:
1. Buying from someone else – the traditional definition
2. Internally sourced solution – a make vs. buy decision that
favors using
internal resources and options
3. Reallocate funds to another priority – you were investment
opportunity
“A”…they chose option “B”. You still lose.
4. Do nothing…defer…cancel the project – this can be avoided
by making
a more convincing case for your product as an investment with a
credible ROI. Get the customer to think in terms of
“investment” rather
than “expense”
Single Sales Objective

It’s important to have a well-defined objective when you apply
the
framework of Strategic Selling. There are many business
purposes to
engage with customers, but this process is specifically designed
to
shorten the sales cycle and achieve a specific economic
transaction.
-related, clear and concise.
your solution
– not
just your products and features
– as a joint
venture vs. simply a vendor arrangement
Week 4

of 11
ive
Response Modes – Buyer Reaction to Change
Image of Four Growth Modes G=Growth, T=Trouble, EK =
Even Keel and OC =
Overconfident
Often, key decision makers aren’t aligned on the reason for a
purchase.
Sales reps need to probe extensively to understand each player’s
frame of
mind. There are four general categories of response mode:
– a gap is perceived between what the buyer’s
organization
is currently achieving and what they could achieve with the
right
investment. Buyers with this mindset will be responsive if your
proposal is convincing on improvement.
– buyer needs help. A gap is perceived between

where they
are now and where they feel they should be. They will welcome
credible proposals to remove problem areas.
To sell Mentor Graphics PCB Division a new network intrusion
detection
product to reduce their hacking risk for $450,000 by March
2016
Week 4
Page 7 of 11
el – they are satisfied with status quo. This is a tough
nut to
crack, but if you are skillful at “problem finding” then you may
be able
to convince them of a growth or problem gap.
– totally unreceptive to change. This is the
toughest

of all. One or more buying influences have an unrealistically
positive
perception of where they are now. May not be worth your time –
until
events prove them wrong.
Summary of the four Response Modes linked to associated
attitudes:
Response mode Probability of
taking action
Buyer question
Growth (G) High Does your proposal reduce obstacles
to exploiting an opportunity?
Trouble (T) High Does your proposal help fix my
problem?
Even Keel (EK) Low Why do I need to make a change?
Overconfident (OC) Nil Who needs your proposal…I don’t!
Points to ponder…

• What if some decision makers are concerned about “trouble”
but others are “even keel” and not desirous of changing the
status quo?
• What buyer perception is the most powerful in driving change
–
“growth” or “trouble”?
• Think of some of your own recent purchase situations. What
motivated you to part with your hard-earned money? Or if you
didn’t pull the trigger – why not? Did a sales person play a role
either way?
Week 4
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Remember, reality is defined by the Buying Influence’s
Perception of the
selling situation…not yours. Your perception that “the glass is
half empty”
may be at odds with the customer’s response mode “…it’s half
full”. Trying

to convince a customer with an Even Keel response mode that
they have
Trouble on their hands can be challenging, and even alienate
you from the
customer. They may feel that your admonitions are self-serving
– that you
are simply making up issues to help sell your product.
Rating the Buying Influences’ Attitude to Your Offering
Once you know how each Buying Influence feels about change
and about
making a purchase (i.e. their Response Modes), you then need
to look in
the mirror, and ask “how do they feel about my proposal?” They
might be
enthusiastic about making an investment (Growth Response
Mode) but be
less than thrilled about your solution. Using the four graphic
symbols below,
you can assess the attitude of each Buying Influence towards
your
company’s proposal.

Images for a buyer’s four general attitudes about your proposal
– Enthusiastic,
Interested, Negative or Antagonistic
Below is a continuum of ratings starting with +5 (Enthusiastic
Advocate)
and ending with -5 (Antagonistic Anti-sponsor). As you
evaluate each key
decision maker using this scale, it forces you to be disciplined
about where
your position with one of these players may need additional
focus.
For instance, if you rate the Technical Buying Influence a -3
then you have
a Red Flag to deal with. As we know from last week’s
discussion, Technical
Buyers can veto or rule out a supplier based on specification or
compliance
Week 4

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deficiencies. Better get busy and educate him/her about your
product’s
technical specifications before it’s too late!
Image showing the range of a buyer’s receptivity to your
proposal ranging from
Enthusiastic (+5) to Antagonistic (-5), with symbols for
strength (barbells) at the
top of the range and for issues to resolve (red flags) at the
bottom.
Week 4

of 11
So…once you’ve identified each Buying Influence on their
degree of
influence (High-Medium-Low), and their Response Mode
(Growth-Trouble-
Even Keel-Overconfident), you can add your Rating of their
Attitude
towards your proposal (+5 to -5) and you’ll have a complete
picture of your
position with each player as shown below:
Buying
Influence
Degree of
Influence
Response
Mode
Attitude
Rating
Economic H EK -2

User H T +3
Technical L T -3
Coach L G +4
Table showing categorization for each Buying Influence for
three key
variables – Degree of Influence, Response Mode and Attitude
Rating
How would you assess the situation above? Who is the most
influential?
Are they leaning towards change …likely to make a purchase
decision?
Are they favorably disposed to your proposal? Hopefully you
can
appreciate that a multidimensional assessment like this helps to
surface
Red Flags, and helps point the way to actions that are
appropriate for each
gap in your position that needs resolution.
As the old saying goes…hope is not a strategy. Only a clear
eyed objective
assessment of your position with a prospective buyer will
ensure that you

have the time and knowledge to cover all the bases and
ultimately achieve
a superior competitive position that will get you the sale.
Week 4
Page 11 of 11
Next week we will cover two fundamental aspects of success in
business-
to-business selling.
- The Importance of Winning – this relates not to your success,
but
rather to uncovering and delivering “Wins” to the key customer
decision makers. Wins are personal, so close engagement with
each
Buying Influence is necessary to identify what personal Win
would

matter to each of them.
- Delivering Results – at its most elemental, every B2B proposal
has
to show a customer how they will achieve either lower cost or
increased revenue from buying your product. Results are
corporate.
They are tangible, measurable and often articulated in terms of
return
on investment or payback period.
C11-1
CASE STUDY 11
CLOUD COMPUTING (IN)SECURITY
Cloud computing is reshaping enterprise network architectures
and
infrastructures. It refers to applications delivered as services
over the
Internet as well as the hardware and systems software in data
centers that

provide those services. The services themselves have long been
referred to
as Software as a Service (SaaS) which had its roots in Software-
Oriented
Architecture (SOA) concepts that began shaping enterprise
network
roadmaps in the early 2000s. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
and PaaS
(Platform as a Service) are other types of cloud computing
services that are
available to business customers.
Cloud computing fosters the notion of computing as a utility
that can be
consumed by businesses on demand in a manner that is similar
to other
services (e.g. electricity, municipal water) from traditional
utilities. It has the
potential to reshape much of the IT industry by giving
businesses the option
of running business software applications fully on-premises,
fully in “the
cloud” or some combination of these two extremes. These are
choices that
businesses have not had until recently and many companies are

still coming
to grips with this new computing landscape.
Security is important to any computing infrastructure.
Companies go to
great lengths to secure on-premises computing systems, so it is
not
surprising that security looms as a major consideration when
augmenting or
replacing on-premises systems with cloud services. Allaying
security
C11-2
concerns is frequently a prerequisite for further discussions
about migrating
part or all of an organization’s computing architecture to the
cloud.
Availability is another major concern: “How will we operate if
we can’t access
the Internet? What if our customers can’t access the cloud to
place orders?”
are common questions [AMBR10].
Generally speaking, such questions only arise when businesses

contemplating moving core transaction processing, such as ERP
systems,
and other mission critical applications to the cloud. Companies
have
traditionally demonstrated less concern about migrating high
maintenance
applications such as e-mail and payroll to cloud service
providers even
though such applications hold sensitive information.
Security Issues and Concerns
Auditability is a concern for many organizations, especially
those who must
comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and/or Health and Human Services
Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
regulations [IBM11].
The auditability of their data must be ensured whether it is
stored on-
premises or moved to the cloud.
Before moving critical infrastructure to the cloud, businesses
should do
diligence on security threats both from outside and inside the
cloud

[BADG11]. Many of the security issues associated with
protecting clouds
from outside threats are similar to those that have traditionally
faced
centralized data centers. In the cloud, however, responsibility
for assuring
adequate security is frequently shared among users, vendors,
and any third-
party firms that users rely on for security-sensitive software or
configurations. Cloud users are responsible for application-level
security.
Cloud vendors are responsible for physical security and some
software
security such as enforcing external firewall policies. Security
for intermediate
layers of the software stack is shared between users and
vendors.
C11-3
A security risk that can be overlooked by companies
considering a
migration to the cloud is that posed by sharing vendor resources
with other

cloud users. Cloud providers must guard against theft or denial-
of-service
attacks by their users and users need to be protected from one
another.
Virtualization can be a powerful mechanism for addressing
these potential
risks because it protects against most attempts by users to attack
one
another or the provider’s infrastructure. However, not all
resources are
virtualized and not all virtualization environments are bug-free.
Incorrect
virtualization may allow user code to access to sensitive
portions of the
provider’s infrastructure or the resources of other users. Once
again, these
security issues are not unique to the cloud and are similar to
those involved
in managing non-cloud data centers, where different
applications need to be
protected from one another.
Another security concern that businesses should consider is the
extent
to which subscribers are protected against the provider,

especially in the
area of inadvertent data loss. For example, in the event of
provider
infrastructure improvements, what happens to hardware that is
retired or
replaced? It is easy to imagine a hard disk being disposed of
without being
properly wiped clean of subscriber data. It is also easy to
imagine
permissions bugs or errors that make subscriber data visible to
unauthorized
users. User-level encryption may be an important self-help
mechanism for
subscribers, but businesses should ensure that other protections
are in place
to avoid inadvertent data loss.
Addressing Cloud Computer Security Concerns
Numerous documents have been developed to guide business
thinking
about the security issues associated with cloud computing. Even
NIST has
weighed in on these issues [BADG11]. NIST’s
recommendations

systematically consider each of the major types of cloud
services consumed
C11-4
by businesses including Software as a Service (SaaS),
Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). While security
issues vary
somewhat depending on the type of cloud service, there are
multiple NIST
recommendations that are independent of service type. Several
of these are
summarized in Table C11.1. Not surprisingly, NIST
recommends selecting
cloud providers that support strong encryption, have appropriate
redundancy
mechanisms in place, employ authentication mechanisms, and
offer
subscribers sufficient visibility about mechanisms used to
protect subscribers
from other subscribers and the provider.
As more businesses incorporate cloud services into their
enterprise

network infrastructures, cloud computing security will persist as
an
important issue. Examples of cloud computing security failures
have to
potential to have a chilling effect on business interest in cloud
services and
this is inspiring service providers to be serious about
incorporating security
mechanisms that will allay concerns of potential subscribers.
Some service
providers have moved their operations to Tier 4 data centers to
address user
concerns about availability and redundancy. Because so many
businesses
remain reluctant to embrace cloud computing in a big way,
cloud service
providers will have to continue to work hard to convince
potential customers
that computing support for core business processes and mission
critical
applications can be moved safely and securely to the cloud
[HEAV11].
Discussion Points
1. Do some Internet research to identify businesses who have

suffered
because of cloud security weaknesses or failures. What can
companies
who are contemplating cloud computing services learn from the
negative experiences of these businesses?
2. Do some Internet research on security mechanisms associated
with
virtualization. How can virtualization be used by cloud service
providers to protect subscriber data?
C11-5
3. Choose one of the following cloud services categories: SaaS,
IaaS,
PaaS. Do some Internet research that focuses the security issues
associated with the selected cloud service category. Summarize
the
major security risks associated with the cloud service category
and
identify mechanisms that can be used to address these risks.
Sources
[ARMB10] Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R, Joseph, A.D.,
Katz, R.,
Konwinski, A., Lee, G., Patterson, D., Rabkin, A., Stoica, I.,
and Zaharia, M.

“A View of Cloud Computing.” Communications of the ACM,
Vol. 53, No. 4,
April 2010, pp. 50-58.
[BADG11] Badger, L., Grance, T., Patt-Comer, R., and Voas, J.
Draft Cloud
Computing Synopsis and Recommendations: Recommendations
of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special
Publication 800-146,
May 2011.
[HEAV11] Heavey, J. “Cloud Computing: Secure or Security
Risk?”
Technorati.com, November 28, 2011. Retrieved online from:
http://technorati.com/technology/cloud-computing/article/cloud-
computing-
secure-or-a-security1/.
[IBM11] IBM Global Technology Services. Security and
Availability in Cloud
Computing Environments, Technical White Paper, June 2011.
computing-secure-or-a-security1/
computing-secure-or-a-security1/
C11-6
CASE STUDY 11Security Issues and ConcernsAddressing
Cloud Computer Security ConcernsDiscussion PointsSources

UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management We.docx

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