Overview of my Now What? message, Back to Basics selling approach, and Back to the Street delivery model

1. Now What?
Now What?

2.  Divorce
 Job loss
 Financial crisis
 Health crisis

3.  Worst economic upheaval since the Depression
 Bankruptcies, layoffs, foreclosures
 Corporate and personal financial upheaval
 Tight credit and tight budgets
 Tight buying and even tighter selling
 So Now What?

4.  No avoiding change in times of disruption
 Never let a good crisis go to waste
 It’s all about getting back to the basics - the
basics of what we already know, but have perhaps
lost the centrality and consistent application of in
our day to day selling lives

5.  The Talk
 What’s My Point?
 Where am I different and/or better than?
 What’s It Buy You?
 Hard value and soft value
Easy to speak and easy to get terms that precede and then
undergird everything else we say and do

6.  The Walk
 It’s
all about relationship
 Personal relationships and business relationships
 Our selves and our money – precious commodities
 Under the covers issues are make or break issues
 Proactive, ongoing renewal and strengthening are KEY
 Lessons learned – or not - from:
 Firstdates that never became second or third ones…
 Relationships that started strong and then faded
 Relationships that started strong… and stayed that way

7.  Yea, I know we know all these things, but do we do
them? And do we keep on doing them?
 Do our resellers and our customers get “it”? Do we?
And do we both keep on getting “it”?
 Are our resellers and our customers as satisfied with
our relationships now as when we first started out
together?
 Do we treat them the same way now as we did then?
 Are there any under the covers issues we either
don’t know about or choose not to address? Are we
talking about all this stuff? Really?

8.  20 years as a customer:
 Tons of brochures, glossies, white papers, Power
Point slides and talking… lots and lots of talking
 Rarely if ever a simple and succinct “What’s your
point” and “What’s it buy me” from my vendor
 10 years as a vendor:
 Tons of brochures, glossies, white papers, Power
Point slides and talking… lots and lots of talking
 Rarely if ever a simple and succinct “What’s my point”
and “What’s it buy you” for my customer other than
varied and sundry “roll our own” one-offs out on the
street

9.  20 years as a customer:
 Lunches, dinners, trips to customer events, corporate briefing
centers, sporting events and golf… lots and lots of golf
 Rarely if ever a knowing and resultant understanding of the
underlying issues vital to me and my company’s well being and
success. Minus a knowing of these under the covers issues
came an inability to evaluate offerings in potential deal
scenarios in these soft value, what’s it buy me areas
 10 years as a vendor:
 Lunches, dinners, trips to customer events, corporate briefing
centers, sporting events and golf… lots and lots of golf
 Rarely if ever a knowing and resultant understanding of the
underlying issues vital to my customer and their company’s well
being and success. Minus a knowing of these under the covers
issues came an inability to position offerings in potential deal
scenarios in these soft value, what’s it buy them areas

10.  It doesn’t take a lot of time or a lot of money
 It doesn’t take some spiffy new sales acronyms
 It doesn’t take a “How to Sell” guru
 It doesn’t take an “I’ve Been to the Moon” or an
“I’ve Climbed Mt. Everest” motivational speaker
 It’s all about getting back to the basics - the
basics of what we already know but have
perhaps lost the centrality and consistent
application of in our day to day selling lives

11.  What
it does take is an honest review and
remaking as needed of:
 Our Talk
 What’sthe point of each of our key offerings and what do
they buy our customers in easy to speak and easy to get
terms that precede and then undergird everything else
 Our Walk
 A“Marriage Renewal” of sorts review BEFORE a deal or
crisis time for all of our customer and our reseller
relationships so that we can:
 Ongoingly improve overall relationship behavior
 Ongoingly identify and address under the covers issues that
inhibit the mutual success and satisfaction of both parties - and
allow for development of soft value what’s it buy you selling points

12.  Sales training, enablement and events - centralized or
regional, direct or indirect, large or small
 Prior: Prep sessions with home office and field groups prior to
activity for buy in, linkage & development of content specific to
company’s current strategies, offerings, initiatives, messaging
 During: “Now What?” presentation during event with specific
application to company’s talk and walk detail as developed
jointly at prep sessions
 During: Breakout workshops during event for wider buy in,
linkage and tuning of content specific to varied street realities
with rank and file sales force
 After: Varied follow-up, feed back and additional fine tuning
back on the street after the activity

13.  Good for Las Vegas, not good for sales events of
any kind
 Motivational speaker content and application tied
to selling – and your company’s selling in particular
 No “one night stand” sales events but rather a
planned and executed “morning/week/months
after” results driven approach
 Any sales training, enablement activity or event
must be:
 Transferrable
 Repeatable
 Actionable
 Measureable

14.  Transferrable
 Concise,
integrated take-aways by deliverers that are
taken back to street and used willingly by receivers
 Repeatable
 Consistent/templateable AND flexible/adaptable
 Actionable
 Out of the sales office and onto the street actionable
 Measureable
 What’s the point and what’s it buying us metrics
 Sales behaviors, leads, deals, relationships indicators

15.  Background
 As a customer, I spent many years evaluating and
purchasing technology products from sellers and re-
sellers
 As a vendor, I held a variety of sales-related positions
in technology companies selling to customers globally,
and a large amount of time training and enabling both
direct and indirect sales teams
 These back to basics selling approaches can be
applied to the specifics of any industry, any company
and any product. This portion of the presentation
would contain these company and selling specifics.

16.  The Talk with Customers
 What’s Your Point – Different and/or Better?
 The opening hook, the main angle that sets up everything
 Customer attention (and further action) all rides on this
 Clearly spelled out – not left to customer to discern
 If it isn’t obviously a good deal, it isn’t going to be a deal
 What’s It Buy Me in Hard and Soft Value?
 TCO/ROI tools customizable to customer specifics
 Technology benchmarking applied to customer specifics
 Business and technology cases buttress the central “point”
 Variety of soft valuations further build “the point”

17.  The Walk with Customers
 Relationship Issues
 Leveraging relationships already proactively renewed
 Help for in-house champ “getting the bill through Congress”
 Strong, consistent relationships cover multitude of
shortcomings in product
 Under the Covers Issues
 Have to be mined – usually not on surface
 Strong, consistent relationships essential
 Current other vendor issues/relations to exploit or offset
 Current customer issues/relations to exploit or offset


18.  The Talk with Resellers
 What’s Your Point – Different and/or Better?
 Great product/solution, great programs, great incentives
 Great selling points and ready to use angles and hooks
 Prepared Talk and Walk kit along with usual sales kit collateral
 Great product with great selling angles covers multitude
of “sins” in reseller programs and incentives politics
 What’s It Buy Me in Hard and Soft Value?
 Gain in customer standing with no offsets critical
 Good fit in current reseller portfolio of offerings and
services

19.  The Walk with Resellers
 Relationship Issues
 Leveraging relationships already proactively renewed
 Help for in-house reseller champs via Talk/Walk sales kit
 Under the Covers Issues
 Vitalto maintain, and improve, standing in customer’s eyes
 Positioning new offering with resellers’ existing selling
practices critical
 Other reseller vendor issues/relations to exploit or offset

20.  Now What? moments – in life and in selling - are
all about getting back to the basics
 The basic Talk (our point and what that buys you)
and Walk (all about relationships) of selling
 What happens here, stays here – not! What
happens at sales events must be transferrable,
repeatable, actionable and measureable
 Never let a good crisis go to waste - getting back
to the basics of selling AND taking it to the street
is the way to sell and win in 2009 and beyond

21.  Myhybrid background - 20 years as a customer
and 10 years as a vendor
 Buying from companies like yours, selling to
companies just like yours, enabling sales forces just
like yours – talking & walking both sides of the street
 My street smart approach to selling - getting back
to the basics via our Talk and our Walk
 My delivery model - No “one night stands” but
rather a “morning/weeks/months” after approach
via the TRAM model that delivers sustainable,
taking it to the street, sales enablement value

22. OnTheStreetWithMichaelSpotts.com