The document discusses different approaches to mastering market leadership through thought leadership messaging and vision-driven selling. It provides frameworks for crafting compelling messages to engage prospects at different stages of the sales funnel and overcome obstacles through targeted marketing programs. The goal is to position the company as the perceived market leader through consistent messaging that addresses buyers' urgent needs.

1. Selling
Breakthroughs:
Boot Camp for Mastering
Market Leadership
2013 Executive Leadership Conference
Richard Currier

2. Mastering the Breakthrough Topline
revenue
The must do’s to quickly and decisively:
• Quickly accelerate revenue
• Ensure superb new product/service launches
• Fix topline problems/ eliminate selling roadblocks
• Slash sales cycles
• Annihilate the competition, especially do nothing
• Drive high impact, consistent company execution

3. Market Leadership Works

4. Three Alternative Leadership Approaches
Market Leadership
Sales Leadership
Success
Solution Leadership
Time

5. When Solution Leadership Works
• High percentage of the solution is unique
• Buyers dig deep to appreciate unique values
• Solution especially appeals to early stage buyers:
• Bleeding-edge, leading-edge, early adopters are excellent targets
• Pioneering buyers seeking significant advantages
• Productive evaluations: buyers dig into your solutions
• Successful implementation: buyers readily push the solution’s limits
and are not put off by rough edges

6. Alas, Solution Leadership Erodes
• More and stronger competitors emerge
• Competitors respond by copying your core features
• Feature-based competitive edge erodes rapidly
• “Good enough”: 20 - 80% features
• Proving differentiation to less knowledgeable buyers
• Fewer and fewer new “killer app” feature opportunities
The Development Death Spiral
Crashing faster while struggling to develop your way out of competitive
differentiation issues/ problems

7. When Sales Leadership Works
You excel at “hand-to-hand combat”:
• You can readily master new account entry
• Develop “own leads” if necessary, but it’s not that tough
• Fight to enter “active evaluation "as a real contestant
• And, master competitive battles
• Great product/industry knowledge
• Superior sales personnel
• Strong sales support: engineers, consultants, product/industry
specialists
• Sales leadership works very well from earliest stages
through to mid-stage buyers

8. Sales Leadership Erodes
• Cost
• Operation costs too much, takes too long, is much too hard
• Huge growth challenges: slow-to-realize, costly failures
• Capacity
• Quickly run out of skilled hand-to-hand combatants
Eagles don’t flock
• Often run out of early-stage/mid-stage buyers
• Leads to the evolution of into a “deal-driven company”

9. Mastering Topline Performance
Mastery of the must do’s for breakthrough top line Success:
• Market Thought Leadership
Message-based market leader strategy: positioning and message-based strategies to
define, seize, and “own” markets, plus crush competitive threats
• Account Thought Leadership
Vision-Driven Selling – Crafting and refining a highly productive,
reliably predictable “killer sales machine”
• “Obliterate Obstacles” Focus
“Boulder Blasting” Marketing – a problem-focused high-impact solution that obliterates
major success-impacting obstacles to quickly boost revenue/ fix growth problems

10. Market Leader or Hand-to-Hand?
A market thought leader has:
• High positive aura and exciting market buzz
• Broad message consistency
• Easily reached strategic/tactical-direction consensus
• Natural pipeline sufficiency/easy pipeline growth
• Highly efficient, predictable revenue production
Symptoms of excessive hand-to-hand combat:
• The 3 D’s: Demo, Discount, Develop
• Poor conversion of leads to closed sales
• Hard to create urgency and consistent timely closes
• Accounts languishing in pipelines
• Select performers produce almost all the revenue
• Difficulties in maintaining price
Minimize hand-to-hand combat

11. Ultimate Leadership: Category Killer
First, Create the Category Then, Become the Category Killer
• Name it • Position for leadership
• Define key characteristics • Follow the validation roadmap
• Promote differentiated, • Promote leadership/
compelling benefits growing momentum

12. Marketing and Market Leadership
“Marketing is the one thing in a
company that is too important
to delegate”
— David Packard

13. Mastering
Market
Leadership
Insight
The Insight to Lead

14. Understanding the 3 Key Dimensions of Buyers
To really understand buyers:
you must understand the three key dimensions that drive
critical actions -- who, how, when and what they buy:
• Action Drivers
• Time-shifted Action Drivers
• Level-shifted Action Drivers

15. Primary Action Driver Categories
• Urgent
Drives action:
Buy
• Important
Drives activities:
Active evaluation
• Useful
Drives interest:
“Drive by” activities

16. Why Pitch to Other Than Urgent?
Useful/important needs bring these benefits:
• Empathy
Resonates with “popular/ trendy thinking”
• Speed
Often easier and quicker to present and explain
• Interest
Greater range of feature/benefits can make for more interesting marketing
materials and sales conversations
• Volume
Creates much “longer lists” when needed
Drive focus to urgent needs as you approach the sales goal line
Remember: customers distract you by seemingly focusing
on useful and important issues

17. Before and After: The Time-shifted Action Drivers
Pre-sales list: Post-sales list:
• List incomplete • List clear, soon obvious
• Sales and marketing can • Meets most urgent and some
influence lists important/useful needs
• Excel at useful and important but • Usually niche, but with a loyal
may lack urgent needs customer base
• Often early leaders, but frequently • Enriched product line/ more
fads, then shelfware products crucial to growth
• Second-acts essential
Most likely embraced by: Most likely embraced by:
• Sales dominant • Engineers/product specialists
dominant
• Those newer to domain
• Those with domain expertise
Market Leaders master BOTH lists

18. Above and Below: The Level-shifted Action Drivers
Words: Risk, Cost, …
Focus: problems, strategies
Challenges: journeys
Urgent needs: wins on my watch, in charge not in
Budget Makers control,
Budget Takers strategic problem yet no strategic solution, …
Words: Risk, Cost, …
Focus: products, processes
Challenges: destinations
Urgent needs: I’m valuable/ important/ strategic, …

19. Some Early PC Market Examples
Apple Microsoft
Computer in every home Computer on every desk
Market Approach
Ease of use, fun Be faster and better at your job,
Control your destiny (your own: data; timing,
Some Urgent Needs
change, processes, etc.)
Integrated, single-vendor Open, extensible (new capabilities),
complete solution, works upgradeable (future-proof), multi-vendor
immediately out of the box, “I” can commoditized approach (lower cost), familiar
Some Pre-Sale Needs
do it; elegant, simple enterprise vendors (safe)

20. Creating Urgency
The three key rules for creating urgency:
1. Position to urgent needs
2. Create/leverage decision-level relationships
3. Obliterate showstopper objections

21. Creating Demand
• You can’t create need
• But you can transform latent needs into
active demand
• In today’s markets “demand creation”
becomes paramount
• “Leadgen” is not demand generation, therefore
leadgen has become less and less effective

22. Acquiring/ Vetting Knowledge
• The “testing” scenario
• Tell peer-based problem stories and their proposed
solution direction
• Suggest hypotheses
• Feedback based on “tells”
• Speed to aha
• Openness and energy
• Word/ theme reuse and enriching
• Consider formal testing
• Always perform informal, continuous testing
22

23. Targeting Summary
• Target “markets” not “populations”
• Populations: superficial commonality (size, geography, etc.)
• Markets – commonality in buying/lead with a common message
• More compact markets are way more efficient
• Easier to know/understand/serve
• More affordable to reach
• More credible to become the perceived leader
• Ideal markets:
You can quickly and credibly become perceived as #1 or #2 and the
market (segment) is just big enough to meet your revenue targets

24. Targeting Summary (cont’d)
Targets
• Groups with high buyer homogeneity – alike in dimensions such as
buyer profiles
• urgent/important/useful
• Pre/post
• Strategic values/tactical needs
Sales versus marketing targets
• Overlap but not completely congruent
• Sales sweet spot: likely to buy from you on standard terms
• Marketing target: focus for market leadership initiatives, demand
creation activities and sales support leverage

25. Mastering
Market
Leadership
Message-based
Thought Leadership

26. The Leadership Framework
Transform Strategies to Action
The Tale Telling of the Tale Driving Results
Strategies
Business
Market
Programs
Vision Market Positioning Packaging Packaging
Execution
Targeting Positioning Packaging
Targeting Strategies
Long-term Current competitor- and marketplace- High impact
company strategy focused strategies, tactics and messages problem-solving/
and marketplace [per product/product line/market] revenue-driving
position execution
3 - 7+ Years 6 - 18+ month refresh cycle

27. Mastering Market Leadership
It Starts With Vision
Vision drives focus for market leaders
Leaders consistently project a clear, crisp, compelling vision
within their companies and throughout their marketplace

28. Competitive Positioning:
Staking Out The Corners
SAP – The Most
Customers, features, languages, processes, partners, …
Oracle – Technology
Technology leader, PeopleSoft – People
best technology, …
Nice people to do business with,
Leverage human capital, …
Baan JD Edwards – ?
Technology leader?
Nice people to do business with?
Mid-market?

29. Leveraging Communications
The Three Primary “Aha!”Types
• Narrative
Prose text, analytical/logical presentation
• Metaphorical
Word pictures, stories, analogies
• Visual
Graphics, charts, diagrams, pictures
Because “speed to aha” is critical

30. The Message Structure
• Level 0 – problem context
• Problem theme
• Drive the sales cycle/account focus: solve this problem
• Drive focus on urgency to drive action
• Level 1 – benefit theme
• The compelling customer promise
Vision • Grabs attention/builds empathy/sets the tone
Message • Level 2 – differentiation theme
Structure
• “What sets us apart from everyone else is …”
• Drives leadership
Account entry/mass market messaging/executive selling
• Level 3 – the secret sauces
• Key differentiation enablers
avoid fluff, make it real
• Defend positioning/set competitive traps
• Level 4 – your solution
• Prove the vision
• Showcase the feature
• Ace the checklist
• Prove the assumptions/ ROI basis

31. The Market Leadership Message
• Starts with problem-based bonding
• Driven with vision-centered messages
• Crisp, clear
• Speed to “aha”
• Compelling (different)
• Repeatedly used/ Repeatable by them
• Multi-level “what’s in it for me”

32. Initial Core Messaging that Yielded Breakthroughs
Approach/
Vendor i2 PeopleSoft SAP Oracle
Need for Mantra of modern
Execs not in control of Islands of automation
Problem Theme Step-change business : Do more
global business run the business
Cost savings for less forever
Breakthrough
Regain control of the Knit together the
Benefit Theme $50B … productivity at the
enterprise islands of automation
frontlines of business
Integrate Push power of the Integrated single Integrated global data
Differentiation Theme Forecasting computer to the global application across disparate
Global SC … frontlines solution platforms
MRO Peopletools One version of the Multiplatform support
Secret sauces truth
RTAP Visual organization Fast first step
[2 – 6] Baked in processes
… … support Complete environment

33. Mastering
Market
Leadership
Vision-Driven Selling
Account Leadership

34. Leadership Throughout the “Sales Funnel”
Attract
Engage
Position
Traction
Present
Prove
Close
$$

35. The Real Battle in the Sales Funnel
Engage
(Re) Position
Traction Vision Lock
Prove
Close

36. Feature List Hell
Traction without leadership No Vision Lock
Predictable Feature Hell outcomes:
• Do nothing
• Buy from biggest/ safest
• Buy cheapest
• Lose to predetermined vendor
• A crushing implementation
• A profile successful sale

37. Market the Vision, Sell the Solution
Seize Control:
Define the battle
Market the Vision: Vision Messages:
• Crucial to create “right” interest • Focus on the customer
• Key to call high/stay high • Crisp, clear, compelling messages
• Drives evaluation requirements • Showcase named problem/features
• Leverage techniques:
• Stories, examples, visuals, sound bites, metaphors
Vision Vision
Vision
Lock
Lock
Solution
Sell the solution: Solution Messages:
• Evaluation focuses on vision proof • Showcase comprehensive, rich, solution
• Sets competitive traps • Drive series of “next steps”
• Maintain executive focus/involvement • Leverage references, demos, proofs
Make the Sale:
Win the battle

38. Messages Transform
The Telling of the Tale Evolves Across the Buying Process
≠ Comfort Zone
H2H
Fails
Top of Speed Customer-
Hot, Strategic
Funnel to “aha” centric
Exciting Values
Aura
Different Crisp
Themes Buzz
Messages
Traction
H2H
Bottom OK
of Quantity/ Product
Safe Tactical
Funnel Depth centric
Needs
Better Rich Relationships
Messages
Lists
= Comfort Zone

39. Mastering
Market
Leadership
Message-based
Market Leadership

40. "New Message” Communications
The Prioritized Sequence for New Message Roll-out
Effective Communications Leverage
1. Company internally
2. Customers
3. Influencers
4. Mass media
5. Prospects
Numbers of Communications Constituents

41. Obliterating Obstacles
Pebbles Rocks Boulders
Annoying Slows down sales activities Roadblocks sales activities
Marketing solutions may “feel Good marketing can streamline results and Great marketing essential for revenue
good” but provide little practical minimize sales slowdowns success
sales benefit
Minimal effect on any rep Especially effects new reps and below-average Hits all reps hard
performers; minimal effect on skilled hand-to-
hand combatants
Magic wand to make them Magic wand to make them disappear: revenue Magic wand to disappear make them
disappear: no effect on revenue improves slightly, especially if lots of new reps or disappear: revenue explodes
large number of below-average hand-to-hand
combatants

42. Only Programs Blast Boulders
Boulders: A
Huge revenue backup programs
• Hand-to-hand: useless
• Breakthrough revenue increase potential
Large Rocks:
Sales may slow down but likely just difficult B
programs
• Real/perceived problems
• Trips good reps sometimes, new reps more often
Small rocks/Pebbles/gravel:
Often annoying CNo
• Marketplace real/perceived problems programs
• Other real/perceived issues/factors

43. Obliterating Obstacles: Leverage A/B/C Programs
“A” Boulder-mover programs
A • Approach: whatever It takes for World-class
programs
• Gate #1: ability to execute world-class for programs type
• Gate # 2: competitive/marketplace context allows world-class
• rise above the “clutter”
• rise above market share leaders
B
programs
• rise above mindshare leaders
“B” Friction point reduction programs
Minimal resources for passing results
pass, don’t fail, but don’t waste resources beyond passing
CNo
“C” None of the above
programs
only if you have loads of excess budget/bandwidth
“A' ” — Opportunistic programs: A-level results for minimal costs