Sean Chatterjee shares insights from our top wins and losses during the Sales track at Acumatica Partner Summit 2015 in Long Beach, CA.

1. 2 Tips on every sales
stage
- Learnings from our top wins & losses
Sean Chatterjee
VP Partner Sales
Roman Ozerskiy
Partner Account Manager
Better
Faster
Stronger
Version 5.0

2. What is this session about?
• 2 Tips on key Sales Stages based on
– Observations of our top Partner wins
– Drilling into our losses

3. 2014 – A look-back at some of our
key wins

4. And the reasons you told us
why we won..
• Unlimited User Pricing
• We felt comfortable with the local Partner
• Great underlying technology – super flexible!
• We loved your demo!
• Your Sales Process and overall understanding of
our business

5. 2 Tips on each Sales stages..
• Qualification Stage
• Discovery Stage
• Demo Stage
• Proposal Stage
• Contracts & Negotiations

6. Qualification – Tip # 1
• Budget Can be tricky, but nevertheless a VERY
important piece of information to gather.
 For some prospects, specially first time ERP adopters, initial
education is a must on what is out there, and at what price
point.
 Great question to ask would be, other products they are
considering
 Also, give a range of pricing when asked that question.
Example, we start at about 30k total for smaller clients – but
can be up to $120k for larger clients.

7. Qualification – Tip # 2
• Once qualified – set up next steps. Don’t jump
the gun.
– Make sure we understand their needs really well, before
discussing our product features and benefits to the
prospect. Schedule Discovery Meeting.
– Set proper expectations on next steps with approximate
timelines, and involvement from appropriate stake-
holders
– Don’t be afraid to say NO!

8. Discovery – Tip # 1
- Do we understand the prospects current
infrastructure to understand the maintenance and
upgrade costs looming ahead?
- This tip will also position us to truly recommend the right
deployment model as a true consultant
- What is the customer’s perception of the Cloud?
- Do they have adequate in-house IT coverage?
- What has been the experience with existing ERP/
system?

9. Discovery – Tip # 2
- Did we ever drill down into any of the background
experience of key decision makers and
influencers? What was that experience like? What
about Group Companies?
- Use LinkedIn and other sources to check past experience
- Group companies use disparate ERPs. What is their
experience like? Any contacts I can talk to?

10. Demo Stage - Tip # 1
- Do we have the right audience?
- Reschedule if NOT all the stake-holders are present
- Spend time with Stakeholders to understand all ‘hot-
button’ issues
- Create early ‘Champions’
- Always better to cultivate more than one contact

11. Demo Stage - Tip # 2
- Know your ‘win-themes’
- Always remind the audience of the 3-4 key pain
point and how elegantly we solve them
- Differentiate early
- If you are not the front-runner – first strive to
become an equal, and then differentiate

12. Proposal Stage– Tip # 1
- LEAD with one recommended Deployment
method. If this is not quite clear, even after an
extensive discovery, schedule a meeting to
propose you recommendation and discuss it.
- Example including doing an analysis of why a SAAS
solutions better overall ROI including tremendous cost
savings.
- Always good to do a ‘gate-check’ on the numbers before
sending them, to feel their pulse.
- Proposal should also detail how we are solving the
customers pain points, with as much illustrations as
possible. This will remind all stake-holders, why they
need to invest on the right solution.

13. Proposal Stage - Tip # 2
- Case Study and References – Prepare the
customer before-hand on the stage of your
existing practice and how many Acumatica
customers you have.
- For new Partners, we recommend using Acumatica
Implementation Assist to overcome this common
objection
- Research on Acumatica customers with your PAM, and
prepare ‘Customer Stories’ deck to incorporate into your
presentation
- If getting an exact match becomes difficult, it is better to
have the discussion early with reasons why.
- Let us build the fences around ‘references’. If WE don’t,
our Prospect will.

14. Contracts & Negotiations – Tip
# 1
• Understand the personalities who will engage, so
you can assemble your own team. Knowledge of
the ‘hot button’ issues always helpful.
– Example, Kirk, the attorney will do legal review. John, the
CFO will negotiate terms and pricing ( John cares more
about 5 year outlay, rather than line items costs in year
1).

15. Contracts & Negotiations – Tip
# 2
• Use tools to illustrate your numbers, and adjust it
if needed.
– Implementation Calculator
– For customizations, use

16. Implementation Calculator

17. Customization Requirements
Document

18. Partner Portal – Visit often!