Jim Rutt has experience on both the client and vendor side of technology sales. He summarizes some key insights from his experience. He notes that selling to technical leadership requires understanding their psychology, not just focusing on product innovation. Rutt also discusses challenges like gaining internal approval, budget constraints, and the complexity new solutions can bring. He provides tips for vendors, like writing RFPs in advance, building trust through advisory boards, listening to prospects, and targeting organizations with budget authority.
What are the top reasons your startup Is doomed to fail? Answers vary and originate mostly from investors and startup founders, people who have come face to face with startup failure at least once in their lives...
Authored by John Hamilton, this presentation focuses on how to move through the sales pipeline. Issues covered include where to source sales lead, how to engage your audience, and how to manage your pipeline.
John Hamilton is an accomplished executive with over 25+ years experience managing early stage startups to acquisitions and IPOs. John has vast sales and marketing expertise that has spanned several well known Boston based companies from Stratus Computer, EMC, FTP Software, Concord Communications, Phase Forward, Softricity (sold to Microsoft for $265M), XKoto and Viewfinity. His ability to scale companies has yielded significant returns for shareholders across the board.
edge CRM - AI Driven Customer Relationship Management Platformedge CRM
Designated as India’s Most Promising CRM, edge CRM is a customer relationship management platform conceived, instigated, and perfected by salespeople for the salespeople. edge CRM is a completely customizable CRM suitable for all business sizes pertaining to every industry profile.
What are the top reasons your startup Is doomed to fail? Answers vary and originate mostly from investors and startup founders, people who have come face to face with startup failure at least once in their lives...
Authored by John Hamilton, this presentation focuses on how to move through the sales pipeline. Issues covered include where to source sales lead, how to engage your audience, and how to manage your pipeline.
John Hamilton is an accomplished executive with over 25+ years experience managing early stage startups to acquisitions and IPOs. John has vast sales and marketing expertise that has spanned several well known Boston based companies from Stratus Computer, EMC, FTP Software, Concord Communications, Phase Forward, Softricity (sold to Microsoft for $265M), XKoto and Viewfinity. His ability to scale companies has yielded significant returns for shareholders across the board.
edge CRM - AI Driven Customer Relationship Management Platformedge CRM
Designated as India’s Most Promising CRM, edge CRM is a customer relationship management platform conceived, instigated, and perfected by salespeople for the salespeople. edge CRM is a completely customizable CRM suitable for all business sizes pertaining to every industry profile.
9 Steps to Repeatable, Scalable, & Profitable GrowthDavid Skok
In this slide deck, David Skok talks through his 9 step process for B2B startups to get through product/market fit, and to then find a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process.
In David's experience some of the most fatal and expensive mistakes founders make is trying to skip steps. Understanding this roadmap will save you countless hours and potentially millions of wasted dollars.
I was very intrigued by the article in the Harvard Business Review, and I wanted to share this with the rest of the world.
If you are in Sales, you definitely want to look at this.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive BriefingsKelley Henry
As an enterprise technology venture capital fund in New York City, Work-Bench has worked with hundreds of early stage go-to-market enterprise startups to accelerate their Fortune 1000 customer acquisitions.
Executive Briefings are a valuable tool for the startups in our community to meet and connect with Fortune 1000 enterprise buyers. For enterprises, it’s a chance to evaluate relevant emerging startups that address new opportunities or solve pain points. For startups, these briefings are a foot in the door with a potential customer through a trusted partner who can help elevate you beyond the noise.
After hosting more than 150 executive briefings with enterprise technology buyers and observing thousands of startup pitches, we’ve noticed key patterns from many of our portfolio companies that lead to successful meetings, follow-up conversations, and in the best case, POCs and pilots. We created a playbook, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive Briefings, to serve as a guide to own the room and land your next enterprise customer.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive BriefingsKelley Henry
As an enterprise technology venture capital fund in New York City, Work-Bench has worked with hundreds of early stage go-to-market enterprise startups to accelerate their Fortune 1000 customer acquisitions.
Executive Briefings are a valuable tool for the startups in our community to meet and connect with Fortune 1000 enterprise buyers. For enterprises, it’s a chance to evaluate relevant emerging startups that address new opportunities or solve pain points. For startups, these briefings are a foot in the door with a potential customer through a trusted partner who can help elevate you beyond the noise.
After hosting more than 150 executive briefings with enterprise technology buyers and observing thousands of startup pitches, we’ve noticed key patterns from many of our portfolio companies that lead to successful meetings, follow-up conversations, and in the best case, POCs and pilots. We created a playbook, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive Briefings, to serve as a guide to own the room and land your next enterprise customer.
Кейс для конкурса "Лучшая история успеха в интернете" от web2win. Современный, профессиональный интернет-магазин климатической техники Aventa96.ru (www.aventa96.ru)
Presentation based on Ben Holmes, Index Ventures Ventures http://www.slideshare.net/benholmes/venture-capital-an-entrepreneurs-manual
Created for EnterpriseTO
Journey to product / market fit explained. What do the start-up's first stages look like and what you should keep in mind when identifying a problem worth solving, creating a product and getting your first customers
9 Steps to Repeatable, Scalable, & Profitable GrowthDavid Skok
In this slide deck, David Skok talks through his 9 step process for B2B startups to get through product/market fit, and to then find a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process.
In David's experience some of the most fatal and expensive mistakes founders make is trying to skip steps. Understanding this roadmap will save you countless hours and potentially millions of wasted dollars.
I was very intrigued by the article in the Harvard Business Review, and I wanted to share this with the rest of the world.
If you are in Sales, you definitely want to look at this.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive BriefingsKelley Henry
As an enterprise technology venture capital fund in New York City, Work-Bench has worked with hundreds of early stage go-to-market enterprise startups to accelerate their Fortune 1000 customer acquisitions.
Executive Briefings are a valuable tool for the startups in our community to meet and connect with Fortune 1000 enterprise buyers. For enterprises, it’s a chance to evaluate relevant emerging startups that address new opportunities or solve pain points. For startups, these briefings are a foot in the door with a potential customer through a trusted partner who can help elevate you beyond the noise.
After hosting more than 150 executive briefings with enterprise technology buyers and observing thousands of startup pitches, we’ve noticed key patterns from many of our portfolio companies that lead to successful meetings, follow-up conversations, and in the best case, POCs and pilots. We created a playbook, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive Briefings, to serve as a guide to own the room and land your next enterprise customer.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive BriefingsKelley Henry
As an enterprise technology venture capital fund in New York City, Work-Bench has worked with hundreds of early stage go-to-market enterprise startups to accelerate their Fortune 1000 customer acquisitions.
Executive Briefings are a valuable tool for the startups in our community to meet and connect with Fortune 1000 enterprise buyers. For enterprises, it’s a chance to evaluate relevant emerging startups that address new opportunities or solve pain points. For startups, these briefings are a foot in the door with a potential customer through a trusted partner who can help elevate you beyond the noise.
After hosting more than 150 executive briefings with enterprise technology buyers and observing thousands of startup pitches, we’ve noticed key patterns from many of our portfolio companies that lead to successful meetings, follow-up conversations, and in the best case, POCs and pilots. We created a playbook, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Executive Briefings, to serve as a guide to own the room and land your next enterprise customer.
Кейс для конкурса "Лучшая история успеха в интернете" от web2win. Современный, профессиональный интернет-магазин климатической техники Aventa96.ru (www.aventa96.ru)
Presentation based on Ben Holmes, Index Ventures Ventures http://www.slideshare.net/benholmes/venture-capital-an-entrepreneurs-manual
Created for EnterpriseTO
Journey to product / market fit explained. What do the start-up's first stages look like and what you should keep in mind when identifying a problem worth solving, creating a product and getting your first customers
The buying landscape is changing and conventional sales tactics are losing deals. Learn how you can get ahead of the curve and sell more effectively with these account based selling tactics.
Intro to Lean Sales Training talk for Startups and EngineersWalter Roth
Creator of LeanSalesTraining.com and InwardInc.com, Walter Roth, gives a 90 minute presentation on building the dream sales team for startups and engineers. This is the presentation he references. The talk was powered by http://officience.com/ in Ho Chi Minh City.
SaaStock 2019 - Moving Up Market Bootcamp - Enterprise Sales for SaaS companiesLukas Hertig
In order to engineer a move upmarket, SaaS companies need to tailor both their sales services and people to deploy a more comprehensive or expensive service offering.
Engineering this full-scale pivot includes tackling many challenges; from understanding different service requirements, tackling new processes in departmental selling vs large scale deals, to identifying the right people needed to close such multi-million dollar deals.
This interactive workshop discusses the key challenges involved in cultivating the people and processes needed to smoothen this transition from mid-market to enterprise. Lukas Hertig, SVP Bizdev at Plesk, Investor and Advisor to startups, shares his business development playbook from the last 15 years, including real-life business cases to ensure your sales teams are equipped with the practical strategies needed to sell and succeed.
All the things an entrepreneur or start-up needs to know. Is it about the idea? Is it about a great product? How to build a team? Do I need a business plan? How do I raise money? What is a great business strategy?
Similar to The other side of the table 10-11-16 (20)
1. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE
TABLE
Jim Rutt
CIO, The Dana Foundation
October 11, 2016
2. BACKGROUND
20 years on the client side (Emblem, Metlife, TD Waterhouse, Sanofi)
Started from the bottom (help desk to present position)
Led Dana through a complete cloud-based infrastructure
transformation (topic for another talk)
Laid off in 2009, took a sales gig with a VAR (not sales engineering,
actual hunter/farmer-carried the bag).
Thousands of vendor meetings as a client, along with many
conversations with many of my peers (many of your prospects), you
start to pick up on a few patterns
Give some insight that could help you smooth out sales process from
ramp up to channel.
3. UNDER THE RADAR
Tons of sales/marketing books and presentations out there
In my opinion, most sound the same
Nobody, at least to my knowledge, ever gave a sales talk that truly
gives the view from a client-side technical leadership viewpoint.
Almost all conversations between vendor/client focus on the pure
innovation of the solution.
Very few actually try to understand the psychology of selling to
technical leadership.
Give some insight that could help you smooth out sales process from
ramp up to channel.
5. CAPTAIN OBVIOUS-OLD SALES
TECHNIQUES DON’T WORK
Cold calling: essentially dead
Email Marketing-We’re sick of it
but we have fun trying to identify
which CRM/MA platform it was
sent from. (WE IMPLEMENT THESE
AS PART OF OUR JOB!!!!!). Plus we
get about 100 of these a week.
Meetups-Better, but difficult to get
to the person you really need, the
person you has budget authority.
So, any better ideas??
6. BOTH SIDES OF THE TABLE-MERITS
OF THE SOLUTION
YOU
My stuff is tremendous
It won awards
Our VC/backers are legendary
Our leadership is legendary
This is a no-brainer
THEM
IS this for real or a pretender?
Why am I considering this?
How will I look to my internal
gatekeepers?
Will this really solve a problem or
cause more grief?
7. BOTH SIDES OF THE TABLE-
FINANCIAL
YOU
End of quarter
Ramp up
Investor pressure
Target
Plan
Forecast
THEM
Budget leeway
Opex/Capex concerns
Approval flow
Keeping under the radar
financially
8. YOU HAVE GREAT ADVANTAGES AS
A STARTUP
Most sophisticated prospects (covered later) like dealing with early
stage firms..
Direct contact with founders as opposed to lack of influence with
monolithic legacy players
Opportunity for more influence through the feature development of
the product
Early clients input is given higher priority in the product release cycle
Financial incentives for early adoption
Other advantages (covered later)
9. SIDE EFFECTS-EVERY NEW
SOLUTION BRINGS A GEOMETRIC
GROWTH OF COMPLEXITY
Basics-What every one sees on
the surface
Pre-sales/POC
Implementation of the actual
solution (either through POC
or post contract)
Training
Maybe a security review
Contract review/signing
10. SIDE EFFECTS-WHAT YOU DON’T
SEE CAN HURT YOU
What you don’t see
Added administrative overhead of the solution itself
Political capital needed to get solutions in house-need to explain to paranoid non-technical folks-
need to market internally to rally the troops
Back and forth with Legal and Compliance, the two groups in any organization with zero motivation
to change anything
CMDB needs to be updated/ITIL framework
Change Management (even in DevOps environments)
Ops Management
Contract Management/Procurement pathways
Disaster Recovery (even if inherently resilient, need to be added in, vetted and updated within the
existing plan)
Audit
Application integration/Data Integration
Change to affected organizations
If a replacement solution, project planning with tons of coordination and communications to retire
the old solution
Meetings, Meetings, Meetings!!!!!
All these can take up to 10-30x as long as it does to implement the solution
11. THE ROAD TO CLOSE: NOT ALWAYS
A STRAIGHT LINE
Risk Office
Procurement
Legal/Compliance
Ops/Dev
Technical Staff
Internal Customer
Executive
Champion
12. GETTING TO YES: ITS
COMPLICATED
Many different motivations
Scared of change
Want to rise internally/ulterior motives
May be looking for next gig/expansion of network/building the favor
bank
How to use any given solution to further personal goals
All this, while trying to fly under the radar
13. RFP TIME: HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY
THE VICTORS
Even in smaller organizations, an RFP
may be required due to gross dollar
requirements.
Assume an RFP would be needed, and
have one already written.
The winner 99% of the time, wrote the
RFP for the client.
I can’t emphasize enough how
important this is. You don’t have any
time without a large administrative
department to churn these out JIT.
14. FEED THE EGO
Trust is the #1 reason people buy from you.
In my experience, a VIP-style advisory board is the best way to build
loyalty, community and increase sales as well as reinforce trust.
Unique experience that can reinforce viral trust.
Something that will encourage your members to bring other prospects into
the fold
Have a charter ready, your constituents are sophisticated
Press releases-where able, certainly don’t hurt.
MAKE INTRODUCTIONS TO YOUR INVESTORS
Expands client network for future career opportunities
Today’s clients may be future startup CEO’s..they will need funding..right? You’ll look good
for setting them up should the need arise!!
15. RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD:
RANDOM MUSINGS
Use the list to proactively answer how you can reduce the friction
inherent to bringing your solution in
Be ready to address compliance in detail, not just a broad statement
of compliance. Its great your product is HIPAA-compliant….HOW
EXACTLY?
Understand who is in the room and what they truly want
Ex: Presentation to a CISO, VP Security, Security Analyst.
The Analyst is trying to look smart to his superiors. Yet, he has influencer status as opposed to final
decision/budget authority
I’ve been at many vendor lunches where less than 5% of attendees
have budget authority. Where does that leave you and does that give
you the ROI you’re looking for? Will that help your sales momentum?
16. LISTEN AND STOP TALKING
Over 2,000 meetings with vendors of all shapes and sizes, from
startup to well established firms..the #1 mistake you can make is
TALKING TOO DAMN MUCH.
Sophisticated prospects will know what to ask. Let them guide you.
Start with elevator pitch/10,000 foot view than go down deeper as
the prospect guides you.
17. PROS AND CONS: PROSPECT
DEMOGRAPHICS
Small to mid-size Financial (hedge fund, PE,
family office, foundations):
Large commitment to technology
Willing to go to POC quicker with larger than
average budget
Easier to get to the one with budget authority.
Nothing will happen unless you can influence
this person.
Governance/compliance a big concern. Need to
be ready else precious time spent on overhead.
Big logo (Financial, Pharmaceutical, Insurance,
Other)
• Small placement can lead to viral acceptance
due to distributed authority
• Long time to get a POC (up to 6-12 months)
• Faster time to peer adoption and credibility if
prospect is willing co-market (i.e. press
18. GAINING MOMENTUM
There are established sales acceleration firms that you can engage to
get your product in front of your desired demographic prospect (CW,
etc). These firms have the trust of your prospect base and have
relationships with folks that can go to POC quickly.
Can be expensive as a percentage of your allocation for marketing
In my experience, going wide gathers better momentum than going
deep. But focus on folks with budget authority