Eta Consults

SaaS RFP's from the Customer's Perspective

This is an older blog I wrote about the challenges of running a RFP from the buyers’ side. This is an interesting read for anyone selling SaaS technologies into sizable organizations.

 

RFP's are daunting exercises for both the buyer and seller of SaaS marketing technologies. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work through many of these processes with a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies from every major vertical.  The most common thread I've found is that there isn't one.  Some organizations run RFP's as a matter of procurement driven process; while others are truly seeking a new or better solution.  I started thinking about the level of work that goes into the RFP process from both the buyers and sellers perspective.  

Since I understand all too well the effort that sales teams and their company's put into participating in a RFP, I decided to learn more about the evaluation process on the buyers side.

I reached out to an old friend and a respected client of mine for insight.  Steve Furman of Discover Financial Services is currently the Director, Design, Customer Experience and Social Media (http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefurman) for Discover.  In 2002, Steve was leading the email team at DFS as they were upgrading, enhancing and innovating email marketing for the financial services company.  It was here that we met and began a lasting relationship that was built on mutual respect and appreciation for one another's responsibility to making our business interaction work. At the time I was leading the sales effort for Bigfoot Interactive as we were seeking to win the Discover RFP as email service provider.

 

Steve and I have decided to have a virtual cup of coffee and discuss the elements that help form a well run RFP from the clients point of view, and how good sales organizations can effectively communicate their value propositions during the sales process.  

 

In part 1; we'll discuss how an organization should decide how it's going to RFP and what they need to look for in the open market.  A clearly defined need from the client will help drive a well run evaluation of platforms as so many SaaS and marketing technology have similarities and need to accentuate their differentiators to provide a viable solution.

 

Jason:  "Steve, focusing on marketing technology, what are the triggers that cause and organization like yours to consider either adding a new service to your processes or replace and existing vendor?"

 

Steve:   "Probably the biggest trigger is the need to increase the impact marketing technology can have on business results.  Over time firms have seen significant growth in the online users/customers/subscribers they serve as well as the amount of content/SKU's/ they offer.  Due to this growth, connecting a buyer with the appropriate product has become more difficult. Firms need to add to their arsenal of interactive marketing tools to better identify the consumer and present an attractive offer quickly.  That need drives the request to add capability."

 

Jason:  "That makes sense, particularly as new needs are identified.  New add ons in terms of need and technology.  But what about when it's time to replace a vendor or upgrade?"

 

Steve:  "As far as replacing a current agency or vendor (A/V) I use the following guidelines.  

• Have your business results improved during the time you have been working with the your A/V?
• Do they help you innovate around YOUR core competencies?
• Do they bring you ideas that spark your desire and courage to innovate?
• Has their customer base grown?
• Do you get access to top thinkers at the A/V?
• Are their business results growing?
• Are they pushing you or are you pulling from them?
• Do they have a thoughtful and plausible strategic roadmap?
• Has their quality been improving?
• Has your account management been stable?

If you answer NO to 3 of these questions put them on a watch list and have a fireside chat with them.  If you answer No to 5 or more, it's time to start looking."

 

As you can see, the internal process a company goes through to arrive a decision on selecting a new technology or replacing a vendor boils down to assessing performance and business metrics that are focused on growth and forward thinking.  In the next installment of this "coffee" chat, we'll explore what the buyer goes through to determine which elements are important during the needs assessment.

 

Steve blogs at http://www.expedientmeans.com/

How to Consider Building Pricing Models

For many start-ups and small businesses setting sales goals or revenue goals for their businesses is a difficult task.  Often armed with little or no sales data, revenue goals are often aligned with expectations tied to recouping the investment and of course; finding cash flow to become self sufficient.  These are important factors are the basis for driving any business, but understanding details about your product or service and your company's ability to achieve success is key in any venture.

Some simple steps will help avoid mistakes in over promising and under delivering revenue and losing credibility with your investors.

In our last blog we discussed knowing your target market cold.  This extends to understanding your competitive set as well.  It's not good enough to simply know the audience you believe will buy your products; you must know what competitors of yours may already be serving them as well.  Knowing their strengths and weaknesses is how you find your niche.  You may find that a bigger company is also serving your market; however, they may have a out of the box solution that works but isn't exactly designed to support the problems you may be solving.  If this is the case, studying their pricing will be helpful in how you set yours.  Wouldn't it be interesting to see if a smaller company was also in the space; perhaps offering a similar offering for less?

You have the advantage of creating a pricing model that can compete in value with both of them; but enhances the value proposition that differentiates you that we discussed before in this space that you need to develop.

Pricing should be a value component to your offering and "sold" as such when in front of a client.  There is a subtle difference between using pricing as a crutch and using it as a selling tool.  If you're struggling with this, ask yourself "why," and "how," and "what" questions to ensure that your are maintaining value in your pricing.

Why is our pricing model an advantage for our customers?

How does this benefit the customer on the short term and long term?

What makes our pricing different and why is that a good thing for our clients?

The answers to those questions and others should tie back to the sales value proposition we discussed previously.  Pricing is step 1 in developing revenue goals. Keep in mind that you always want to protect your product and service.  Avoiding devaluation in the pricing stage is a critical component.

In future blogs we'll discuss how to begin the process of setting realistic targets.  Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @etaconsults

 

 

5 Easy Steps to Grow Sales at Start Ups

According to the Ernst and Young report on 2013 venture capital insights, http://bit.ly/15HjOe6 VC's are looking at different factors this year when considering where to invest dollars.  As investments are being carefully assessed, VC's are looking to mitigate their risk by seeking later stage emerging companies. While this seems very logical on the surface, this is lost on many developing technology companies who may continue to direct funds to product development over sales and marketing.

"We see evidence of money flowing into companies that are perceived as less high risk," the E&Y report states,  "the companies that are attracting greater VC interest are those that provide a service and are getting paid for it." 

That's a powerful statement as traditionally there has been a rush to build the best mouse trap assuming that the technology itself would be the driving force for future equity events.  In reality, without a defendable and viable sales pipeline and actual revenue, the risk of missing out on additional funding increases exponentially.  

Start ups and early stage companies need to invest with equal effort and vigor in building a strong sales story.  There are steps that companies can take to help this along that will allow them to optimize their return on angel or seed money funding.  

1. Develop both a marketing position and a sales positioning statement.  The value proposition that your product or service offers has to have a story and a reason why it matters.  Your sales positioning should have tangible differentiators that separate you from the competition.
2. Know your target market cold.  There is nothing; and I mean nothing, that is one size fits all. Understand who your audience is at both the company level and the buyer level.  This will help you complete the first task on developing positioning statements.
3. Don't think your first customers represent the market at large.  Early adopters are always seeking the "next thing."  That means whomever follows you will get their short term business.  Understand the bell curve associated with sales growth and remain focused on the targets you developed in identifying your market.
4. Don't hire your brother-in-law to run your sales team; or yourself either.  Sales in today's technology driven marketplace is complex.  Make sure that consult with or hire an expert on navigating the intricacies involved with selling.  If you are a founder and know the product and service cold, support and be in the field, but listen as much as you talk and bring help. You attract the early adopters, sales professionals will find the customers.
5. Stick with the plan.  Building a viable pipeline and making it return revenue is a process; just as building a technology is. You wouldn't change your VP of Product out after a quarter, the same should hold true for your sales plan and your sales leader.

The seemingly overnight success of a business like Instagram http://tcrn.ch/14JMF2q has filled many early stagers with the idea of just being found.  There are excellent examples of companies that have had phenomenal returns based on organized and steady growth. 

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From the Sellers Side

I've been blogging for Only Influencers and wanted to share my post from that site here on Eta Consults blog.  Here's link:  http://bit.ly/16NIjpd

Let’s face it buying an email platform in today’s marketplace is a difficult task.  There are so many options to choose from and understanding how each ESP differentiates itself from the field is hard to do.  Having lead sales organizations in our space for over a decade, I’ve had a front row seat the challenges of selling these platforms, and as a result I believe that there is plenty of opportunity for both the buyers and sellers to improve the sales cycle and make it much easier then it is today.

Selling these technologies and their associated services is not an easy task.  On the sellers side they require a heavy investment in the sales cycle and use of trained personnel.  On the buyers side ESP’s will engage multiple departments, each of which have their own needs that will drive their evaluation.  To this I challenge buyers to get your ducks in a row before engaging vendors.  It’s always interesting to walk into a company that hasn’t vetted requirements across departments.  This lack of focus is evident during the sales discovery process when internal stakeholders will seemingly be in the room together for the first time; and begin to disagree in front us sales folks on core needs.  When this happens it’s an indication that project may not be supported well which can and will lead to a disjointed sales effort from most vendors.

For  the rest of the blog:  http://bit.ly/16NIjpd

 

Product Training for Sales

"A company should have onboarding training for sales people which covers products and technology as well as case studies for presenting these products."  

Eta Consults conducted a survey recently to gage how effective marketing technology companies were at training their sales teams.  The results showed that companies need to do a better job of getting their prospect and client facing teams on board with both the product and the go to market strategy being employed by their organizations.

Clearly the first obstacle was getting new people onboard and understanding how the products work. After the initial welcome training, sales directors who answered in the majority (70%) felt that too much emphasis was on deep product integration and not focused on market uses and application.  This is interesting as the sales teams are going to facing a wide number of buyers in the field; some interested solely in technology, but others on the variety of ways a tool can be used on the real world.

We then asked our respondents about who did the training.  Almost all of the respondents indicated that the training came directly from the product team.  While that makes sense because they typically concieve, build and deliver the product, they are often not 100% aligned to associating the selling process to the feature sets included in the finished product.  

In future blogs we'll talk about the direct link between features and benefits and the best mouse trap.  What our research tells us is that sales people understand the need to relate the product and tool to how it will be viewed as a solution to problem their client has.  Short of this, the tool becomes just another product in a crowded marketplace.

There are countless examples of "best mousetraps" being built that are being out sold in the field because the emphasis on how to sell a product is incorporated into the training process before it ever gets rolled out.

 

It's About Getting Tactical

Welcome to the inagurual posting for the brand new Eta Consults blog.

First, I'm excited to be able to write about the very real issues facing early stage interactive companies in today's marketplace. Many of those organizations are facing similar stress points during their growth; and having spent many years working inside of many different types of interactive early stage companies, it's clear to me that the challenges are universal.  

Both VC's and the visionaries that run these companies are faced by mounting challenges.  The comnpetitive landscape has created footraces to success. Many companies are attempting to win by being the first to capture the new idea of the day. To be sure, there are many, many entities trying to capture the moving target of today's smart phone, wireless consumers through email, PPC, the web itself (remember that) and of course Facebook.

This space will be reserved for commenting on the business issues that are facing early stage companies. Marketing, operations, sales, development and yes; managing the founders. If you've spent time in this arena, the issues will sound familiar and the solutions logical.

Eta Consults is an exciting venture that is designed to work with VC's and CEO's to optimize their organizations structures and ability to generate measurable success.  There are many facets to this and Eta Consults is experienced in many of them.  Keep an eye out for more on this.

Eta is the greek letter for H; and in fact that's the greek symbol.  But Eta for this company is the chapter designation for a long ago fraternal experience that has forged my concept of leadership and teamwork.  It was appropriate to by homage to this name by assigning it to Eta Consults.

We will go beyond the strategic and we will get tactical.

Welcome to Eta Consults and all that it offers.