The End of Solution Sales – Part 2

Solution Selling is under threat because it’s ageing.  Solution Selling did really well because it brought with it a very structured approach to selling. The premise was that if you follow a methodology, a process; first step do this, second step do that, you would be successful. This approach was very appealing to Baby Boomer Sales Professionals born between 1946 and 1964. Baby Boomers liked this because they were brought up in a world that taught them that the way to be successful was in essence to be the same as everyone else.  Be structured, work hard, be disciplined, keep your head down and follow orders. In the battle of the sides of the brain, with this generation the left side won hands down. It was no contest.

Daniel Pink at the Yammer conference this week in San Francisco talked eloquently to this point. He rightly pointed out that a new generation is taking hold of business. By 2015 the average age of Generation Yer’s will be 30.  Why is this significant?  Generation Yer’s are almost diametrically different to Baby Boomers.  There is nothing structured about the way they approach their lives and work. They have been brought-up in an internet powered multi-tasking real time world where different is great. The right side of the brain has fought back and is fast taking control.

In my last blog I wrote about the End of Solution Selling. The premise being that because buyers have access to so much knowledge about the products and services that we are selling to them there really is little need for a sales person. According to the Corporate Executive board buyers go at least 60% of the way through the buying cycle without calling a Sales Professional. Further, the CEB concluded that buyers increasingly view the Sales person as being more of an annoyance to them than a valuable resource of insight and knowledge.

My viewpoint is that this is only part of the reason why Solution Selling is under threat. The other part is because buyers are increasingly of a different generation profile to the ageing population of sellers. Think about the likely outcome if a baby Boomer sales professional tries to sell to a Generation Y buyer by trying to impose a rigid and structured approach made-up of meetings and milestones. The outcome is not likely to fall favorable on the side of the seller. Generation Y buyers view the Baby Boomer as annoying not just because they provide nothing new but because they try and sell in a way that turns them off.

So, Solution Selling is under real threat because it’s ageing. It was designed to support a Baby Boomer buyer/seller generation profile that was married to structure and process. Today buyers and sellers are getting quick divorces because the seller is not able to adapt to the different generation profile of the buyer or those that are influencing the buyers on the decisions they make.

Sellers must learn to quickly adapt. Sellers must learn to take advantage of the communication channels that Generation Yer’s are increasing adopting; think Mobile and texting rather than PC and email. Sellers should consider different approaches to meeting with Gen Y buyers. Instead of meetings and agendas think Tweet-Up’s and Yam Jam’s and instead of formal presentations and proof of concepts find ways to influence the conversation in the leading on-line B2B user groups and forums that Gen Y buyers are attracted to as key information sources.

For Microsoft Dynamics Partners the implications are particularly important especially for partners who are choosing to focus on the ‘Territory through Partner’ route to market (See the Microsoft Routes to Market Strategy blog at www.alandowzall.com).  The reason for this is that this route to market depends completely upon the partner’s ability to sell. Partners who invest in developing the ‘Insight’ building skills of their sales professionals and encourage/train on the adoption of new Social Selling practices are the ones best placed to be successful.

Read Part 1 of The End of Solution Selling

For more information on Alan Dowzall go to: www.alandowzall.com or www.cloudtorre.com contact ad@cloudtorre.com, Follow at #Dowzall

Posted in baby boomers, Business Transformation, CRM Sales Professional, Dynamics partners Chile, dynamics partners mexico, Generation Y, MBS, Microsoft, Microsoft Chile, Microsoft Cloud Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Mexico, Microsoft Partner Network, Microsoft Partner Strategy, Microsoft Partners, Microsoft Routes to Market, Sales Professionals, Social Business, Solution Selling in the Cloud, Uncategorized, Yammer | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The End of Solution Sales?

The buying environment within which most sellers operate has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. Buyers are much more informed about the products and services being sold to them than ever before. The knowledge gap that drove the value being delivered by the seller in the past has closed dramatically, buyers are no longer dependent on the knowledge that a seller can share with them about what, why and how much.

So, the knowledge gap has closed, buyers are so much more informed than ever before and yet the selling process has remained the same.  Why have we not seen the next generation of Solution Selling adapted to the new buying environment?

In a recent Harvard Business Review article entitled “The End of Solution Sales” Matt Dixon of the Corporate Executive Board argues that because buyers complete nearly 60% of a typical B2B purchasing cycle for themselves many sellers are becoming more of an annoyance to the buyer than an asset to the selling company.

What we are seeing is a smaller percentage of sellers are excelling. In a recent survey we found that only 7% of a company’s salesforce were in the excellent performance band and 92% were in the middle performance bands. When we analyze the 7% what we find are sales people that understand that it is no longer enough to simply complete the checklist of solution selling activities. The unique characteristics of the 7% is that they are able to develop relationships with a broad set of people for the specific purpose of building a knowledge base of information about the buyers business. They are then able to logically group this knowledge, making connections that enable them to develop Insights about the buyers business that paints a completely new and interesting picture of what the buyer should be doing vs. what the buyer might be planning to do.

The secret sauce lies in the ability of the seller to obtain the knowledge about the business and then shape the knowledge into Insights. Knowledge therefore becomes the raw material for the production of Insight.  Thus, we have a new formula for sales success; Relationships + knowledge + Insight = Success.  If you remove any one of the elements the formula no longer works.

There are 3 main implications of this for B2B selling companies:

  • Companies must update the Profile of Excellence for sales roles to ensure that the right profile of people are being hired into sales, people who are really good at building knowledge and shaping knowledge into insights. Training programs for existing sellers must focus on improving the knowledge to insight skills of sellers.
  • Companies must ensure that all customer facing marketing materials are rich in insights about how the seller can impact the business of the buyer.
  •  Internal sales management processes must emphasize the importance of sharing knowledge and insights about customers.  Win/Loss reviews in which lessons learnt and insights shared must become common practice.

For Microsoft Dynamics Partners the implications are particularly important especially for partners who are choosing to focus on the ‘Territory through Partner’ route to market (See the Microsoft Routes to Market Strategy blog).  The reason for this is that this route to market depends completely upon the partner’s ability to effectively sell into the corporate segment.  Microsoft is adopting a co-selling model whereby opportunities will be identified and qualified by Microsoft and passed through to Dynamics partners who have the skills to effectively manage the opportunities through to close.  Partners who invest in developing ‘Insight’ based sales skills are most likely to achieve the highest win rates and therefore are most likely to receive the highest numbers of leads coming through from Microsoft in the future.

To help Microsoft partners understand more about this picture, the impact and what immediate actions they should be taking Cloudtorre is running a series of remote based webinars specifically designed for partners who are focused on Microsoft’s new Territory with partner route to market strategy.

For more information please contact Carolina Herrera at ch@Cloudtorre.com

Posted in Business Transformation, Cloud Computing, CRM Sales Professional, MBS, Microsoft, Microsoft Cloud Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Partner Network, Microsoft Partner Strategy, Microsoft Partners, Microsoft Routes to Market, Microsoft WPC, Powerful Sales, Powerful Sales Profile, Profile of Excellence, Sales Executive, Sales Navigator, Solution Selling in the Cloud | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Volume through Partner Route to Market Strategy

One of the least understood routes to market that forms part of Microsoft’s new Partner Strategy announced at WPC is the Volume through Partner (into SMB) route to market.  It’s troublesome that this is the least understood route to market because this one relates to the customer segment that the vast majority of Microsoft Dynamics partners are selling into today, SMB.  The big news here is that Microsoft does not see the traditional partner business model that many Partners selling into SMB have adopted over many years as being relevant in the future.

As Cloud will become the predominant Biz App platform of choice for most SMB customers, Partners must be prepared to transform their business and adopt the “Volume Business Model” that Microsoft has developed into a best practice for selling Microsoft’s Cloud solutions to SMB customers.  This will represent a substantial shift in the business mind set of most partners and will require working capital to support the shift. The volume business model includes best practice processes for Sales, Marketing & Implementation. PAM’s expert in the volume based business model will help partners make the clear shift to a volume state of mind and to embrace Microsoft’s portfolio of Cloud Business Applications.

Because the volume based model will be relatively new for most partners we have developed a Profile of Excellence (Poe) that provides partners with a way to evaluate their progress towards adopting the volume business model and build an excellent Cloud business. It is structured into “Six” Practice Areas that define the volume business model and provide partners with a list of specific actions they can take to adopt the Volume business model.

The Profile of Excellence enables partners to take feedback and evaluate how they are doing towards adopting the volume business model. Completion of the first feedback sets a baseline from which partners can come back to in order to compare and measure the progress they have made. Partner Leaders can invite multiple team members to give feedback so that an overall evaluation of progress can be developed based on inputs from across the company.  Using the Profile of Excellence feedback tool partners can easily measure the progress they are making towards full adoption of the volume business model.

Take the Cloud Business Profile of Excellence for Free at www.MaxiPoe.com.

Posted in Dynamics partners Chile, dynamics partners mexico, MBS, Microsoft, Microsoft Chile, Microsoft Cloud Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Mexico, Microsoft Partner Network, Microsoft Partner Strategy, Microsoft Partners, Microsoft Routes to Market, Microsoft WPC, PoE, Profile of Excellence, SMB, Volume Business Model, WPC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Microsoft’s New Routes to Market Partner Strategy

Microsoft’s New Routes to Market Partner Strategy

Last week I travelled to Mexico City to present to an audience of Microsoft Dynamics Partner CEO’s. The topic of my presentation was the new Microsoft Partner Strategy referred to by Microsoft at the meeting as the “Routes to Market”.

Microsoft announced the new strategy back at WPC but for many partners this was the first time they had heard about the strategy and most had no understanding of the implications of the strategy on their business or the opportunities the strategy presents for them.

Let’s be clear, “Routes to Market” means change for most Microsoft Dynamics partners and the change is not coming in small bite sized chunks but in large chunks that on the surface will appear to be indigestible, meaning that many Microsoft’s partners will react by doing nothing.  I am not suggesting that I would make a great Tarrant card reader, but I feel sure by the looks on many of the faces of the CEO’s in the room at the end of the 2-hr Microsoft presentation in Mexico City last Thursday afternoon that most will react by doing nothing. Doing nothing however is not an option that will lead to a desirable outcome for the partner and certainly not for Microsoft.  Partners can do nothing and let the changes negatively affect their business or, they can take control and be responsible for driving the changes for themselves.

So, let’s recap “Routes to Market” and understand the strategic implications for partners.

Microsoft no longer views that there is just one route to market. Traditionally Microsoft has focused on the SMB market with its Business Applications business. It has had modest penetration of the Enterprise and Corporate segments. This is changing. Microsoft eyes a big opportunity in the Enterprise segments resulting from customer demands changing towards software that is far more agile, more connected and is much more cost effective.  Microsoft views that with products like AX and CRM they are Enterprise ready and now is the time to target the Enterprise segments.

Moving forwards Microsoft sees three “Routes to Market” to reach customers.

The “Enterprise with Partner” route to market targets Accounts in the Enterprise segment with the new set of Enterprise ready products such as AX and CRM On-Line. Microsoft is investing in a new Solutions Sales force as the primary way to engage with customers in partnership with large Enterprise Systems Integrators.  PAM’s will be aligned to ESI’s and Microsoft will invest heavily in developing the capacity of the ESI’s to support the needs of Enterprise customers.

The “Territory with Partner” route to market targets Corporate Accounts in defined Territories focused mostly on defined Industries or Geographies. In support of this route PAM’s will develop very close co-selling relationships with Large and High growth VAR’s and ISV’s aligned to the very same Territories focused primarily on Industry. Partners must be ready to accelerate their sales efforts with Industry Solutions and through very close collaboration and integration with the Microsoft Corporate Accounts Territory Sales teams. This route will adopt a co-selling approach between Microsoft and the Partner, whereby the Sales Process is split, between Microsoft driving opportunity detection and qualification and the Partner driving opportunity development through to close. Partners must not only offer a highly differentiated Industry solutions approach (to distinguish them from other partners) but must also be expert in Solution Selling, based on a highly collaborative and virtual teaming approach with Microsoft.

The “Volume through Partner” route to market targets SMB customers. In support of this route Microsoft will develop relationships with new or existing VAR partners who commit to building new volume based businesses and have the necessary working capital to support it. Partners must be prepared to adopt the “Volume Business Model” that Microsoft has developed into a best practice for selling Microsoft’s Cloud solutions to SMB customers.  The volume business model includes best practice processes for Sales, Marketing & Implementation. PAM’s expert in the volume based business model will help partners make the clear shift to a volume state of mind and to embrace Microsoft’s portfolio of Cloud Business Applications.

In summary, there are 3 ways that Microsoft will go to market in the future.  The Enterprise with ESI partners will leverage the expertise of the largest ESI’s and the new investments Microsoft is making in Solution Selling Sales. The Territory with Partner route will leverage the Microsoft Corporate Accounts Sales teams along with large VAR and ISV partners who have a strong Industry solutions focus and are expert in Solution Selling. Finally, Microsoft will continue to target SMB, but through Partners who commit to adopting the Volume based business model and who develop a Cloud state of mind.

So, based on this new strategy what are the implications for partners? The most obvious implication is that partners must choose their preferred route to market. It is highly unlikely that partners will be successful across multiple routes to market and so partners must carefully choose the right route for them. Based on this choice their business strategy will be very different.  Many traditional Microsoft Dynamics partners who currently focus on SMB will have to decide to continue to focus on SMB which means transitioning their business to a very new and different business model or, to move up into the Corporate market, which requires a highly differentiated Industry solutions approach supported by world class solution sales teams co-selling in a highly connected and integrated way with Microsoft’s Corporate Sales teams.

The Game Plan for Success:

To help partners better understand the Routes to Market and capitalize on Microsoft’s new strategy we have developed a special 1-day workshop for partners that provides a deep analysis of the Routes to Market and lays out the game plan for success for each route to market. The workshop develops for individual partners their own specific routes to market roadmap enabling them to capitalize on Microsoft’s new strategy. The workshops are aimed at partner CEO’s and their leadership teams.

The dates for these are Mexico City September 24th to the 28th and Santiago,Chile October 8th to the 12th. Partners choose which day is best for them. Contact Carolina Herrera at ch@cloudtorre.com to reserve a workshop day.

Partners can also contact Carolina for alternative dates and locations.

For more information on Alan Dowzall go to: www.alandowzall.com or www.cloudtorre.com contact ad@cloudtorre.com, Follow at #Dowzall

Posted in Dynamics partners Chile, dynamics partners mexico, MBS, Microsoft, Microsoft Chile, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Mexico, Microsoft Partner Network, Microsoft Partner Strategy, Microsoft Partners, Microsoft Routes to Market, Microsoft WPC, Powerful Sales, Sales Executive, SMB, Uncategorized, WPC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting up close and personal with Microsoft

The message to Dynamics partners this week at WPC is it’s time to get up close and personal with Microsoft. But before you do you must decide which customer segment you are targeting. Because depending on which customers you are trying to sell to determines which roles within Microsoft you need to get up close and personal with.

For partners making a strategic bet on the Enterprise segment or more specifically very large global and major accounts partners must adopt a P2P up close and personal model. This means they have to build strong relationships not so much with Microsoft although this is also important, but with the large Global SI’s and ISV’s that Microsoft goes to market with to address this segment. There are less than 5,000 Enterprise accounts worldwide and because these accounts typically build deep relationships with SI’s these are the partners of choice. The approach for Dynamics partners is to understand how they can partner with these large SI’s to help them “round-out” their solution offerings by having a cog in the wheel of the overall solution that the customer wants that the SI cannot provide but can be provided by the Dynamics Partner.

To get up close and personal the Dynamics Partner should form a close relationship with their Dynamics PAM as they can be the route to help the Partner build the relationships with the SI’s and also the internal Microsoft account teams who are selling into these Enterprise accounts. The PAM must become a strong advocate on behalf of the Partner.

For partners making a strategic bet on the Corporate segment or more specifically the 100,000 or so worldwide accounts that sit between SMB and the largest Corporate Accounts (who will be mopped up by the SI’s fishing for business down into the higher end of the Corporate segment) partners must adopt a strategy of getting up close and personal with Microsoft’s Territory sales teams. This will include Sales Mangers responsible for identifying new opportunities across geographic or Industry territories and Inside Sales resources responsible for qualifying the opportunities identified by the Territory Sales Managers.

Microsoft have perfected the art of identify opportunities in this segment based on customer buying patterns and lifecycle analysis and it is as a result of the analytics that they are able to pin point with high levels of accuracy the highest potential customers. The approach for partners is to get up close and personal with this process and make sure that the Microsoft PAM is a strong advocate for them such that the PAM is ensuring that when the Sales Managers identify the opportunities that are subsequently qualified by the Inside Sales resources that the partner is the one that is best positioned to be assigned to the opportunity and takes responsibility for leading the sales process from there on in.

For partners making a strategic bet on the SMB market or more specifically the millions of customers that are profiled into this segment partners must adopt a volume model mindset. Microsoft have already adopted this volume based mindset in terms of the way they think about the profile of partner best suited to address this segment. The profile is not the traditional Microsoft Dynamics VAR. Traditional Microsoft VAR’s must either move up into the corporate segment or transform their business into a volume based business. To be successful with the volume model partners must get up close and personal with the teams that manage Microsoft’s trial programs for products such as CRM Online.

Trial is such an important part of the buying process that specific resources are dedicated to helping customers move through the trial process with a high degree of hand holding. At the end of the process the customer trialing the software is likely to be interested in a partner to help them buy the software and support them through the important implementation process. Building strong relationships with the teams that support customers through trials is critical for the obvious reason that they will be helping the customer to find a suitable partner at the end of the trial period. Partners focused on SMB must also get up close and personal with other important roles at Microsoft focused on SMB not least of which will be the Office 365 team. Because Office 365 becomes the natural next product partners can cross sell to CRM Online customers, getting close and personal with the Office 365 team at Microsoft will be very important.

So, whatever the strategy a partner adopts whether it’s Enterprise, Corporate or SMB adopting an approach that involves getting up close and personal with Microsoft will be a critical success factor.

For more information on Alan Dowzall go to: www.alandowzall.com or www.cloudtorre.com contact ad@cloudtorre.com, Follow at #Dowzall

Posted in Business Transformation, Cloud Computing, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Partner Network, Microsoft Partners, Microsoft WPC, Value Added Resellers, WPC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Message from Microsoft WPC to Dynamics Partners – Transform or risk becoming Irrelevant!

Today at Microsoft WPC Doug Kennedy Microsoft VP for Partner and Channel Marketing announced some significant changes to the way Microsoft will go to market with Dynamics products that provide big opportunities or risks for Dynamics Partners. The implication for many is they must transform themselves to capitalize or risk becoming irrelevant and out of touch with Microsoft and the market.

The new strategy aligns to three customer segments; Enterprise, Corporate and SMB customers. Microsoft announced big new investments in a sales force capable of addressing BDM’s and CIO’s in very large Enterprise accounts. They also announced that their flagship AX ERP product will be available under VL (Volume Licensing). This means that Microsoft is going after the Enterprise segment and competing against SAP, Oracle and Salesforce.com. The implication for partners is customers will be able to buy both ERP and CRM products under their existing licensing agreements with Microsoft through Microsoft’s LAR’s and the services will be delivered by the large Systems Integrators addressing these accounts.

The way an existing Microsoft partner who has a focus on the Enterprise segment can capitalize on this shift in strategy will be to form very close partnerships with the SI’s who already have the relationships with the Enterprise Accounts as well as building very tight connections with the new Microsoft Solution salesforce who are being hired to target these accounts. The salesforce will have the job of ensuring that the SI’s have the relationships with partners who can help them round out their solution offerings.

Microsoft also announced their vision for how they see the SMB market opportunity for partners. Microsoft makes it clear that customer needs are changing. SMB customers want fast, connected, packaged, secure and reliable solutions. These solutions are increasing available from On-line partners who have a volume based approach to doing business. In the future the margins per new customer add will not be significant enough for traditional Microsoft VAR partners who do not have a volume mindset to survive.

So what is to become of the large traditional Dynamics Channel predominantly made up of geographic focused VAR’s (value added resellers) who now find themselves stuck in no man’s land between the Enterprise segment where the only players in town will be the large SI’s and the SMB segment where the new volume based partners are much better positioned to address the needs of SMB customers for whom many of these VAR’s traditionally have focused.

There are three strategies open to traditional VAR’s. They can either transform their business into a high velocity volume based business or they can move upwards into the Enterprise segment knowing that the only way to play will be to form partnerships with the big SI’s and the new Microsoft salesforce. There is however a segment that sits between Enterprise and SMB that is often referred to as the Corporate Accounts segment. This segment is made up of customers that think and act as if they are Enterprise accounts but they are not large enough to truly be so, but on the other hand they are not small enough to be SMB. The opportunity for the Microsoft VAR who has traditionally sold into the SMB segment is that the size of deals is generally much larger and the project cycles much longer, fitting better with their existing business models. The challenge is that these customers think and act as if they are Enterprise customers. This means that their needs are very specific to the industry, vertical or even micro vertical market that they are in. In order to be successful in targeting this segment Partners must transform themselves from being horizontal focused to being vertically focused. This will be a big challenge for many traditional VAR’s who’s business has been built up over many years supporting horizontally focused SMB customers.

Transformation is in the air. The world for Microsoft Dynamics Partners is changing at a rapid pace and so the boardrooms of the base of traditional Microsoft VAR’s must be reverberating with the voices of those Managers and Directors returning from Microsoft WPC this week with the words “We have no choice, we must choose which segment we want to address and start to transform our business and we better start today.”

For more information on Alan Dowzall go to: www.alandowzall.com

or contact ad@cloudtorre.com, Follow at #Dowzall

Posted in Cloud Computing, CRM Sales Professional, Disruptive Technologies, IT Channels, Microsoft Partner Network, WPC | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CEO: Who Coaches the Coach?

What does a CEO do? Wikipedia will tell you that typically, the CEO has responsibilities as a communicator, decision maker, leader, and manager.

But there is a critical role that is missing from the list and that is the one of Coach Par Excellence for the Organization (C.E.O). As a coach the CEO is constantly helping others to help themselves and a strong coach does this by listening intently to the challenges their employees face and then by asking them great questions. This technique exemplifies the old proverb of “I can give a man a fish and he eats for a day, or I can teach a man to fish and they fish for life”. Adopting this principle can help CEOs to scale up and teach others how to fish, so they become less dependent on them as a manager and more self-sufficient.

That’s all well and good. But who helps the CEO i.e. who coaches the coach?

Many of us respond well when we are recognized and our development is encouraged. However, praise and development often dry up near the top, says Aubrey Daniels, author of Bringing Out the Best in People. As executives rise, there are fewer people who even feel comfortable reinforcing them. They get little feedback beyond the quarterly financial numbers. Marshall Goldsmith, top executive coach to many CEO’s also observes in his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There that successful people have an issue in that people don’t want to give feedback to their boss, especially if they are the CEO. One way to overcome this is to focus as a CEO on one question – “How can I do better?” (a) Solicit advice (b) be directed toward the future (c) in a way that suggests you care about continuous improvement and will act on it.

Another way to support yourself – i.e. to coach the coach is for you to execute on the following 3 steps in pursuit of “How could I do better?” recognizing that your employees may not always be comfortable giving you feedback directly

1. Think about what excellence looks like in your world – something you need to stay abreast of – let’s just say for you at this time this means “building a Cloud Business”

2. Here is a short feedback tool www.maxipoe.com you can use to ask questions of yourself regarding where you are in terms of executing the practices that make up a Profile of Excellence in this emerging business area – you could also invite your direct reports to provide feedback in this way

3. Based on the feedback you can develop an action plan that will help you focus on the incremental changes you need to make to the way you execute on the role of CEO

All good coaching starts with data so this Profile of Excellence is designed to help you do just that in a place where you may not have a lot of other personal datapoints or feedback to leverage.

Anita Bhasin, MSOD (Master’s in Organizational Development)

Invited Collaborative Consultant from Sage Ways Consulting

www.sagewaysconsulting.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment