Author Archives: Dennis

Jan 23 2014
Positioning, Selling

Walking away

Perhaps the most intimate relationship we develop is with our smart phones.

They are there at all times, in our pockets, in our hands, hooked into our cars, available at a tap and swipe, providing us with communications, information, and entertainment. We check in constantly throughout the day, whenever we find the opportunity; what used to be a smoking break is now a smart phone break.  We honor them by personalizing them, adding protective covers, improving the headsets we work with; we’re slaves to the batteries and perform our recharging rituals with fanatical fervor.

And yet, after long years of devotion to the devices and their branded, fashion-statement, loyalty-laden, get-their-hooks-in-you ecosystems, we can walk away at a moment’s notice and embrace the new.  Technology has made it so that we can end our years of intimacy, divorce and re-marry, by simply holding the power button for three seconds, turning off the old forever and turning on the new, and never looking back.

Enterprise software has also reached the point where our customers can turn off the old, walk away, and embrace the new.

So, what you’ve done for them in the past does not matter; how you extend what you’ve done can differentiate; looking forward had better be as good, and as easy to embrace, as the competition.

Get ready to win them over, again.

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Jul 23 2013
Positioning, Selling, Solutions

Third leg of the stool

Your solution can be the logical choice with its features, functions, and technical architecture lined up perfectly with your customer’s needs.

Your solution can be the financial sound choice with reasonable prices, a solid implementation plan, and a bullet-proof return-on-investment business case behind it.

But the third leg of the stool calls for a passionate, emotional reason for doing the project in the first place.  It might be solving a pain, it might be enabling a vision, it might be some kind of political win for one of the players;  if your customer can’t express and you can’t mine the reason they’ve gotta do it, then it won’t happen.

People don’t buy into a timeshare because it’s a good investment; they envision themselves with with a week or two reserved in Aspen and Miami every year.

When qualifying the deal, determine the passion and satisfy it.  The customer will move mountains to make the functional and financial justifications fall into place.

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Jul 23 2013
Learning, Presentations, Professionalism, Selling

Earn a firmer handshake

One way to judge the value of your meeting is through the quality of the handshake you get on the way out the door.

If you’ve inspired someone, made them think, or incited some action, you’ll probably get a firmer and more sincere handshake on the way out the door.  If you get the dreaded “we’ll be in touch,” you can bet they won’t.

Earn a firmer handshake.

Jun 11 2013
Presentations, Professionalism

One Sentence at a Time

In a recent presentation skills course,* participants were coached to address individual audience members one sentence at a time.  Here’s the gist of the technique: Your interaction with the audience will be a verbal paragraph, so as you speak, look at someone, speak one whole sentence, look to the next, speak the next sentence, look again, and complete the thought.  Bonus points if you can complete the thought with the same audience member you started with.

Magic happened.

“Um,” “And,” and “So” crutches disappeared from speech patterns.  Credibility and authority suddenly appeared.  Voices were lower and steady.  The presenters had, well, time to think on their feet.  One sentence at a time.

My penmanship has become atrocious through the years, especially when capturing ideas in customer discovery sessions.  I’ve been writing this off as some kind of mystical kinetic absorption of content- if my hand is moving, the ideas are somehow seeping into my brain and I’ll retain it better.

Balderdash.  When I look at my notes, I can’t read them and no, I can’t recall the details.

This week, I’ve applied the one sentence at a time principle to my note taking on calls, forcibly slowing my hand down and putting legible words to paper.  The magic works here as well.  My understanding was insightful and my conversations suddenly carried more weight and  credibility.  There was no rush, just measured confidence in making my points and pursuing the next topic.

One sentence at a time.

*More than presentation skills, it was a session focused on exuding executive presence.  Created and conducted by Roz Usheroff, whose web presence can be found at remarkableleader.wordpress.com , and whose books can be found here and here.
May 20 2013
Learning, Solutions

The more you know…

Have you ever had to work really hard to understand a new concept in your industry?

Yes, marketing literature can be out of touch; presentation files can be poorly written and have too many bullet points; demo scripts can miss the value entirely; but once in a while, a white-paper, a blog, a product description can get to the heart of the matter and reveal something new.  It might require you to connect the dots from disparate sources but then, then!  The light goes on.

New insight!

Damn if that insight doesn’t turn out to be relevant, timely, and key in the next three customer conversations you have.

You’re in the center of the buzz and you get it, and you can articulate it to others… because your in Pre-Sales and that’s what you do- make the complex simple through communication.  You’re a transducer of complexity in technology and business.

The more you know… the more relevant you are.

May 20 2013
Creativity, Humor, Learning

Spock has a sense of humor. He just doesn’t believe he does.

I’ve noticed through my career that when you bring a creative person (a designer, a photographer, an artist, a Photoshop specialist) into a technology-related project, they get the technical aspects of the project right away.

I’ve also noticed that that the analytic people involved in the project are in awe and amazement at the creative person’s artistic skills.  “I could never draw/layout/photograph/stylize like that.”

My conclusion has always been that creatives can be analytical but analytics can’t be creative.

I have always been wrong.

Analytics have been told (by themselves or others) that they are not creative.  And they (myself included) have been dumb enough to believe this.  I don’t know if creatives were lucky enough to be tagged creative early on, or if they were wise enough to scoff at the notion they couldn’t be creative.  But to accept that you can’t be creative and therefore never try…

That’s just sad.

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May 15 2013
Creativity, Presentations, Selling, Solutions, Technology, Uncategorized

Communication, understanding, problem-solving, relationship-building

When you get your hair cut, there’s usually a big mess on the floor when you’re done.  The same applies when you’re solving business problems with customers:

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Apr 22 2013
Creativity, Positioning, Selling, Solutions

Swamp Juice

The soda fountain has every choice you could want: cola, root beer, ginger ale, cherry, lemon lime, iced tea, even water.

My kids look at all that and make swamp juice.

What do your customers really want from all the features, functions, and best practices built into your product?  A logical choice?  No. They don’t buy that; they buy on emotion.

And free re-fills.

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Apr 02 2013
Learning, Professionalism

Dealing with Obstacles

What will that obstacle be?

An impediment towards your goal?

A sign-post telling you to change direction?

Or an excuse to turn around and go home.

Apr 01 2013
Creativity, Positioning, Solutions, Technology, Tools

Creativity is bound or unleashed depending on your perspective

In your toolbox, your magic toolbox, you have wrenches and pliers and screwdrivers.  With these tools, you can tighten, loosen, hold, and adjust. What more could you want?

In your world, your real world, you have an endless variety of problems.  When you look at your toolbox from that perspective, you suddenly see that the screwdriver is a handy pry-bar and that pliers can hold the nut in place while you pound the bolt it with a wrench.

In your business system, your magical business system, you have products, customers, and prices.  With these you can take orders, manage returns and issue invoices.  What more could you want?

In your world, your real world, you have an endless variety of problems.  When you look at your business system from that perspective, you suddenly see that the call center can help create leads for the sales team, and that the order system can hold inventory in place while you enter an order and schedule delivery.

Focus your attention on the business need and then see what’s in your toolbox.  You may even find yourself saying “Oh, so that’s what this is for.*”

*I’ve got a drawer in the toolbox I inherited from my father in law that contains all sorts of tools whose purpose I can’t divine.  When a fix-it problem has me stymied, I rummage around the drawer and sure enough, “Oh, so that’s what this is for.”

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