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
