THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TABLE

Jim RuttCIO, The Dana FoundationOctober 11, 2016

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.

UNDER THE RADARTons of sales/marketing books and presentations out thereIn my opinion, most sound the sameNobody, 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.

“WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?”

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??

BOTH SIDES OF THE TABLE-MERITS OF THE SOLUTIONYOU

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?

BOTH SIDES OF THE TABLE-FINANCIALYOU

End of quarter Ramp up Investor pressure Target Plan Forecast

THEM Budget leeway Opex/Capex concerns Approval flow Keeping under the radar financially

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)

SIDE EFFECTS-EVERY NEW SOLUTION BRINGS A GEOMETRIC GROWTH OF COMPLEXITY Basics-What every one sees on the surfacePre-sales/POCImplementation of the actual solution (either through POC or post contract)

TrainingMaybe a security reviewContract review/signing

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

THE ROAD TO CLOSE: NOT ALWAYS A STRAIGHT LINE

Risk Office

Procurement

Legal/Compliance

Ops/Dev

Technical Staff

Internal Customer

Executive Champion

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

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.

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!!

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?

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.

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 releases etc.)

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

CONTACTS jrutt@dana.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/jrutt17 Phone 212.401.1659