10 Tips for SEs During the Economic Winter
Happy New Year and all the best for 2009.
I’ve been getting lots of email from SEs getting laid off. One SE lamented about their sales VP who keeps unproductive reps while SEs are let go — the same SEs who maintain customer loyalty and find new business even during down times. All I can say is that I feel your pain. Sometimes the attitude toward SEs is hard to change.
Fortunately, there are lots of sales executives out there who “get it”. Even though today sales reps are stuck in the economic muck, they leverage SEs to continue to drive technical decision cycles. During these tough times, here are 10 action items for you as an SE to improve your value to your organization…
10) Grow deal sizes — You are in a perfect position to dig for pain and new business problems that are always lurking under the surface. More business problems = more solutions = more revenue.
9) Improve the quality of deals — How often do you lose to “do nothing”? Is this deal worth your time? If not, what do you need to know to improve the quality of the deal you are working on? If the customer does not know things like the timeframe for a technical decision or the quantified business impact of the solution, help them figure it out. Do not be afraid to walk away from deals that are a waste of time.
8) Improve the technical win rate — Improving the quality of deals will improve the technical win rate. Identify each stakeholder’s technical decision criteria. Prioritize the stakeholders. Resolve their criteria step-by-step in priority order. Ensuring key technical decision criteria are being resolved will win allies, and improve the likelihood of a favorable outcome.
7) Get technical decisions faster — How can you win faster? You do not have to let the customer dictate the time to a technical decision — this is independent of the business/money decision. Get there as fast as possible, and then help them defend the decision for the long haul. Is that trial really necessary when a controlled proof-of-concept will do? Is that POC really necessary when a custom demo will do?
6) Prioritize your time — For any activity, ask yourself, “Is this a good use of my time?”. Do not agree to blind on-site calls. Do not agree to blind demos. Don’t do it! Just say “No”. Ensure yourself you are using your time wisely — Your time is too valuable to be abused.
5) Check in with existing customers — Existing customers, for the most part, are successful with your solutions. Do a “start of year checkup”. Dig for new pain and opportunities for more solutions and services. Existing customers are the best and fastest opportunities for new business.
4) Check in with partners — The more you can clone yourself, the better. Imagine if you could clone yourself 5, 10, even 50 times over into your partner SE organizations. Not only will you save significant time, but your partners will be better enabled to generate revenue without your involvement.
3) Check in with product marketing, engineering, tech support — As an SE, you are an invaluable resource to these teams. You are on the front line gathering customer and competitive intelligence. You will do your company a great service sharing this information with other organizations, and you will improve your perceived value to these groups as well.
2) Check in with your manager — Don’t strictly rely on the obligatory yearly review — Are you clear on your goals and objectives for the coming year? What obstacles can your manager work to clear for you? How does your manager want you to prove your value? Now’s a good time to take stock and regroup if necessary.
1) Get SALES training – Balance product training with sales training. Down times are great times to sharpen the saw. Even the most senior SE can improve their technical sales skills — just ask our customers. Typically ’tis the season when SEs are forced to drink product training from a fire hose. Review the training plans coming from training and product marketing. If they are flooding you with product training, vehemently object. How are SEs supposed to effectively technically sell new products if they don’t get proper sales, positioning, competitive, or value proposition training designed and targetted specifically for the SE team? Raise an alarm, and contact us.
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