October 2013 Office Technology

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Contents Volume 20 • No. 4

Feature Articles 10

2013 Software Buyer’s Guide Helping to ensure you are seen as a champion

Courts & capitols Liability in the Cloud As the industry changes, so must your safeguards

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by Robert C. Goldberg BTA General Counsel

Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Today, there is a seemingly endless number of independent software vendors (ISVs) whose products help dealers or their customers address document workflow issues, manage documents and save money.

However, many recommend that a dealership should be positioned to be the leading, preferred source for only a few, select software products in order to best serve the needs of customers. Office Technology invited a number of ISVs to submit brief overviews of their products.

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As the industry migrates from selling equipment, features and maintenance to solutions, efficiencies and cost savings, cloud services are an appealing portion of most proposals. By placing applications and information in the cloud, there is a means to reduce costs and improve workflows.

Selling solutions A Buyer’s Perspective A process fix for complex deals stuck in the funnel

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Winning the Game Business lessons learned from football

by Jim Heffernan Insights53 LLC

If a surgeon proposed a heart bypass, but you were not clear about the problem or the outcome, would you choose to do it? Customers have the same problem when buying complex solutions such as managed print or IT services. A good assessment, design and proposal are not enough.

by Jim Kahrs Prosperity Plus Management Consulting

In measuring the level of success throughout the season, football coaches and players will be evaluating an abundance of statistics. The hope is that if they measure the right things and make the right adjustments, they will be able to achieve the goals that were set at the beginning of the season. Running an office technology dealership can and should borrow a page from the playbook of the sports world. This article will take a metaphorical look at how a dealership compares to a football team.

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The Sales Process Is yours aligned with your customer?

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by Teresa Hiatt ASTD

Challenges. Every struggling sales company has them. The root cause is a broken sales process — the fundamental way the company matches its selling style with the way its customers buy. Until that root problem is solved, the rest of the changes that could be effective will not matter.

Content Marketing Generating leads by providing special reports

by Darrell Amy Dealer Marketing

There are many ways to generate leads. However, in today’s highly skeptical marketplace, buyers are increasingly doing more of their own research before they buy. In doing that research, they are looking for ideas to help them in the buying process. In this article, you will learn a proven process to turn useful content presented in special reports or white papers into actionable sales leads.

We will explore what content is helpful to prospects and you will learn different ways to share this content.

D e pa r t m e n t s Business Technology Association

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• BTA Highlights

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Executive Director’s Page

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BTA President’s Message

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Advertiser Index

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Executive Director’s Page

Manufacturers Share Distribution Numbers

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ecently, I asked representatives of the MFP manufacturers if they would share their current total numbers of U.S. direct sales offices and authorized dealers, and the comparative percentages of revenues derived from each. Five companies provided either all or some of the requested information. I also asked market research firm InfoTrends to share thoughts on each manufacturer, in terms of direct sales strategies.

In February of 2006, I reported the total number of direct sales offices at the time; they are included below in brackets. For both the 2006 and current information, the “wording” is just as it was provided to me. InfoTrends’ comments are included where the firm shared anything other than: “No foreseeable change, contribution mix in 2014.” I know you will find the information of interest.

Canon — The company declined to provide any current information [2006: 46 sales offices]. InfoTrends: “Ongoing, final stages of integration of Océ branches; business mix of ‘direct/indirect’ very similar to Ricoh; skewed more to the direct side versus indirect.”

Konica Minolta — Direct: 125 locations [2006: 65 branches]; 68 percent of revenues (54 percent of units sold). Dealers: approximately 350; 32 percent of revenues (includes all the business; services, units and solutions; 46 percent of units sold). InfoTrends: “Continued acquisition of vertical VARs, managed service providers and an occasional dealership for 2014.”

Kyocera — Direct: eight branches and 24 locations [2006: seven branches]; 15 percent of revenues. Dealers: approximately 800, between Kyocera and Copystar; 85 percent of revenues.

Ricoh — Direct: 217 locations [2006: 56

locations of the Ricoh Business Systems Division in 17 markets]. Dealers: More than 450. The company declined to provide the revenue contribution percentages. InfoTrends: “Ongoing rationalization of RBS (and former IKON) branches; challenged on the indirect side of ledger; recently assigned pre-existing ‘direct’ accounts to Ray Morgan Co. to take over; reminds us of RJ Young Co. move a couple years back; could see more moves like this as RBS continues its onward march toward rationalization of channel; mix of business still skewed in favor of direct business; don’t see any changes in this mix in 2014.”

Sharp — Direct: 11 sales locations [2006: one branch]; 37 percent of revenues. Dealers: 405; 63 percent of revenues.

Toshiba — Direct: More than 100 direct sales locations [2006: 16 Toshiba America Business subsidiaries (core companies) with approximately 124 sales offices]; 50 percent of revenues. Dealers: 253; 50 percent of revenues.

Xerox — The company declined to provide current direct or dealer numbers or revenue percentages [2006: 100-plus direct sales offices]. The company did share that it has signed up “almost 100” partners in its new Xerox Authorized Dealer Program, which was “in pilot” in late 2012 and “launched in earnest” in the first quarter of 2013. InfoTrends: “Continued acquisition of targeted dealerships (production-print capable) by Global Imaging Systems (209 locations, $2 billion-plus revenues); will likely acquire one or two ‘production-capable’ dealerships in 2014; renewed focus on BTA channel for 2014 as well; potentially driving a re-rationalization of current partners backed by targeted new authorizations; shift toward indirect channels; always exploring down-market (SMB) opportunities for business expansion.” n — Brent Hoskins

Executive Director/BTA Editor/Office Technology Brent Hoskins brent@bta.org (816) 303-4040 Associate Editor Elizabeth Marvel elizabeth@bta.org (816) 303-4060 Contributing Writers Darrell Amy, Dealer Marketing www.dealermarketing.net Robert C. Goldberg, General Counsel Business Technology Association Jim Heffernan, Insights53 LLC www.insights53.com Teresa Hiatt, ASTD www.astd.org Jim Kahrs, Prosperity Plus Management Consulting Inc. www.prosperityplus.com

Business Technology Association 12411 Wornall Road Kansas City, MO 64145 (816) 941-3100 www.bta.org Member Services: (800) 505-2821 BTA Legal Hotline: (800) 869-6688 Valerie Briseno Membership Marketing Manager valerie@bta.org Mary Hopkins Database Administrator mary@bta.org Teresa Leerar Bookkeeper teresa@bta.org Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org Photo Credits: iStockphoto, Stockbyte. Cover created by Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2013 by the Business Technology Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published material. However, the publisher assumes no liability for errors in articles nor are opinions expressed necessarily those of the publisher.

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BTA President’s message 2013-2014 Board of Directors

Seeking Information?

Just Ask the Analyst

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any in the industry know David Ramos, who recently joined BTA member InfoTrends, the market research firm.

We were pleased to hear of David’s appointment.

He has been a champion of the independent dealer channel in his previous industry positions and is a great supporter of BTA. In fact, earlier this year, David was presented with a BTA President’s Award, recognizing him for his dedicated support of the association in recent years.

In his new role, David is serving as director of InfoTrends’ Channel Strategy Service.

He will be working to help design, build and deliver programs and services to independent office technology dealers, VARs and managed service providers. “InfoTrends plans to drive business value for our clients through our Channel Strategy Service,” David tells BTA. “Our goal is to provide them actionable intelligence along with support services to help them drive sales revenue and continue to be successful through the ongoing evolution of our industry.”

The announcement of David’s new role provides an opportunity to remind BTA members about a member benefit we have through an alliance with InfoTrends. BTA member dealers seeking information on office technology industry trends and developments can submit questions via email for an InfoTrends’ analyst to address. BTA’s Ask The Analyst service (www.bta.org/ AskTheAnalyst) is free to dealer members.

To give you a sense of the types of questions dealers are asking and the answers provided, here are two examples archived on the website as a resource to member dealers: Dealer Question: “What are the (U.S. only) production MFP hardware revenue

projections over the next couple of years?

Can they be broken down between mono and color units?”

InfoTrends’ Answer: “We categorize the production space at InfoTrends by Segment 5 (70-90 ppm) and Segment 6 (91-plus ppm) for monochrome and color MFPs. In the mono MFP production space, we have forecasted overall hardware revenue at $534 million by 2016. In the color MFP production space, we have forecasted overall hardware revenue to be at $473 million by 2016, growing at a 12.4 percent CAGR [compound annual growth rate].”

Dealer Question: “What is the average sales rep compensation as a percentage of gross profit, with and without salary?”

InfoTrends’ Answer: “Sales expense, all in, is 25 percent of total revenue, 14 percent of which is sales rep compensation (the two other buckets are for “sales manager” and “other”). So, theoretically, you can pay out 50 percent, 40 percent, 35 percent of gross profit, depending on your COGS (cost of goods sold) plus your ‘bump, pack or uplift.’

It doesn’t really matter as long as your total rep compensation percentage for sales expense does not exceed 14 percent. I would not recommend a compensation plan that does not have a base salary component.”

Visit the BTA website to submit your questions and see answers to previous questions asked of InfoTrends. David shares this invitation to BTA member dealers: “We have a team of analysts supporting you with this valuable service to provide the information and guidance you can leverage when needed. Please leverage us across all disciplines and new/emerging trends from 3D printing, MPS, managed services and mobility, to more traditional subjects like equipment hardware trends, A3/A4, production and workflow solutions.” n — Todd J. Fitzsimons

President Todd J. Fitzsimons Automated Business Solutions DBA Network Imaging 122 Spring St., Ste. B3 Southington, CT 06489 tjfitzsimons@ni-ct.com President-Elect Ron Hulett U.S. Business Systems Inc. 3221 Southview Drive Elkhart, IN 46514 ron.hulett@usbus.com Vice President Dave Quint Advanced Systems Inc. 2945 Airport Blvd.

P.O. Box 57 Waterloo, IA 50704 dquint@asiowa.com BTA East Rob Richardson Allied Document Solutions & Services Inc. 200 Church St. Swedesboro, NJ 08085 robr@ads-s.com BTA Mid-America Dan Castaneda International Copy Machine Center 1515 Lee Trevino, Ste. EE El Paso, TX 79936 dan@icmc-elp.com BTA Southeast Linda Hayes Purcell’s Business Products 222 E. 1st St. Campbellsville, KY 42718 linda@purcells.com BTA West Mike Ehlers Yost Business Systems 685 E. Anderson Idaho Falls, ID 83401 mike@yostonline.com Ex-Officio/Immediate Past President Terry Chapman Business Electronics Corp.

219 Oxmoor Circle, P.O. Box 531066 Birmingham, AL 35253 tchapman@businesselectronics.com Ex-Officio/General Counsel Robert C. Goldberg Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg LLC 222 S. Riverside Plaza, Ste. 2100 Chicago, IL 60606 robert.goldberg@sfnr.com

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Leasing Program | Sales Tools System Analysis | Print Management Supplies | Service and Support

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2013 Software Buyer’s Guide Helping to ensure you are seen as a champion Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

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oday, there is a seemingly endless number of independent software vendors (ISVs) whose products help dealers or their customers address document workflow issues, manage documents and save money. However, many recommend that a dealership should be positioned to be the leading, preferred source for a only a few, select software products in order to best serve the needs of customers.

To help dealers better understand the capabilities of some of the software products available, Office Technology magazine invited a number of ISVs to submit brief overviews of their products. Each was provided the opportunity to select or submit the best software category heading for the company. Most of the ISVs offer software for the end-user’s use. Some offer software for use within the dealership. Perhaps it is time to further enhance your product offerings or use a new software product to improve your internal processes. Either way, the right software can help ensure your dealership is a champion in the eyes of your customers.

Business Intelligence BEI Services www.beiservices.com BEI Services provides a source of unbiased imaging device and technician performance benchmarking. Analyzing millions of service calls on millions of imaging devices every month allows BEI to pinpoint opportunities to save money within a dealership’s service operation. In addition, BEI provides a free Advanced Inventory Management (AIM) solution and provides a successful and popular performance-based technician incentive program.

SalesChain www.saleschain.com SalesChain is a comprehensive business management

solution for office equipment dealers.

Features include intelligent sales analytics, forecasting, proposal and order pricing, documentation, sales commissions and delivery automation. SalesChain is the one system that links all of the disconnected parts of your business together. SalesChain is a preferred partner with Digital Gateway, OnTrack, OMD, La Crosse, CEO Juice, EDA and LMI Solutions.

Business Process Improvement DirectCloud Webtop www.mydirectcloud.com DirectCloud Webtop is a cloud-based virtual server and desktop solution that provides users with access to their data, applications and communications anywhere, anytime and on any device. Webtop is replacing traditional premise server networks with a managed service that enables customers to reduce IT costs, operate efficiently and increase productivity.

DirectCloud’s partner program is geared toward technology companies looking to grow their managed service practices.

MAPA Systems www.mapasystems.com MAPA Systems, the pioneers of Managed Mail Services (MMS)/(MaaS), provides a software platform for receiving a customer’s transactional mail electronically via its Jupiter software. Through its dealer channel, MAPA enables the SMB marketplace to manage mail, which is processed at MAPA’s printing and mailing facilities, then delivered through the postal stream. This process saves the customer time and money and allows added revenue and profits for MAPA’s dealers.

OCM International www.ocmplc.com OCM International offers a product portfolio incorporating a range of professional services and print management

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software solutions, offering end-to-end output cost management business solutions. The company presents manufacturers, service integrators (SIs) and dealerships with a turnkey solution that will increase efficiency and productivity while reducing internal document production costs by more than 20 percent.

Capture/Forms Recognition Artsyl Technologies www.artsyltech.com Artsyl Technologies develops a full range of document and data capture solutions that reduce the cost of processing forms, helping companies to streamline processes. Artsyl’s flagship product, docAlpha, is a fully automated, distributed data capture, classification, extraction and processing solution with self-learning technology that does not require templates to be created. docAlpha works well in health care, financial services, government and education verticals.

Cost Recovery nQueue Billback www.nqueuebillback.com nQueue Billback provides cost recovery and information accountability tools by doing much more than simply “counting clicks.” The company’s software, branded iA for Information Accountability, captures data related to any business expense and uses that information to help clients recover, manage and control costs. iA software can be embedded directly into MFPs or reside on tablet computers or terminals.

Data Security Risk Assessment Protected Trust www.protectedtrust.com Protected Trust is a suite of products and services intentionally developed to keep digital information assets secure, private and compliant. Protected Trust provides a holistic approach to secure communications, designed to engender a valuable level of trust within and between business partners using cloud-based managed services to mitigate the risk of data breach and misuse.

office equipment division of ECi Software Solutions, is a leading provider of dealer management software solutions for the office equipment industry. Together with OMD Corp. and La Crosse Management Systems Inc., DGI leverages the strengths and talents of three elite companies to provide 1,700-plus dealerships with unmatched technology to compete in today’s marketplace.

Miracle Service www.miracleservice.com Optimize your dealership with Miracle Service complete dealer management software. Whether it is scheduling technicians, managing meter contracts and inventory, or communicating with your team in the field, Miracle Service can make your business more productive, cost-efficient and profitable. Easy to use and affordable, Miracle Service has helped thousands of dealers optimize their field services and gain a competitive edge.

Document Capture & Imaging Drivve www.drivve.com Drivve is a developer of software solutions that streamline and improve document-intensive business processes.

Drivve helps its customers realize tangible cost savings by optimizing the entire document life cycle, from image capture and processing, to document management and workflow, to print and output management. The company is a market leader in mobility solutions and cloud-based services, delivered through a best-in-class user experience.

Nuance Communications Inc. www.nuance.com Nuance eCopy® sets the standard for document capture and workflow solutions. It is the only solution that enables office workers to capture and use information from scanned documents. eCopy empowers workers at their desks, MFPs and scanners to automate paper-to-digital workflows with accurate OCR and secure connections to business systems. The result? Faster, cheaper and more secure business processes.

Dealership Management Compass Sales Solutions www.compasscontact.net Since 2001, Compass Sales Solutions has been a leading sales force automation provider for the office technology industry. Compass Sherpa provides a comprehensive suite that automates all disparate sales processes and allows your sales professionals to utilize one tool to completely manage the sales process including prospect/client identification, Outlook integration, product configuration, proposal generation, MPS analysis, ERP integration and mobile access.

Document Management ABBYY www.abbyy.com ABBYY is a leader in document recognition, data capture and linguistic technologies and services. With 14 global offices and an R&D team comprising 700 linguistic and software scientists, ABBYY has a track record for innovation, earning it more than 250 awards and partnerships with leading manufacturers of document capture and mobile devices. Its solutions serve more than 30 million individuals worldwide, empowering businesses of every size.

Digital Gateway Inc. www.digitalgateway.com Digital Gateway Inc. (DGI), the flagship company of the

Contentverse www.contentverse.com Contentverse by Computhink is easy to use and install

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LOOKING FOR A BETTER WAY? YOU NEED A MIRACLE.

Managing your business with Miracle Service will help you dramatically increase productivity and efficiency. A complete Dealer Management Solution, it automates every aspect of your business, syncs your office and field techs and makes managing your business so much easier. Stressing over technician scheduling, contract management and invoicing is a thing of the past.

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and seamlessly integrates with your existing hardware and software offerings — because having a document management system that does not work with your product set would just be silly. Contentverse is flexible enough for any size company and is a perfect fit for all industries.

deliver more value to their respective customers. Since 1994, Solgenia has been providing solutions like CRM, document management, BI analytics, unified communications, WAN optimization and a cloud management platform to SMBs worldwide.

docSTAR www.docstar.com With more than 6,615 customers, docSTAR is a leader in enterprise content management and process automation solutions. Available either on-premise or hosted in the cloud, docSTAR’s eclipse provides secure document control, improved retention and increased efficiency — anywhere, anytime. The company’s reseller partners receive extensive margins and access to free sales and technical training.

Square 9 www.square-9.com Square 9® is a developer of business-centric software solutions, providing a diversification of products to deliver innovative enterprise document control through a dedicated channel of dealers. SmartSearch, the company’s flagship document management software, provides a broad product offering including both cloud-enabled and on-premise solutions in enterprise content management, automated workflow and Web forms management with advanced mobile access compatibilities. Square 9 delivers backing on software and support, comprehensive training and an extensive marketing program to assist its dealers.

DocuWare www.docuware.com Do not let the competition get your equipment customers — be the one offering them on-premise or cloud document management solutions. Dealers can profit from: a proven business plan, sales tools, education, field sales support and more. Build recurring revenue and a successful professional services team. DocuWare — available in 16 languages — is five-star rated by BLI, ISO certified and FDA compliant.

MaxxVault www.maxxvault.com MaxxVault document management software provides efficiency improvements, regulatory compliance, reduced costs and customer satisfaction. It is an open system that uses the latest technology to provide security, dependability and interoperability with existing systems.

MaxxVault is a Red Herring 2011 Top 100 North American award winner, a Red Herring 2012 Top 100 Global award winner, a CRN 2011 Top 20 Cloud Vendor and a BLI fivestar solution.

Fax Document Software DPD International www.goldfax.com DPD International, the maker of GoldFax, offers enterprise fax server solutions at small-business prices, allowing end users to easily send and receive faxes from email, Web browsers, desktop applications and MFPs (Sharp, Kyocera, Samsung, Lexmark, Canon, Ricoh, Toshiba, HP, Xerox, etc.), improving productivity and security/compliance, while reducing operational costs. GoldFax integrates with any email or software application, telephone environment and document/content management solution across all industries and offers a robust Archiving Solution. The company offers on-premise, hosted and cloud solutions.

Notable Solutions www.notablesolutions.com Notable Solutions is an established leader in secure information collection and output management solutions that enable organizations to centrally define their information flow and collection strategy. The company’s products blend industry-leading mobile and document capture with intelligent routing and secure delivery of information into virtually any business application or destination.

M2M/M2P Enterprise Management MWA Intelligence Inc. www.mwaintel.com MWA Intelligence Inc. (MWAi), a SAP Business One Gold Partner, delivers enterprise-class and leading-edge machine-to-machine and machine-to-people solutions to better serve the imaging industry. MWAi’s intelligent service solution delivers mission-critical information to customerfacing employees and into companies’ back-end ERP systems including the powerful MWAi FORZA with SAP Business One. MWAi FORZA with SAP Business One provides a single sign-on and database for a dealer’s entire business.

Enterprise Content Management Solgenia www.solgenia.com Bridging the gap between one’s personal and professional digital experience, Solgenia is a cloud-enabling company that assists organizations in accelerating business benefits to increase productivity, reduce costs and

Network Managed Services Continuum www.continuum.net Continuum assists office equipment dealers in capitalizing on the $100-plus billion IT services market by leveraging the company’s leading SaaS-based managed services software platform and NOC services based on an industry-first

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Managed IT Services Business Model (www.continuum.net/ businessmodel). Co-authored by Continuum and Growth Achievement Partners (GAP), this model is designed to help dealers maximize profitability and operational efficiencies by focusing on achieving key metrics and benchmarks in managed IT services.

Network Monitoring Paessler AG www.paessler.com PRTG Network Monitor is the all-inclusive monitoring solution from Paessler. It includes comprehensive monitoring features, an easy-to-use, intuitive interface and a stateof-the-art monitoring engine. It scales to networks of any size and all of this comes in one license. PRTG assures the availability of network components, and measures traffic and usage. It saves costs by avoiding outages and optimizing connections, workload and quality.

Print Management ECi/FMAudit www.fmaudit.com FMAudit is a provider of meter, supply and service process automation software for MPS. FMAudit software is easy to deploy and maintain, collects data from both networked and local devices, integrates with e-automate, OMD, DDMS and La Crosse for automated meter billing, and provides supply-level alert monitoring, service-alert filtering, complete TCO analysis and green reporting.

OptiPrint www.optiprint.com Diversified Computer Supplies Inc. (DCS) has offered the OptiPrint MPS solution to its partners since 2008. OptiPrint consists of remote monitoring software and an integrated proposal generator software tool. This comprehensive MPS solution has provided DCS partners a cost-effective means to exploit MPS opportunities in the market today while capitalizing on the exceptional software tools at their disposal.

PaperCut www.papercut.com PaperCut™ specializes in print management software for the global business and education markets. The PaperCut MF software is multi-platform, highly scalable and will work with most printers and copiers. Installed in more than 50,000 organizations across 112 countries, it helps to reduce printing costs, secure documents and minimize environmental impact.

Print Audit www.printaudit.com Print Audit Premier is a new subscription plan that gives office equipment dealers virtually unlimited access to all of Print Audit’s products for one low monthly fee. In addition to powerful remote meter reading and device management

tools, Premier provides dealers with a full suite of print management products to help their clients analyze, control and recover their printing costs.

Print Control Software Inc.

www.roiprintmanager.com Print Control Software Inc., developers of ROI Print Manager, provides organizations with the ability to control print costs through in-depth end-user tracking and management. ROI Print Manager collects data on users, applications, printers and more, and features print rules that can decrease costs and waste. Comprehensive reports with a clear action plan help organizations create an effective print strategy.

Print Tracker www.printtracker.net Print Tracker is a low-impact, highly secure print management solution that captures information from networked and locally connected imaging devices. Print Tracker is easily deployed and often configured in less than three minutes to send meters and alerts. It includes management tools such as its ePortal, service and meter viewers, and a fully customizable TCO estimator. Print Tracker integrates with most ERP accounting software.

PrintFleet www.printfleet.com PrintFleet’s print management software solutions range from simple, rapid assessment to advanced, managed services, offering unparalleled agnostic data collection, data integrity and back-end support. Available in multiple languages, PrintFleet solutions empower OEMs, dealers and distributors in more than 100 countries to sustain rich customer relationships through creating exceptional value for their clients.

Solimar Systems www.solimarsystems.com Solimar Systems is a leading developer of customer communication management and delivery solutions. The company’s solutions provide clients visibility into their operations while driving costs down; track the life cycle of all jobs from receipt to multi-channel distribution; optimize and convert data and documents; manage production printing across the enterprise; ensure security access and compliance; and integrate composition, messaging and workflow tools into a universal Web dashboard. With thousands of clients worldwide, including 70 percent of the Fortune 100, Solimar has integral, proven IT solutions that have benefited print and data centers for more than 20 years.

Process Automation iDatix www.idatix.com With deeply integrated process automation, information

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management and business intelligence solutions from iDatix, organizations such as Lockheed Martin, AG First Farm Credit and Forrest General Hospital have met their business objectives by streamlining their processes and simplifying their workplaces.

Sales & Marketing Automation Evolved Office www.evolvedoffice.com Evolved Office is a full-service marketing platform that provides office equipment dealers with turnkey and customizable marketing solutions that include: newsletters, videos, email templates, postcards, brochures and complete marketing campaigns — all custom branded with your logo and company information. The software is easy to use and allows you to quickly edit templates, send them to clients and track the results. Each month, Evolved Office delivers new campaigns with industry-specific content and

professionally designed graphics to your account. Evolved Office also offers social media services utilizing Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Sales Management Falcon Technology Solutions www.efalcontech.com Falcon markets Soaring, server-based sales management software specifically designed for the office equipment industry. Soaring integrates with industry software such as OMD, e-automate and others, as well as business software such as Outlook, Word and Excel. Soaring’s newest version has a robust MPS analysis/proposal section and a new mobile version designed specifically for tablets/mobile devices. n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine.

He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040.

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Winning the Game Business lessons learned from football by: Jim Kahrs, Prosperity Plus Management Consulting Inc.

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s the fall season gets into full swing, many of us spend our Saturdays and/or Sundays watching one of America’s favorite pastimes — football. Whether a college or National Football League fan, most people who are into football have their team and have a pretty strong desire to see that team make it to the big game.

Making it to a Bowl Championship Series game or the Super Bowl is a great goal, but it might prove a little lofty for some teams. However, there is no doubt that every team has its own goals and measurements of success.

In measuring the level of success throughout the season, coaches and players will be evaluating an abundance of statistics. The hope is that if they measure the right things and make the right adjustments, they will be able to achieve the goals that were set at the beginning of the season. Running an office technology dealership can and should borrow a page from the playbook of the sports world. This article will take a metaphorical look at how a dealership compares to a football team.

As mentioned above, almost every team and, certainly, all successful teams, set a goal before the season starts. The goal may be to make it to the championship game or it might be something short of this. For example, a team might have a goal of getting more wins than it did had last year, having a record over .500, winning its conference, etc. Regardless of what the goal is, there is one important point: It must be a goal the team and coaches can rally around. Setting a goal that is unrealistic typically results in little to no effort or “push” toward the goal, as it can be seen as unachievable.

The net result here is an unmotivated team.

So how do we translate this to the dealership world? I suggest that you start with setting a revenue goal for the company. This is one of the key dealership statistics. You want the goal to be a stretch, but it should be one the team will rally around.

Often, the goal is set as a growth number relative to the previous year. For example: “Our goal is to grow the business 25 percent.” This is a goal that can easily be made visible to the team and it is one the team can affect.

Of course, the coaching staff also needs to look at the profitability of the company as another key statistic. If you have an open-book policy where the team sees profitability, this can be public. If not, you will need to have the senior management team keep a close eye on net profit, as increasing total revenue while eroding net profit is a big mistake and one that must be avoided.

If you have ever been to a football game, you have seen people in the crowd with signs designed to motivate the rest of the crowd, as well as the players on the field. These signs act as a reminder of the goals the team is expected to be working toward. You can replicate this in the office by posting signs and reminders of the goals you have set. For example, if you have set a goal to grow 25 percent, then you can have “25%” signs posted all over the office. They will act as a constant reminder to your team.

Having team goals is critical, but they are by no means enough. A football team has three distinctly different groups or sub-teams: offense, defense and special teams.

Each of these groups has its own coaches and sub-goals.

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Kahrs Oct 13.indd 1

9/23/13 1:43 PM

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This is easily replicated in the dealership we are fixing things quickly the first world. I would match them up like this: time, keeping customers happy. This is When you view it as offense is sales, defense is service and the equivalent to forcing the competitor a game to be won, special teams is admin. Closing sales to punt, as other dealership salespeople it is easier to get is where the majority of our revenue, or who try to get into this account will be enjoyment from the scoring, comes in. Keeping customer systurned away. Getting a sales lead that day-to-day activities tems up and running and providing outturns into a sale is the equivalent of an standing support is the best way to deinterception or a forced fumble, allowthat can, at times, fend your business from the other team, ing our offense (sales team) to get back seem like a grind. which is always looking to score its own on the field. points. And, our ability to administer the The special teams units on a football business with proper billing, cash and asset management, team are expected to put the offense and defense in the best collections, etc., is the special teams’ answer to turning rev- position to succeed. It is their responsibility to kick or punt enue into profit. So, let’s take a closer look at each. the ball deep into the other team’s territory, giving our defense When looking at a football team’s offense, you will hear more room to work with to return a kickoff or punt as far as statistics like yards running, yards passing, number of com- possible into the opponent’s territory, or to kick a field goal plete passes, number of interceptions, etc. When looking at when the offense gets close, but cannot get the touchdown. these key statistics, you get a good idea of the offense’s level In a dealership, the admin team takes on much of the speof success. You can easily predict its scoring ability and, very cial teams’ role. The first piece of this comes in with marketoften, the result of the game. ing. Marketing is an admin function. It is intended to put In a dealership, we need to track things in a similar way. the sales team (our offense) in the best position possible Key statistics here will be things like: number of prospect- with prospects. Where marketing is non-existent, the sales ing calls, number of appointments, number of demos, etc. If team has to work much harder. It is like starting every drive you set targets for these key areas, you will be able to predict from your own 2-yard line. The admin team also makes it where you will be successful and where you will not. Telling easier for the offense and defense by managing inventory. a sales team to simply go out and sell more without track- Having the items we need when we need them is crucial. ing these key actions and improving on them would be like The admin team can also score points like football spetelling football offensive players to go out and score points cial teams units. In a dealership, admin scores points by without giving them a game plan or the sub-goals necessary doing things like selling service contracts, selling supplies, to determine success. If a quarterback has a low comple- collecting on unpaid invoices, securing vendor discounts tion percentage in a game, the coaching staff will spend the and rebates, etc. These all add to bottom-line profitability. following week working with him to determine why it hapIf you have not noticed already, business is very similar pened and then make the necessary corrections. to sports. In effect, we are playing the game of business.

We should be doing the same thing. If a sales rep has, for Knowing this and thinking this way will not only make you example, a low appointment-to-prospecting call ratio, he more successful, but it can also bring a new level of fun to (or she) should get the coaching needed to correct the situ- work. When you view it as a game to be won, it is easier to ation. Is the rep calling the right prospects? Is he saying the get enjoyment from the day-to-day activities that can, at right things? Is there something else that is off? A low sta- times, seem like a grind. tistic points to an area that needs attention. Unfortunately, I So, the next time you settle in to watch a football game see too many dealerships that do not take the time to make (or any other game for that matter), look for the similarities corrections on a regular basis and, thus, their reps do not to your business and how you can bring the fun of the game improve their skills or results. to your workplace. If you can do this successfully, you will The defense on a football team is charged with stopping reap significant rewards both personally and financially. n the opposition from scoring. The key statistics you will see Jim Kahrs is the founder and president of Prosperity Plus here are things like the number of forced punts, yards gained Management Consulting Inc. Prosperity Plus by the opponent, interceptions/fumbles caused, points works with companies in the office technology scored by the team, etc. Just as we saw with the offense, the industry building revenue and profitability level of success in the defense can be tracked to the key staand improving organization structure. Kahrs tistics. For a dealership, you have key statistics like first-call can be reached at (631) 382-7762 or efficiency, response time, contracts and supplies sold, sales jkahrs@prosperityplus.com. leads, etc. A good first-call-efficiency percentage means that Visit www.prosperityplus.com.

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Kahrs Oct 13.indd 2

9/23/13 1:43 PM

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Content Marketing Generating leads by providing special reports by: Darrell Amy, Dealer Marketing

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e want more sales leads. We want to cross-sell clients into managed services and document management. And, we want to maximize our gross profit.

Does this sound familiar? These are the common themes of conversations I have with dealers on a daily basis about their marketing strategies.

There are many different ways to generate leads. However, in today’s highly skeptical marketplace, buyers are increasingly doing more of their own research before they buy. In doing that research, they are looking for ideas to help them in the buying process.

In this article, you will learn a proven process to turn useful content presented in special reports or white papers into actionable sales leads. We will explore what content is helpful to prospects and you will learn different ways to share this content online and offline.

Buyers are hungry for information. Going forward, successful companies will be the ones that share useful ideas with the marketplace and position their team members as helpful experts. The new term for this is “content marketing.”

Recently, I was shopping for new tires for my wife’s SUV. Years ago, I would have driven down to the local tire shop and asked what tires the guy behind the counter recommended. Today, my approach is different.

First, I searched Google for reviews of tires for a Honda Pilot. This led me to several blogs and forums created by Honda owners. Based on this input, I went to www.tirerack. com and read reviews and stats on the top three selections.

Then I searched for local tire providers on Google. I also asked my car-fanatic friend where he got his tires. I weeded out the provider that had two bad reviews on Google and selected the one that had good reviews on Yelp. I visited that

dealership’s website and found helpful information on buying and maintaining tires, helping to confirm my friend’s recommendation of this dealership. Finally, I called the dealership and told an employee which tires I wanted to have installed and how much I was willing to pay for them.

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing this way: n It is any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media, and the publishing of content in order to acquire customers. n This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, videos, white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, howto guides, Q-and-A articles, photos, etc. n Content marketing is focused not on selling, but on communicating helpful information to customers and prospects. The idea is to inspire business and loyalty by delivering “consistent, ongoing, valuable information.”

There are three things that need to happen for your content marketing strategy to be successful: (1) You have to have ideas and information that are useful to your market. Buyers can get brochures and product specifications anywhere. What they really need is information to help them navigate the complexities of today’s business world and technology. The list of topics is virtually endless: n How can I use technology to improve productivity? n How do I protect my business from cyber attacks? n What can I do to protect private business information? n How can I reduce my business’s overhead expenses? n How can I use technology to improve business processes? n Why are other companies hiring managed network service providers? n What do I need to consider when choosing MFPs or printers for my office?

The list could go on. Each of these questions can form the

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Creating Creditor to Customer Solutions basis for great content that can be comYou need to make municated in a varithis information ety of formats. attractive enough One thing that I that prospects are have been working willing to give some on are special reports or white paof their contact pers for our clients. information to access it.

These reports cover a wide variety of topics, including: n “The Top Cyber Security Threats Faced by Small Businesses and What You Can Do About Them” n “A Buyer’s Guide to Managed Network Services” n “The Importance of a Managed Print Services Strategy” Not only is this information useful to potential buyers, but it also positions the dealership that provides it as an expert. Of course, the conclusion of each one of these papers points to a call-to-action related to MFPs, managed services or document solutions.

(2) The information needs to be so good that prospects will volunteer their contact information. You need to make this information attractive enough that prospects are willing to give some of their contact information to access it. To do this, set up a landing page on your website and/or a microsite. This page should include a teaser of the information that is in the report. Then, ask them to complete a form to download the information. At this point, do not ask for too much information. Keep it simple (name and email) so you do not put up a big roadblock. You can usually determine the company a person works for from his (or her) email address.

Once he downloads the report, the contact information can go to your sales team. To nurture the lead, you can build an automated system to email the report. Then, the system can follow up with a stream of emails that reinforce the message in the special report and encourage a call to action, like doing a network security review or print cost report. The important thing here is to make sure to collect some contact information.

(3) This information needs to be found easily. This means that you need to put it in as many places as possible.

Fortunately, there are many places you can share this information online and in person.

Here are a few places to share it online: n The sidebars of your website can contain links to the special report download pages. n Posts on your company’s blog can talk about aspects of the topic and link to the special report download page for additional information.

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www.offi cetechnol ogymag. c om | Oc tob e r 2013 | 23

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teams. However, you can also build n Service areas of your website can be goodwill in the business community Unlike many marketing used to feature graphics linking to your by providing useful information. Helpspecial reports. strategies that can ... be ful special reports on relevant topics n Special landing pages (microsites) gimmicky and somewhat can form the springboard for presentcan be set up to focus exclusively on manipulative, content ing at local business events or service the topic of the white paper. Google and marketing wants to be club organizations.

LinkedIn pay-per-click ads can be used (4) It creates content for lunchof service by providing to drive traffic. and-learn events. What do you talk n Social media posts on your comhelpful information. about at lunch-and-learn events? If you pany’s LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook only talk about technology, you will accounts can provide teasers and link to find most of your audience bored to tears.

What if you talked the content. about the business challenges that your attendees face and n Newsletters can feature teasers and graphics linking to showed practical ways that technology could address these the special report. n Sales rep social media posts can share links to the spe- challenges? Your special reports can form the foundation for the content of your lunch-and-learn events and can be great cial report download page. takeaways to hand out. n Emails can be sent to current or prospective clients.

Here are some places to share information offline: n Sales reps can hand out special reports to prospects to Getting Started Developing a content marketing strategy starts by develbuild credibility. oping useful content. As our team writes blog posts, special n Service technicians can hand out flyers linking to the reports and social media posts for our dealer clients, we are special reports. always thinking about prospects. What are their business n Postcards can direct traffic to the download page. problems? What questions do they have? What information or ideas would be useful to them? These questions form the Additional Benefits There are many additional benefits of a content market- basis of useful content.

Today, we have been talking about special reports, howing strategy that go beyond lead generation. A good content ever, you can also use this same strategy for webinars, marketing strategy helps position your dealership as a vallunch-and-learn events and any forum where you are asked ue-added provider, differentiating you from your competito share useful information.

(When you present a webinar, tion and maximizing gross profit potential. make sure to record it, put a teaser page on your website and (1) It positions you as an expert. You want your dealerset up a form for users to fill out to view it, just like you do for ship to be seen as an expert — especially as you expand into your special reports.) managed network services and document solutions. ProvidWhat I love most about content marketing is that it is ing helpful information like special reports and infographics based on service. Unlike many marketing strategies that positions your dealership as an expert in these areas. Whethcan tend to be gimmicky and somewhat manipulative, coner the information is provided on your website, through sotent marketing is focused on providing helpful information. cial media, search engine marketing, email or handed out by In this way, content marketing is a natural fit for service-oriyour sales reps, it helps position your company as an expert. ented independent dealers. n (2) It sets up a value-added sale. Every salesperson Darrell Amy is chief innovation officer at Dealer Marketing. wants to maximize his gross profit. Doing this requires addHe has spent the last nine years working with dealers ing value to the sale. Most dealers try to add value by buildacross the United States and Australia to help ing a reputation of outstanding customer service. Howevthem position their dealerships for success in solutions and er, with few, if any exceptions, every dealer is touting his managed services.

Amy has trained thousands of outstanding service, diluting the competitive advantage of salespeople in solution selling. these claims. So, it is important for dealers to look for other In his 20 years of industry experience, he has ways to add value. Bringing helpful information to current worked for an independent dealer, and prospective clients adds value and proves that you are a national organization and a hardware more than just an average copier/MFP dealer.

OEM. Amy can be reached at damy@ (3) It builds goodwill in the market. There are many dealermarketing.net or (214) 224-0050, ext.101. things you can do to build goodwill in the market, like beVisit www.dealermarketing.net. ing involved in local charities or supporting local sports 24 | w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Oc t ob e r 2 0 1 3

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COURTS & CAPITOLS

Liability in the Cloud As the industry changes, so must your safeguards by: Robert C. Goldberg, General Counsel for the Business Technology Association

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s the industry migrates from selling equipment, features and maintenance to solutions, efficiencies and cost savings, cloud services are an appealing portion of most proposals. By placing applications and information in the cloud, there is a means to reduce costs and improve workflows.

Eliminating servers, updating software, backing up and a host of additional tasks permit businesses to pursue their core objectives. Dealers are entering this arena by building their own data repositories or partnering with established providers. Regardless of the approach, the evolving marketplace for services creates new business and legal issues that need to be addressed.

While most services are sold under a recurring revenue model, the initial cost of equipment may place a burden on a dealer’s cash flow. To assist, it may be necessary to secure bank or leasing company financing. As in any financing, there will be considerable documentation to protect the lender. Security interests in the equipment will be established. Dealer documents must establish the location of the equipment, create a security interest in the equipment and, often, they contain a “personal guarantee” as leverage for the return of the equipment. With the title to the equipment not passing to the end user, dealer transactional documents must be prepared or revised to protect the owner’s interest. If the dealer is not the equipment owner, then concern for recourse by the lender must be addressed as well.

Before recommending a cloud solution, it is essential to investigate the provider of the cloud services. As a part of the transaction, a dealer becomes responsible for recommending and providing cloud services, even if they are delivered by others. If the cloud provider disclaims all liabilities, it is possible that the dealer could stand unprotected against claims. By doing due diligence, one can help limit liability and identify a worthy provider. The first issue to address is an evaluation of cloud security.

Determine the use of the cloud envisioned by the end user.

There are federal requirements that will affect the degree of security required. Both HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations place a high degree of security and access on personal records of third parties. A cloud security breach does not relieve the end user from those responsibilities. Rather, the end user

has the obligation to determine if proper security protocols are being followed.

Many dealers have been asked to execute business associate agreements that set forth security requirements to which an end user is held. Knowing the basic security requirements will allow a dealer to match those requirements with the security features of the cloud provider.

Determine if access is by individual passwords or group passwords. In most instances, individual access will be preferred along with a written policy for users to change passwords on a regular basis. Are there different levels of security for different types of information? Is there a permanent log of those who access the information?

Can access be varied to different security levels for individuals? Are there restrictions on the downloading and printing of information? What is the encryption of information being sent to the cloud servers? How is the data encrypted on the cloud servers? How long has the provider provided cloud services?

Has there ever been a breach? How many other entities will be sharing the cloud and what are the precautions to segregate the information contained?

Reputable cloud services regularly have their networks checked by an independent third party for security. What were the results? Are cloud service personnel subject to indepth background checks? What are the security features of the physical location for the cloud services? What happens if one cloud facility goes down? Is there another network that becomes available? Ask for references.

Once you find an acceptable cloud provider, you will be asked to enter into a provider agreement. While certain liability limitations are not easily negotiated, there is no reason that the same limitations cannot be incorporated into a dealer’s agreement with the end user. If a dealer is not able to limit his (or her) own liability, then mirroring the limitations will not result in greater liability than the provider’s. As the industry changes, so must your safeguards.

Build a solid foundation for your entry into this new opportunity. n Robert C. Goldberg is general counsel for the Business Technology Association.

He can be reached at robert.goldberg@sfnr.com. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.com | Oc tob e r 2013 | 25

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BTA Highlights BTA would like to welcome the following new members to the association:

Dealer Members Copygraphix Inc., Tucson, AZ Corrigan Manning Company, Frazer, PA Data Copy of Louisville, Louisville, KY ImageQuest, Nashville, TN Integrated Technologies, Twin Falls, ID Service Associate Members InfoTrends, Weymouth, MA Vendor Associate Members Fonality, Plano, TX Intec Printing Solutions, Lutz, FL For full contact information of these new members, visit www.bta.org.

C2C Resources Collection Services

For the benefit of its dealer members, each month BTA features two of its Vendor or Service Associate members in this space.

BTA Vendor Associate Member Fonality provides business phone systems and contact center solutions designed for small and mid-size businesses.

Fonality is the only provider that can deliver the same user experience in the cloud and onpremise, with features that help small businesses save time, communicate more efficiently and reduce costs. When you partner with Fonality, you do more than add another voice offering to your existing portfolio. As a Fonality partner, you have access to business VoIP solutions, customized margins or commissions based on volume, marketing and account management. www.fonality.com

Learn how Profit Maximizer, InfoMax Collection System and Legal Forwarding Edge can help your company be more effective with your in-house collecting and maximize recovery of accounts turned over for collection.

Explore how communication options provided

by C2C Resources keep you up to date as they make progress on your accounts, as well as how C2C’s weekly remittance program gets you money quickly once it does collect. Most importantly, learn how licensing helps protect your business during the recovery process. BTA members receive a discounted rate on these services. Visit www.bta.org/C2CResources for more information.

BTA Service Associate Member Salesfish is a sales training specialist in the office equipment industry. The company provides online professional training for your sales team and can show you how to increase productivity and profitability, and generate more sales.

Salesfish’s online courses cover topics that include: account management, prospecting, first appointment/cost review, needs analysis, demonstration, proposal presentation/closing the deal, finance, productivity and recruitment.

If you would like to sell more solutions and make more money, contact Salesfish. www.salesfish.com.au

For information on BTA member benefits, visit www.bta.org/MemberBenefits.

A full list of BTA Vendor and Service Associate members can be found online at www.bta.org.

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Highlights Oct 13.indd 1

9/24/13 12:02 PM

selling solutions

A Buyer’s Perspective A process fix for complex deals stuck in the funnel by: Jim Heffernan, Insights53 LLC

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f a surgeon proposed a heart bypass, but you were not clear about the problem or the outcome, would you choose to do it? If he (or she) and his medical team gave you a slide presentation and proposal explaining the technology and all of the hospital resources they would use to complete the surgery, would that help you decide?

The Problem Customers have the same problem when buying complex solutions, such as managed print or IT services. A good assessment, design and proposal are not enough.

Increasing complexity related to the problem, decision process and solution is resulting in lack of clarity for customers. Lack of clarity breeds uncertainty and introduces risk. The result is a “no decision.” Many dealers have seen an escalation of “no-decision” deals, with an estimated 50 percent of deals stalled in the funnel after months of work.

Deciding which deals to pursue is critical to managing limited resources and achieving sales growth targets. Recent data suggests dealers are averaging $98,000 in revenue for each MPS assessment performed. The sales cycle averages 78 days. The sweet spot is companies of $10 million to $50 million in annual revenues, 100 to 500 employees and 25 to 100 devices. With each sales rep engaging in four to six deals a year, picking the wrong one can cost $98,000 in lost revenue for each of the next three to five years.

The Solution Recognize that, for complex solutions, the early stages of the sales process offer the best opportunity to create customer value. Using the analogy of the heart surgeon, we value the surgeon’s ability to help us gain clarity about the problem and the outcome. After that, we assume moving from point A to point B will be a matter of following standard operating procedures — we commoditize the act of surgery itself.

Understanding the buyer’s perspective is a process improvement to better engage, communicate and control the buying process inside accounts. Demonstrating an understanding of the customer’s business and the ability to speak his language changes the engagement dynamics. Sales reps must assume a leadership role to define the problem, solution, change and the value impact. Achieving the clarity required to make a decision becomes the new goal.

Start with a funnel review. Take 20 minutes to discuss each deal with the sales rep using the questions below. Limit their responses. You are looking for answers, not explanations. n Stalled Deals — Identify deals older than the 78-day average. How does your percentage compare with the average 50 percent of stalled deals? n Customer Problem — What problems are you helping solve? How do they align to corporate initiatives? How does the intensity of these problems compare to other problems being considered? How wide is the list of stakeholders? What is the current cost of not having a solution? n Solution — What methods are used to get the job done today? Which solution features map to which current method? How does the solution change the way stakeholders do business? n Outcome — What are the metrics to measure the value promised? Is there defined value for each stakeholder and do they agree the value is significant? How does the value contribute to the achievement of the larger initiative and how are you influencing the investment decision process?

The Outcome Applying the buyer’s perspective early in the sales process will strengthen your position where the customer most values your services. You will transform the customer experience during the buying process as sales reps shift from product-talk to business conversations. Funnel reviews will focus on customer clarity and understanding of the problem, solution mapping and value impact. You will achieve greater control of the sales cycle and resource utilization.

As noted, customer confusion about the problem, solution and outcome are causing an escalation of “no-decision” deals with up to 50 percent of deals stalled in the sales funnel. Customers value your ability to help them achieve clarity; and certainly during the early part of the sales cycle. With $98,000 per deal at risk, the buyer’s perspective serves as a catalyst to improve the selling process and accelerate revenue growth. n Jim Heffernan is president of Insights53. He is a former Minolta dealer and MPS sales expert at Hewlett-Packard. For access to a free online selling assessment, visit www.insights53.com/assessment.

Heffernan can be reached at jim@insights53.com or (636) 236-6691. Visit www.insights53.com. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.c om | Oc tob e r 2013 | 27

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selling solutions

The Sales Process Is yours aligned with your customer? by: Teresa Hiatt, American Society of Training and Development

C

hallenges. Every struggling sales company has them. It starts with mixed messaging. The sales team is selling things to the customer that the service team cannot really deliver. This leads to customer complaints and delays; everything takes 30 percent longer to do than it should, from quoting an order to final delivery and applying payments.

Pretty soon, no one trusts anything in the pipeline.

Deals that are supposed to close tomorrow have no sales activities noted. Other deals are entered into the system, run through the sales process and are closed on the same day. Win rates fall and everyone figures out how to discount a deal below profitability, but still get their commission. Eventually, salespeople and managers leave because the problem is too big to fix.

Evidence of Decay Ask yourself (honestly) if you see evidence of the following in your dealership: n You have salespeople who do not really understand the solutions they are selling. n There are long delays in the sales cycle without real reasons for them. n There is inaccurate forecasting. n You regularly adjust quotas downward. n Discounting is being used to close sales instead of reps selling value. n There is a poor return on the investment made in sales tools (CRM systems) and training. n There is a decrease in customer satisfaction.

If a sales organization has more than three of these dire failure predictors happening right now, it is an emergency situation that needs to be addressed with a strategic plan.

The root cause is a broken sales process; not the cute little chart of things hanging on the wall that salespeople are supposed to do (but never actually follow), but the fundamental way the company matches its selling style with the way its customers buy. Until that root problem is solved, the rest of the changes that could be effective at helping improve the process will not matter. They will just help you continue doing the wrong things more efficiently.

The Quick-Fix Problem Many organizations try to solve problems like this with quick-fix initiatives that treat the symptoms mentioned above, but never get to the root cause of the problem. People try a variety of things — from reworking commission plans, to installing complex CRM systems to regulate productivity, to expensive training programs that focus on a “new way” of selling, or even just letting everyone go and trying with a new sales team. The root cause still sits there, unaffected by all of the money, time and effort being thrown at it.

My Sales Process is Broken Let’s talk about why your sales process is broken. n The sales process (what people actually do to move sales along) is not documented and used by managers to coach. n Salespeople try to sell to every customer, many times ignoring qualifications. n Any way the salesperson gets to a sale is approved. n The process is either too complex and detailed that it cannot be used with every sale, or it is so loose and flexible that it is meaningless.

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n The process is not aligned with an The Power of the Process understanding of who your customers are One other component What would creating an accurate sales and how they buy. process do for a sales organization? is required to design n Only salespeople failing to meet quota n Since salespeople will understand their an effective sales are asked to follow the process; others are target customers and how they buy, sales process — a true given freedom to do what they want as long training can be customized to the sales understanding of as they sell. process and give salespeople the skills they n Salespeople and the sales manager are the customer business need to precisely sell. not consistently and regularly trained on n When you eliminate extraneous work and how it buys. the process. that adds no value to a sale from the proAgain, if any three of these descriptions cess, the sales cycle dramatically decreases apply to your sales organization, it is an emergency interven- and delays decrease, increasing productivity. tion situation. n With a clear definition and inspections in place to validate integrity, the pipeline can be trusted and forecast accuDesigning a Working Sales Process racy increases.

The key to designing a sales process that actually drives n By understanding the customer and knowing what valbusiness is knowing what metrics determine success. If you ue-added activities help drive it to buy, salespeople will improve understand what outcomes have to occur at each step, it be- win rates without needing to discount and meet their goals. comes easy to define what activities lead to those outcomes. n By aligning CRM sales tools and training with the sales It also tells you what activities your sales team has been do- process, ROI on these investments will increase. ing in the past that add little or no value to success and can n Sales force turnover will decrease (turnover is not a probbe eliminated. lem when people are selling well).

These metrics can be leading, leaning or lagging indicators. n As customers see their needs being addressed and activLeading indicators are predictors of future results. They mea- ities aligned with their own processes, customer satisfaction sure if enough of the right activities with the right people are will increase. being done to lead to results. Leaning indicators tell us if those activities are being done at the right time. Lagging indicators Where to Begin? tell us about the past and measure the effects of all of our work.

Start by understanding the customer. What business drivers Here are some examples that are often used to define success exist for your customers for which you have a solution? Why at different steps of the sales process: would they buy from you? What would keep them from buying? n Leading indicators: percentage of key opportunities with There are companies that specialize in helping sales orgaa defined plan to win; number of opportunity reviews con- nizations build their sales processes and configure CRM tools ducted with a coach; and number of executive meetings com- and training to align with those processes. Use one of these pleted and analyzed. experts to do the bulk of the work quickly and get your sales n Leaning indicators: number of opportunity plans in ac- team busy making sales. n tive use; percentage of improvement in conversion rates; and Teresa Hiatt is currently the vice president of public relations percentage of opportunities in the target customer profile. for the Southwest Florida Chapter of the American Society of n Lagging indicators: actual win rates; average deal size; Training and Development (ASTD). She is retired from Ricoh and year-to-date individual performance.

Americas Corp., where she served for 10 years as the director of These are a few examples of success metrics, but they exist sales education, directing sales training teams and conducting for every step of the sales process and can be used to refine the research. Hiatt has served on industry panel discussions absolute minimum activities required to achieve sales success at national conferences with Gartner Research Group and in the shortest sales cycle.

CompTIA. She has delivered breakout sessions on sales training at the InfoTrends Office Document Technology Forum Understanding Your Customer and SMT Sales Training conferences.

One other component is required to design an effective sales In 2009, Hiatt published “Fortify Your process — a true understanding of the customer business and Sales Force” as a contributing author. how it buys. This can be accomplished with data from sales, It is a ground-breaking handbook for an honest look at what the company sells and input from key building a productive sales team. She can stakeholders. It is an easy question to answer, it just does not be reached at teresa@hiattaviation.com. get asked often.

Visit www.astd.org. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.c om | Oc tob e r 2013 | 29

Hiatt Oct 13.indd 2

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