Comments on: What Am I Doing Here?

By: Bressler

Bressler — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:41:16 +0000

Zac, I have to disagree. “What should I be doing here” makes it about the SE (about the vendor), “what am I doing here” makes it about the customer/prospect… and that makes all the difference.

Try this, after a competitive POC/sales-cycle, whether we’re the chosen vendor or not, give the decision makers a list of features, and ask them to match which features go with which vendor. I bet they get in wrong at least 30-40% of the time. What does that tell you?

By: Zac de Sousa

Zac de Sousa — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:18:39 +0000

You question is “Not what I’m are doing here?” but rather what, ” should I be doing here?” As the product custodian you should be ensuring that you not trying to put on a horse show with a pony with all due respect to those concerned. Everyone has a part to play but it’s management responsibility to ensure they understand the skills and traits of members of the team. It start with you playing people to their strenghts rather trying to make them what they not. There is a time and place for everything, a time for techie talk and time for selling. Know your audience from the outset and present accordingly. It absloutely amazing what abit of research on your audience can reveal about them. So take a few minutes google them and then speak to them in their own language. It’s what I term a little that goes a long way.

By: Jeff Bradshaw

Jeff Bradshaw — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:15:14 +0000

I totally agree, a great SE is like a dog that talks …. very rare! A Rockstar SE is like a dog that talks Norwegian, even rarer

Also, a sales guy can have a bad day and still win the deal, if an SE has a bad 2 minutes it can kill a deal.

By: Bressler

Bressler — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:42:47 +0000

Thanks for the comment. Turns out, replying to comments is way easier on WordPress than TypePad. In fact, on Typepad, it drives me crazy (crazier?).

This is what most companies don’t get. It’s the relationship stupid. If you can be that advisor, you’ll have more successful customers, and therefore more business. But, it requires too much effort in most organizations to make that happen. People don’t buy products, they buy the relationship. Period.

Nice to be here (I think).

By: Mike Gero

Mike Gero — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:36:17 +0000

Well said. SE’s are a dime-a-dozen. Good SE’s are rarer. Rockstar SE’s with the right blend of business savvy and technical acumen are the guys who can make the difference between just having one-shot customers and having long term customer relationships and onging sales lifecycles.

Welcome to the blogsphere.