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Category: Large Account Management

Posted on November 23, 2020November 24, 2020 by Kannan_Kasi — Leave a comment

Who is your customer?

I remember my days selling Microsoft Office & Lotus Smart Suite, Lotus Notes [Domino] & MS Exchange, Oracle Work Group Edition & MS SQL Server, SCO UNIX Openserver & MS Windows NT. Depending on who I am selling to or who I am selling against, I used to propose one of these two competing products. And bet on it for the rest of the sales process in that account.

Tough call. I hear that.

When you work with a distributor carrying competing products, it’s always a tough call.

There was a cellphone operator called Skycell. I learnt from the market that they were on the look out for a groupware solution. I took my colleague from the consulting team [who was technically far superior to me] for the call. We decided to propose Lotus notes even before landing up there. Don’t ask me how we decided on that. During the call, the manager whom we met asked us what do we propose. We looked at each other and took a risk and said Lotus Notes. Rest is history. We not only sold but also implemented. We were with them & saw them reap benefits from it. That account became an anchor client for us.

I remember what Don Peppers, a Thought Leader in Customer Experience, Marketing & Sales said. He was looking at a sales person at a shoe store during Christmas sale. The sales person was recommending only American shoes to every customer. He was surprised. When the sales guy took a break, Don went up to him and asked him why was he referring only American Shoes whereas the store carried Nike, Reebok etc. He asked him if American shoes offered him more commission or his manager asked him to sell that brand. The sales guy said: “None of those are reasons. American shoes come pre-laced whereas the other shoes don’t. I will spend 4 mins lacing up each pair & that would affect sales. Customers will walk away.”

Who is the customer here? Think about it.

Lotus got acquired by IBM in 1995 and after 18 years, in 2013, they retired Lotus Smart Suite and contributed the code to Apache Open Office.

Takeaway:

  • Find who is your real customer and sell to him/her.

#HappySelling!!

#b2b #b2c #sales #whoisyourcustomer

Categories: branding, Competition, Customer Experience, Customer Focus, Inspiration, Large Account Management, Marketing, Motivational, Problem Solving, SaaS, Sales Motivation, Sales Pitch, Sales Process, storytelling, Success Tips
Tags: branding, Focus, Growth, Narrow your focus, Who is your customer?
Posted on September 29, 2020September 29, 2020 by Kannan_Kasi — Leave a comment

Get Customers!!

If you are a SaaS company and are looking at growing your customer base, this will be helpful to you. Go ahead and get a jumpstart!

Categories: Account Based Marketing, Inspiration, Large Account Management, Lead Generation, Marketing, Motivational, Prospecting, SaaS, Sales, Sales Motivation, Sales Pitch, Sales Process, storytelling, Success Tips
Tags: Getting new customers, Growth Hacking, Prospecting, SaaS, Sales
Posted on September 14, 2020September 14, 2020 by Kannan_Kasi — Leave a comment

Account Based Marketing

It was an unusual day. I had four meetings lined up. Three of them were likely to close.

Before I get to that story, let me share some strategies in #AccountBasedMarketing [ABM].

Like the others in our Sales team, I too handled few #largeaccounts & #namedaccounts. We sold software solutions.

When an account didn’t have any projects, I shared #WhitePapers to raise awareness.

If they have identified a problem, I wrote an #ApproachPaper that explains the steps we would take to solve it. It was not a proposal. Nevertheless, it was a fairly detailed document without the commercials & details on the project team.

That was an Engg firm from Latin America. Had operations in Chennai. They were into Adhesives, Sealants & a whole lot of Engg Products.

They were developing a software solution in-house around Oracle Enterprise database.

My company had just then become a partner of Oracle Enterprise Products though we were already partners for the Workgroup series.

Had a meeting with the IT Head. He said they’ve decided & asked me to meet Finance. They were ready to place the order but wanted to pay 100% on delivery.

We had an issue with that. I then met the VP Finance. After several rounds of discussion that day, finally they agreed for 100% advance.

What made it happen was this: My commitment on tech support to their IT team anytime. Picked up that order with 100% adv that evening.

#ABM is all about #Personalization & #Commitments.

#HappySelling #close #deals

Categories: Account Based Marketing, Customer Relationship, Inspiration, Large Account Management, Success Tips
Tags: account based marketing, complex sale, high value sales, large account management
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