2009 January « Dave Stelzl's Blog

Archive for January, 2009

Jan

Market Focus for 2009 – Notes from Today’s Webcast

Categories: Marketing
Tags: 2009, Access Control, Managed Services, Market, Marketing, podcast, Recession, security, selling, storage, Strategy, wireless

This morning I presented a webcast on selling security in 2009. Several points are worth noting as you plan your year. Before I begin, don’t forget to check out today’s Podcast – a new Podcast comes out every Friday at http://dstelzl.podbean.com/. This week’s topic presents Part Two of Putting your 2009 Business Plan together. Given the following, security should be a core focus…

VARBusiness’ State of the Market predictions for 2009 list Security as an area for “Robust Growth” . Specifically network security, followed by security appliance sales, Internet security software, security management, and finally access management. If you’re riding the inertia of compliance issues in healthcare, government, and business, you’re in good shape.
Storage holds the number two position, but specifically “Recovery Software Solutions”, which of course is a Risk sale – reference security.
The third is no surprise – Networking; but expect a heavy focus on wireless implementations. Differentiate with security given the increases in cybercrime via wireless networks.

Also expect to see growth in managed services offerings as companies such as SecurView and Zenith Infotech support VAR efforts to establish recurring revenue offerings. The winners here will be companies explicitly marketing security event management to address the compliance market. Pure monitoring in my opinion is a commodity, so take the next step as you consider your offering.

So while some are reporting unemployment rates in the 7+ percent range (US Economy), those companies that have thought through their offering, have the cash to sustain a few down months, and continue to press forward with compelling marketing programs, will likely rise to the top, grow through acquisition, and take on clients left in the sidelines of recession.

Jan

2008 Breaches – Sound Bites

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Categories: Sound Bites
Tags: Cybercrime, Hacking, House & the Cloud, Information Security, sales, security, selling, statistics, Technology

In my executive lunch meetings I often quote statistics from previous years showing exponential growth in the numbers of records compromised, people exposed, etc. The most recent data suggests that about 2/3 of US citizens have had records exposed. If you’ve seen this presentation you may recall the 2005 IDTheftcenter.com data showing 134 companies reporting ID theft oriented breaches…growing to about 303 the next year. 2008 Data is now out with the following additional sound bites:

656 Data breaches reported, up from 446 in 2007 (a 47% increase).
30% of these include insiders, but remember that many of these insider hacks cooperate with outside organized crime syndicates.
65% of these breaches target data at rest – database attacks etc.
37 Million Records were breached this year – no report on number of victims.
(All from SC Magazine – http://www.scmagazineus.com/Data-breaches-rose-dramatically-during-2008/article/123606/?DCMP=EMC-SCUS_Newswire )

Despite increases in security spending, education, and advancements in security technology, the bad guys are still outpacing efforts to secure data. In many cases it’s the approach that is wrong. Companies don’t understand digital assets, are not taking the proper steps to secure data by using a balance of Protection, Detection, and Response, and in general have centralized security decisions at the IT level, leaving data users out of the equation. For more insights on how to sell into this environment I recommend reading or rereading The House & the Cloud, one of the only books out there on how to sell security solutions.

Jan

Partnering Opportunity

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Categories: Opportunities

Yesterday I delivered the keynote address at softwareONE’s national sales meeting in Wisconsin – and yes there was snow on the ground, a treat for those of us who have moved south. If you’re not familiar with this organization, look them up online at www.softwareone.comfor more information. In a nutshell, softwareONE specializes in software license management – consulting with clients on the best way to purchase software and then managing the entire license life-cycle. If you’re a reseller this may be an opportunity to make more of your software reselling opportunities. They partner with solution providers worldwide, making it easier to sell software. From a post I wrote a few days ago, better license management is one of the top 10 areas of opportunity in 09.

Jan

Walt Disney Marketing Magic

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Categories: Marketing
Tags: economy, Innovation, Marketing, Technology, Telepresence, var

How would Walt Disney Market in 2009 – in a down economy? Harvard Review writer John Sviokla provides 6 points worth noting. Marketing is one of the first things to be cut when sales are down, but if you’re in sales, you can’t afford to let this happen. If nothing else, market your own brand – keeping your message in front of those with spending power. If your offering makes sense, your sales will survive down times. Here is a quick summary (6 points from Sviokla with some of my own commentary to apply this to our business – high tech sales):

1. Leverage stories – people read stories, Chip and Dan Heath (Authors of Made to Stick) point to stories as one key to “Making it Stick! And Bill Whitley’s recent sales book – Art of the Rainmaker explains how to build your own “Client attraction story.” As a side, Bill and I are working together on building my attraction story; something I am extremely excited about. Check out his book on Amazon.com.
2. Be Creative with Technology – My opinion, brute force cold calling is great practice in handling rejection, and people do need to learn to grab the attention of asset owners without an in-person meeting; however, successful branding requires the use of technology. If you can’t communicate through all types of media, you may be missing the boat. Use Webex, podcast, blogs, e-letters, self publishing, article servers, Idea Letters _®, etc.
3. Message Coordination - this is key. Setting up warm calls with webinars, e-letters, Idea Letters _®, etc. makes prospecting much easier. Coordinate marketing events that build the messaging across various forms of media – this is easy to do with the tools now available to us. Learn to use them.
4. Innovate - step out and try new things. I am getting ready to do one of my first training classes via TelePresence. This should be fun! Be creative with messaging, technology, etc.
5. Uniqueness - Selling technology is not new, and building a unique brand is becoming more difficult. I recently worked with a company that has taken Security Technology to a new level, focusing on smaller banks, handling all the compliance red tape for them, and providing the 24/7 security oversight required to meet SEC and GLBA regulations. Anyone can sell firewalls, so they’ve taken their business to a new level.
6. Stay on the Message - in other words FOCUS. In a recent podcast I quoted Montoya, author of The Personal Branding Phenomenon. He says, It’s tempting to diversify, and in some cases product sets are too narrow; however, your message and value must be focused to deliver instant recall (paraphrased). A watered down message won’t be remembered.

You can read more from the source.

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/sviokla/2008/12/what_would_disney_do_to_market.html

Jan

Start your New Year with a Plan

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Categories: Opportunities
Tags: goals, Managed Services, new year, plan, recurring revenue, sales, Technology, Vision

Tina, my seven children, Jack the dog, and I all wish you a happy new year. I’ve become famous in my home for reminding everyone that, as we start the new year, we are all back to zero – unless you’ve taken the time to build various forms of recurring revenue! Regardless, it’s time to pull out your plan for 2009 – the one you were hopefully working on through the month of December. For those of you who did not…all is not lost. This morning’s Podcast post http://dstelzl.podbean.com/ starts a three part series on planning – a simple format to walk you through three short 15 minute sessions to plan your year. Make sure you have something in writing – while laborious details are not so critical, concrete vision, goals, and plans are. You won’t need weeks of work on this, but you do need some time to think through last year, last quarter, recent news, trends, and futures for 2009. Since you are going to spend the entire year working, you might as well start with a realistic plan in place.