Photo Taken By Hannah Stelzl
It’s my favorite time of year – spending time with family, listening to great Christmas music, attending concerts and Christmas programs, and looking back over the year…Merry Christmas! (Yes I am a day late – it’s been a busy week!). If you didn’t get a copy of From Vendor to Adviser in your stocking this year – we still have a few at:
© 2011, David Stelzl
No, I didn’t buy they Kindle, but people have been asking me to put The House & the Cloud and From Vendor to Adviser on Kindle for while now – so, I did! If you have a hard copy of The House & the Cloud, don’t be fooled by the black cover. It’s a new cover – one I will likely use if I ever get around to updating my book; something I hope to do this year! You can see them online at:
Buy one and let me know how it looks…
© 2011, David Stelzl
In last week’s webinar on fee setting, one of the 5 secrets I shared had to do with understanding value before quoting a price. By this I mean, you personally have ownership of the value your are providing and the client agrees – they too see the value. On the call I discussed various ways to ensure this happens, along with some key technology areas that demonstrate it well. One of these areas is security…you might have guessed if you’ve read my book, The House & the Cloud.
Find out more on this – join us the first week of January before things get to hectic – 3 days, 2 hours each day – online, so you don’t have to go anywhere! Sign up here (hurry while early registration discounts apply):
© 2011, David Stelzl
Preorder Now!
I am very excited about tomorrow’s free webinar on fees! While spreadsheets and finances are not my favorite pass time, the idea of increasing margins and cutting losses is exciting!
I prepared 7 well kept secrets to help you change your pricing models for 2012 – and I know they will help you increase profits if you follow them closely. Let me hint at one important pricing concept right here to get us started…
Did you know that when you discount 20% on services, you give away 40%? It might be obvious, but tomorrow I plan to show you several simple math problems that will explain where most resellers lose money over the course of a year, and how that affects not only the bottom line, but every sales person’s personal income (and eventually your company’s ability to deliver quality service to the customer!). I’ll show you how, and what to do about it tomorrow at 1 PM, ET. Make sure you put this on your schedule – one hour could change your entire financial outlook for 2012…
© 2012, David Stelzl
First, don’t miss these two sessions online – this is my Christmas gift to you just for being a regular reader….
1. http://stelzlvendoradviser4.eventbrite.com/ – Setting Fees with Profit in Mind!
Fees are tricky – sometimes your company sets this for you, but if you have any control over this, it’s one of the places you must master. Too much, and the client looks at you like you’re a thief, too little and you leave money on the table or worse, discredit your own value. I often hear the comment, “When we fix price, we lose money.” Wow, that tells me you haven’t learned to estimate, but I will show you the secret of pricing on December 9th…there are two ways to calculate fixed price fees, then there are block time sales (which may be the thing that keeps you from really profiting the way you should be – and I’ll show you exactly why that is.) And of course T&M, but there are two ways to do T&M, and one of them results in you taking all the risk. I cover this in detail in my new book, From Vendor to Adviser, along with calculations and examples, so I won’t go into it here…but this is critical stuff!
Then there is the proposal…I see many making one of several mistakes. They execute the sales process perfectly, and then get to the proposal, and…well, all that effort turns into a big negotiation process, and maybe a visit to the chief purchasing officer (who, no doubt, has a degree in Negotiation Strategies!) Who needs that at the end of a long sales cycle, and especially here at year end? One thing I can tell you, the meeting you have right before you write this proposal is the key to success – but there are at least eight secrets I give in my book to make this go much more smoothly. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like writing proposals – especially when they don’t close!
Here is that link again – I’ll see you on the 8th and hopefully on the 21st for the second one. There is no cost to you, other than time, so don’t miss this.
Fees: http://stelzlvendoradviser4.eventbrite.com/
Proposals: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2571952780
© 2011, David Stelzl
Brand New!
Now Available: From Vendor to Adviser (PreOrder for just 13.95)
The proof is in my hands – and you can now reserve a copy of From Vendor to Adviser at a discounted price of $13.95 through my online store: www.stelzl.us/store.asp (normally $16.95). I’ve been working on this book for almost a year, and I think you’ll find it answers a lot of questions about how to grow your business. I discuss pricing, proposals, presentations, discovery and assessment, and a whole lot more – everything in this book is specific to selling technology! Not too many books are that specific, but I believe our industry is unique and requires some special insight when dealing with IT people, commoditizing technology, resellers that depend on services business and who are building managed services practices, etc. There’s a lot to consider in these sales…so whether you sell for a giant reseller, specialize in a certain area such as data center, security, collaboration, or some application area, or are working directly for the manufacturer in a direct or channel role, this book hits the mark. Check it out…I look forward to your feedback once you read it.
© 2011, David Stelzl
Today we finished Day 3 of the online Making Money with Security workshop – using an actual assessment sent to me by one of the attendees, we were able to walk through the process companies should go through to create the perfect assessment document and deliverable/presentation-one that will lead to more business.
By observing the information and writing style of the assessment, we were able to ascertain how the assessment might have been conducted, who would have been involved in the assessment process, and how the findings were put together to create justification to move forward. Here is what we found:
1. Fees – given the size and detail of the assessment, the seller probably could have sold it for more. However, most assessments are sold to IT people who have no liability. Creating justification for more expensive assessments requires asset owner involvement, and a belief that things might not be as secure as originally thought. On there other hand, there are ways to conduct complementary assessments that can result in even great long term gross profit.
2. Interviews – the discovery process was probably limited to more technical people, and did not involve business people, top performers who use mission critical data, or executives who ultimately carry liability for both the systems and data their companies depend on.
3. Executive Summery – Like most executive summaries I read, this one did not speak to executives. Instead, it was a summary targeting a technical audience. It was called an executive summary simply because it was a summary…it’s unlikely an executive will read it.
4. Recommendations – most of the findings were written in a passive format, stating that certain Trojans or other common attack vectors could gain access to data. This rarely moves a buyer. It’s like saying, eating fatty foods might contribute to heart disease. No one will act unless the doctor says, “You’re on the verge of a heart attack!” Every company has urgent issues, but rarely are they called out with passion and urgency.
5. The seller’s involvement – It appears that this document was put together without the involvement of the rep. As a result, it will be difficult for the rep to own the information and lead the charge for remediation. Great sales people are trained and skilled in selling – how can the remediation phase be sold without the rep leading the way?
By going through this process, we were able to redefine the roles of the seller and consulting team, reformat the assessment document, and talk through the proper delivery process to move forward with both remediation and managed services contracts. The next step – each attendee will have a one hour private coaching session allowing us to make specific applications to their business using the tools and strategies learned over the past week. Stay tuned for our next online class, and join the success.
© 2011, David Stelzl
Here’s the new book! After almost a year of effort, my latest book, From Vendor to Adviser, is in its final proofing stages, meaning the publisher is sending me the first hard copy to review. Assuming it looks great, which is what I am hoping for, it will be available on my site store as well as through Amazon…stay tuned!
© 2011, David Stelzl
We completed Day 2 of our online workshop Friday, with a strong focus on building a message that works, and taking it to market through five different methods. The strongest of the five continues to be event marketing, but not without a clear understanding of what makes it work. I received an email this morning from a long time friend and client stating the following, “Your stuff works!” He went on to say, by using an event over the summer, he was able to connect with two very promising clients, which both agreed to conduct assessments. After an initial look at their business, he was able to up-sell them on a more thorough, fee-based assessment, from which he identified several profitable projects, which then led to managed contracts. This is the way it works…
© 2011, David Stelzl
Here’s a common question that came up in our class yesterday…
Question: What about clients who understand there is a risk, but are comfortable with their current solution?
Answer: If a company really has what they need, there is no reason to up-sell them. However, it is rare to find a company that has a reasonable security solution, particularly in the mid and smaller market companies. Reports from the WSJ and other sources tell us that even those who are under strict compliance regulations such as PCI are far from compliant, and experience tells me that if were to conduct a simple risk analysis, not only would there be many vulnerabilities, but it is highly likely that desktops and servers would be compromised by bots – something some dismiss as trivial, but shouldn’t take lightly.
An article this week from Wall Street underscored the importance of having more than just protective barriers in place. 75% of employees admit to stealing data when leaving a company, and 75% of those involved in a recent study gave into online predators (disguised as a 25 year old female,) to the point of giving up online passwords in some cases, and other sensitive information in all cases! And a review of 2011 news articles reporting data compromises will tell us that bot technology and web threats are behind a high percentage of all hacker attacks.
Looking back on the marketing events I have conducted this year, far more that half of the business-level attendees have agreed to conduct risk assessments, and while these assessments were often provided as a complementary service, they almost always led to remediation projects and managed service contracts when performed and presented correctly (Key point here.)
So for the few companies out there that don’t want to know, and don’t really care – either you are talking to someone who is not really an asset owner, or the person you are talking to is suffering from a case of “foolish thinking” – time to move on to another prospect.
© 2011, David Stelzl
