Archive for the 'The Bottom Line' Category

06
Jul
10

On Boarding and Maintaining

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: The Bottom Line
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As some companies are seeing signs of recovery in their business, they are turning back to hiring as well as working to retain the people they need.  I was talking with a successful entrepreneur in Dallas on this topic – that of bringing in great people and keeping those you need.  His words “Training is one of the most important investments business owners can make”, caught my ear.  Here are a few excerpts from our call:

1. Long term employees that don’t receive regular training from qualified trainers, actually decrees in ability over time and may go down in IQ (from studies he has conducted in him company).

2. Employees that receive good training and take it seriously grow in their value to the organization, are therefore worth more and receive greater raises, which in turn keep them from going out to seek other employment. (In Stephen Covey’s words – WIN/WIN)

3. Those who receive no training, yet stay, become a liability over time.

4. Regular training programs keep people interested in learning and stimulate creativity.  Creativity brings forth invention which is at the heart of value-differentiation.

5. Training comes from classes, books, and mentors.  It’s the greatest investment a company can make in it’s people.

If your people are not worth investing in, fire them and hire new ones, then begin training.

© David Stelzl, 2010

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29
Apr
10

Reseller’s services margins may not be what they seem

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: Channel Management, Sales Strategy, The Bottom Line, Video and Wise Counsel
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Resellers, VARs, Solution Providers, and Channel Managers – this is an important lesson on the profitability of services.  While your (or your partner’s) services may be very profitable, they may not be as profitable as they seem.  As the market has commoditized, I’m seeing far more short product/install contracts…less consultative, long term engagements.  This is particularly  true in the mid and smaller markets. What is the result.

Listen and see how calculations on profit, gross profit, and net profit are sometimes confusing.  To the sales rep, all GP is good – you get paid, right?  To the person with P&L responsibility, the numbers don’t always add up…I frequently run into people who initially think they have strong services margin.  When I show them how to calculate it, we find profits to be much lower apart from the product sales.

© David Stelzl, 2010

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24
Mar
10

ROI – why not call for an IRS Audit

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: The Bottom Line
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It’s tax season – it reminds me of the ROI sale.  Even if there is an ROI to be had, there are at least three problems with it:

1. First, you can’t count on the client using your product or service the right way – don’t count on them actually realizing any ROI.

2. Most of the sales people I know, cannot articulate financial justification well enough to be credible in front of a financial officer.  Let face it, if you’re not reading financials on a daily basis, you’re not going to know your way around a mid-market or enterprise level PNL…oh, did I mean P&L?  Some don’t know the difference.

3. But most importantly, sales are emotional.  To call into question financial numbers, operating costs, and bottom-line return, is to push your client into an analytical, left brain mode – one that get’s wrapped up in analysis, leaving the emotion of the moment; a mindset opposed to spending unbudgeted dollars.

12
Mar
10

Word to the Wise

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: The Bottom Line
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Most people are hired for their outstanding representation of skills and experience (whether they are real or not)…most are fired for reasons of poor character.  Work hard and demonstrate outstanding character today!

© David Stelzl 2010

10
Mar
10

Cyber Suicide – are you killing your brand?

By Dave Stelzl's Blog 2 Comments
Categories: Marketing and The Bottom Line
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Yesterday on my flight to Boston I was talking to a gentleman about marketing through social networks.  We were discussing how the Internet has completely changed the way we reach customers and prospects, as well as what prospects and clients are attracted to.  Some considerations for your online brand…

1. Is your Cyber-Slip showing?  This comes from the Title of a recent article published in the National Speakers Association monthly publication.  The writer rightly points out that users of Facebook and other social networking sites tend to disregard security settings, thus “over-sharing” personal preferences, and perhaps adding to the damage by linking with others who speak too freely.  We’re talking here about life-style, political views, hobbies, etc.  Much of this can be harmless, however, you never know what people who you “sort of” know, and are linked to, are going to post.  Be careful – social sites are one of the first places prospects are going to learn about you as you work through the sale process.

2. Freedom of speech…yes, we supposedly have some level of freedom of speech, however your comments on blogs and Facebook walls are searchable by everyone.  Once you post it or send it, it’s forever posted.  You can’t recall it!  If you change your mind, or you mature over the years and realize you were being over zealous, your comments are not going to be updated.  The Internet is here to stay, so post only things  you want posted forever.  Never post or email when angry about something.

3. Sterile sites – check out your website.  This is your online image.  Is it you, or is it boring?  I’ve recently transitioned my primary site to my blog.  Why?  My website is informational, but static.  Many companies are putting their blog on their website – this is okay, but I think a mistake.  The first thing your prospects want to know is who you are.  Remember the overused phrase, “Trusted Advisor”?  It’s overused, yet it still means something.  The idea of building trust is still essential, and the person building trust is you.  People get to know you through your online presence.  Make it trustworthy, and give people a personality to trust.  Your character must somehow shine through your web presence, and the blog is the best place to do it. Take them to your blog, then as people get to know you, take them to your website to learn about products and services.

4. Outdated data…So you’re on LinkedIn…this is a great start, but have you provided the details.  There is nothing worse than searching for John Smith and having a thousand LinkedIn profiles show up without pictures.  If you are going to join, keep it updated.  LinkedIn is a great way to stay in touch with people as they transition from one job to the next.  While email addresses are changing, people connected through LinkedIn can stay in contact.

5. Pictures…pictures are worth a thousand words, right?  Check out your photos online…Most people who take the time to put a picture on Linkedin use a head shot.  Not bad – but make sure it’s current.  Your 70′s hair-doo might need to be updated.  Why do so many people use a weird picture on Facebook?  Casual is great for social networking, but if you’re in business, don’t put something sensual (if you’re a woman) or just plain freaky online…this is your trusted brand.

Are you doing any of these things?  It’s time to clean up and create the right image.  Start by Googling yourself – do this often and see what’s out there.  Then take inventory of what you have online and start fixing it.  If you don’t have anything online – you are missing a great opportunity to build a brand that will help you over the coming years.

17
Feb
10

Value Proposition Workshop Recap

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Categories: The Bottom Line
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We wrapped up our Value Proposition workshop at BMC today, working with BMC partners on messaging and executive level conversations.  A few key points from our discussions:

1. Product opportunities simply indicate that justification has already been made.  If you didn’t create the justification, you’re likely competing on price (unless you already own the product business).  This ownership may be short lived if your only value is low pricing.

2. RFP responses are similar.  In this case, low close rates generally indicate that a decision was made prior to issuing the RFP. This means IT is being forced to go out for bid to get the lowest price.  Chances are they’ll write the RPF with a winner in mind.

3. Presenting value at the executive level takes practice.  Demotions happen when you ask IT questions, talk product, or when your meeting interaction just doesn’t interest buyer level audiences.  All of this  can be fixed with some planning and practice.

4. Moving up in the organization requires some strategy.  One strategy includes aligning your sharpest technical presales people with their IT people.  Once that relationship is solid, IT will allow you to move up.

5. When executives are firm on having you work with IT, an executive event may be your only option for getting reconnected upstairs.

6. Great messaging always wins over brain power.  Learn to market and brand…this is the key ingredient if you plan to win the sale.

7. Sales micro management simply means, sales management is under pressure and does not understand how to beat budget cuts with value messaging!

08
Feb
10

The Solo Age

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: The Bottom Line
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Wall Street’s Article in today’s paper, Succeeding in the Age of Going Solo, has some great thoughts for sales people.  The article is really written for all of those professionals who at some point in the last decade faced a layoff and ended up on the street with a resume and no openings.  I am seeing this on the sales side more and more as sales get harder, margins get thinner, and companies are putting projects on hold (although there seems to be some warming on high-tech spending right now).

Here are a few key points:

  • “Waiting for business to find you is not something successful consultants (sales people) do.  Clients know a halfhearted attempt when they see one.”
  • “The consultants (sales people) who are most successful offer a technical skill or expertise that is too expensive or infrequently used for companies to keep in-house. ” (Do you sell one of these?)
  • Cutting edge expertise is vital to long term professional health. Successful consultants don’t let their skills coast, even for a short period.  There are simply too many consultants waiting to take their work” (this goes equally for sales people.)  This means investing in yourselves – getting training, coaching, reading, etc.
  • Bad service warning: “with social networking and the constant contact of email and texting, word or a perceived violation spreads rapidly.”
  • “Think like an entrepreneur” (a quote from my Making Money with Security Part 2 Class).  This means a lot of things…remember most entrepreneurs don’t actually succeed; probably because they are not thinking like entrepreneurs.
  • Entrepreneurs – “need a business plan and a mission statement.”  Sales people need this too – don’t rely on the esoteric statements coming out of corporate or through partners and vendors.
  • The author writes, “Interview after interview, I was also shocked by how unprepared so many new “consultants” were in organizing their businesses.”  I echo this!
  • “They lived in the moment…a business recipe for disaster.”

© David Stelzl 2010

02
Feb
10

Security issues in 2010 – what should we expect?

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: The Bottom Line
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Who knows?  Predicting technology trends is like trying to figure out the economy…however SC magazine tends to publish some of the better commentary on these types of things since it is their only focus.  Here’s what they say (Summarized into one short blog entry):

  • Social networking threats: This is the big target – everyone is using some type of social networking platform, so why not take advantage of it – with automation and anonymity, this is the easy target. Since employers can’t really stop this from happening, it’s up to the solution providers to find ways of detecting data leakage and malware that come through the wide open door of social networking.
  • Windows 7: Can you believe the Vista mess is behind us?  Make sure you capitalize on upgrading old platforms and removing any Vista that did get rolled out.  I have to laugh at those who said, “I think it’s stable now”. But Windows 7 is not the end of security threats – expect malware to proliferate on this platform as it has on older Windows workstations.
  • New platforms: Mobile devices are another big target – especially apps for phones from Apple and Google.  People are doing more on their phone and the crooks know it.  New products from anti-malware companies will help, but your expertise will be needed.  Start now by educating your clients on the need to adopt new technology with security in mind. The phone is just a small workstation at this point – remember pay phones!
  • Apple: Quote from SC Magazine, “I’ll believe that the Mac OS has become a viable target when the PR folks in Cupertino start returning my phone calls. Next…”.  I know Kaspersky is on top of this…By the way, I am really enjoying my MacBook Pro.
  • Peer-to-peer malware/data leakage: Nothing new here.  I think the real danger is for those who take work home – is there something your team can do to expand services to home systems used for work?  It’s definitely a hole in the security programs of your clients.
  • HTML5/IPV6: Too early – might be an issue next year.

Looking at technology, I believe we need more user awareness training, better policy management and enforcement, and a migration to more efficient/automated detection technology – with a strong response plan.  In my opinion, perimeter security is over, so let’s move on.  It’s a great time to build up managed service business with a security spin.  If you don’t have one, consider OEM opportunities – Many choices are available at this point.

29
Jan
10

A different kind of conference

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Categories: The Bottom Line
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Most weeks I am attending a sales conference, partner summit, or training event for high-tech sales people…this week I am with 300 fathers working on establishing a successful home – today is day two.  A couple of key points from last night’s kick off.  First, if you are a father (or a mother), you can’t achieve the same level of success if your home life is dragging you down.  Many have reached new levels of success in business only to look back and realize they’ve lost their family in the process.  Here are three top stress areas (out of 15 we reviewed last night) that drag people down:

1. Lack of an exciting and fulfilling purpose – if you don’t have a mission you believe in, you’ll be second guessing what you do every day!  This has to be bigger than work – but carry over to work.

2. Believing the lies – everyone carries with them some level of messaging that is playing over and over in their mind.  What’s yours?  If it’s negative, it will drag you down – “I’m ugly”, “I’m not as important as the executive I am meeting with”, etc.  Whatever it is, if it’s negative it will hinder success.

3. Painful memories from wrong decisions…this is a big one.  We’ve all made mistakes.  Some with business decisions, others with spouses, children, finances (investments in 2000), etc. How often do you recall painful memories in a non-constructive way?

Imagine 15 more of these…well I won’t go on, but just fixing these three will dramatically affect what you do today!  Give it some thought and let me know if you want to know more.

13
Jan
10

They have no idea when we’ll recover

By Dave Stelzl's Blog Leave a Comment
Categories: The Bottom Line
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USAToday reported (today) – tech spending will recover in 2010!  Great news, but who knows if they’re right?  Reports call for pent-up demand to drive new technology sales in the coming months, giving us some growth over 2009, but less than 2008.  My favorite line, “Now that the recession is over…”.  Read more here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-01-12-tech-forecast_N.htm.  How do they know – Wall Street reported the recession to be over about 6 months ago…I was dumb enough to believe them.  Now I’m confused.

Now don’t get me wrong.  It’s not that I have a bad attitude here – if anyone if feeling optimistic, it’s me.  But relying on recovery for profitability this year would be a mistake.  There’s more competition, more tech companies hurting, and more hungry sales people out there than ever before.  Don’t expect business to just role in because Windows has a new version out (by the way, I am loving my MacBook Pro at this point).  The bottom line:  value – what value do  you bring to your clients to help their businesses recover regardless of recession reports?  If you haven’t done so, I recommend getting a plan together for CYQ1 – figure out who you’re calling on, what they really need, and find a way to  help them get it.

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