Yesterday I spent my day working with a large systems integrator sales team over Telepresence.  Following are a few noteworthy comments from our session.

1. Working in a virtual environment is like talking to the news team on your TV…it feels like you should be spectating rather than participating.  Our success depends on our ability to adapt to these paradigm changes, leveraging technology to bring people together from disparate time zones.
2. While technology may deliver an ROI, a sales person’s ability to show it rare.  Few sales people can dissect a company’s financials to show bottom line return.  Especially when faced with an unresponsive CFO sporting the HP-12c.
3. Related but different, ROI sales tactics invite unwanted financial studies that prolong the sales cycle.  Focusing on risk mitigation or operational efficiency offers justification without undue emphasis on cost.
4. Value must be determined and agreed upon before pricing discussions ensue.  And even then, only at the buyer level.
5. Companies are more likely to adjust budgets in light of risk than to gain operational efficiencies.  The risk sale is the easiest and most powerful marketing angle for technology sales in today’s economy.