Yesterday we completed day one of our three day training class in Mumbai – my friends from India were kind enough to have ordered pizza for lunch without me knowing (Dominos in Mumbai pictured here!)  Notice the unique arrangement of Indian veggies on this slice…Not from NY, but much appreciated!  On the other hand, Dominos has managed to deliver a consistent pizza in just about every country I’ve been to.

In our class we focused on recent trends in cybercrime and where opportunities for creating business exist.  The most important concept here is that of creating business rather than waiting on requests for products.  One insightful comment worth repeating here is that IT wants a product, not a strategy…while sales books and trainers are saying, sell solutions, IT doesn’t often appreciate this approach.  They earn their keep by being the brains behind solution architecture and look to vendors for discount pricing on product.  That doesn’t mean they are qualified or able to deliver business value – but their value depends on it and they know it.  If this is true, separating IT from business decision makers is an important part of the sales process.  Giving IT in-depth technical knowledge (which generally must come from the technical side of the provider) makes sense, and then preparing business value for conversations that will take place with economic buyers and business level influencers.  Both are required in order to sell higher level architectural solutions.

Today’s agenda takes us to the next step of preparing that messaging.  Everything from opening meetings, to introducing your offerings, to discovery and proposal delivery, must be designed with marketing in mind.  Documents don’t sell anything – messaging is key.  You can choose the be the low price solution, or you can show up with million dollar messaging.  It’s always your choice.

© 2011, David Stelzl