Where Should You Focus Sales Efforts in 2016

The trends are important. Whether you resell technology or sell for a vendor, you need to know what CIOs are up against…if you call on the SMB, think of the owner as the part-time CIO. Both are going to leverage technology if they plan to grow.

Know the Important Trends Before You Make Your Next Sales Appointment

Regardless of what President Obama claims, WSJ continues to report a shaky economy. That translates into tighter spending. This morning’s WSJ reports three significant trends…

BIG DATA is where the gains are. Big data represents a promise for future decision making – better decision making. Especially in the enterprise, data analysis can lead to better marketing, better hiring, and greater efficiency. The value proposition here is Competitive Advantage! One of the four key value props I wrote about in From Vendor to Adviser.
CLOUD is strong. People are moving to the cloud to achieve greater efficiencies. That means they want to see a reduction in TCO – Total Cost of Ownership. This too is one of the four value props I describe in my book.
Third, there is a slowdown in SECURITY – but the WSJ is talking about new companies and IPOs, not security spending. IT Spending as a whole is down by more than 5% this year as compared to last (According to recent WSJ reports), but security spending is up.

If you understand Cloud and Big Data (And we should mention IoT as well here), you know that using these technologies demands a change in the security strategy. Tie the two together and you’re well positioned to drive security business. If you call on the SMB market, you should be adding the DETECTION side of security to every existing contract – it’s an almost guaranteed up-sell opportunity.

PS. I still have some seats in the SECURITY MASTERY SALES PROGRAM – These are for resellers only, sponsored by distributors and manufacturers… Where You’ll Learn Exactly How to Make Security Sales Happen. (CLICK)