In Channel Enablement – Part I, we laid out some air cover for the territory SE to demonstrate responsibilities best owned by corporate. In Part II, I want to both recap how an SE should be contributing to corporate channel initiatives as well as show what functions an SE should manage on their own within their region.
Enabling Your Channel – Part I
April 26, 2012 By
For most SEs, part of your responsibility includes supporting your channel partners. These partners are a direct extension of your sales coverage. In large companies there are teams of SE’s dedicated to these functions. For most, however, this responsibility falls to the local territory account team and SE. In this two-part article we’ll first explore ways to manage this organizationally and secondly how to manage this locally.
Reach a Crazy Amount of Prospects
January 8, 2012 By
You’d be hard pressed to find an SE who thought they didn’t have enough work to do. We’re all short on time for keeping touch points with our customers and looking for ways to reach farther. I covered this conceptually with communications platforms. Today I want to highlight a particularly effective piece of content you can create for that platform—the standing tech briefing.
Staying Top of Mind with your Customers
November 5, 2011 By
Gerald Jampolsky said: To give is to receive.
As SEs we jump from customer to customer trying to bring in new business all while keeping existing customers happy, staying up on our products, and being in-the-know with industry developments. With just a fraction of your most valuable time spent face to face with your prospects, how can you keep that connection alive and well after you’ve gone. [Read more...]
Top apps for SEs
July 25, 2011 By
I must admit to being fairly intrigued with my new iPhone. This is probably because 1) I’ve had the same old Blackberry for 5 years now, and 2) I had to wait for such a long time to get it on Verizon because I wouldn’t switch away.
During my conversion I of course plunged head first into the world of apps. The first of course being an Angry Birds download. In my research I came across many top 10 lists for various audiences and I thought we (SEs) warranted our own.
I went about this list in a couple ways. First, being cheap, I prioritized apps that are free that do the job well enough. While a couple apps are iPhone specific, I specifically selected some apps because they had wider availability for our android friends. Finally, I assumed you spent a lot of time at customer sites and a moderate amount traveling regionally within the US.
Some of these I’m sure you’ll be well aware of, but hopefully there’s a few nuggets in here worth your time.
So, in no particular order:
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Dragon Dictation (free)While the speed at which high school students can whip out a text via thumb-typing is certainly impressive, there are better ways to writing that 2 paragraph reply on the fly. Dragon provides a free mobile version of their desktop software that records and transcribes your voice. I can attest that it actually works very well and saves me time on anything over a 1-2 sentence reply. Simply open up the app, dictate your message, make a few (if any) corrections, and copy it into an email, text, clipboard etc. It’s dirt simple and really shines because of its accuracy. |
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Mapquest (free)Mapquest is the only free app that gives you voice prompted turn-by-turn directions and is GPS integrated. I’m sure there are many better solutions out there for a fee, but I get by just fine with this app and it rarely can’t locate the place I’m going. It does lack a good general map-based search feature which Google does so well, hence I do have to switch back and forth sometimes. That said, it allows me to skip carrying a second stand alone device or paying the 10 bucks at the rental car counter. |
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Award Wallet (free)Assuming you travel you probably have a few different accounts for air, hotels, cars, etc. and it can good to see what rewards options you may have with each one. Award Wallet syncs all of that data and makes it available on your mobile while traveling. That should save you some hassle of having to log into a half dozen single purpose vendor apps. By keeping all of the data in one place it gives you a single view itinerary of your trip. Very handy. Another companion app is TripIt, which was recently purchased by Linkedin. It also manages your travel and has a easy email option to load data, but it doesn’t monitor reward data as Award Wallet does. |
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Mocha VNC (free)As much as we try to compartmentalize and make ourselves self sufficient on the road, there are always times it would be great to have access to our home or other desktop systems. This app gives you remote access to your VNC server from your phone. Navigating takes some getting used to, and you definitely wouldn’t touch up a photo using this, but if you need to get to something to attach in an email, or start an FTP upload, it will allow to get it done. |
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SalesForce.com Mobile (free)For users of the SFDC CRM tool, this gives you quick access to perform reference checks and quick searches for something you may need onsite. |
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EverNote (free)This note-taking app narrowly beats out the Microsoft OneNote app simply because its host version is free online. It has all the features EverNote users expect and the interface is quick to move around in. This doesn’t replace taking notes in a meeting, but does allow you jot quick notes and record critical bits that you need synced when you get back to your laptop. |
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iBooks (free)iBooks is here not because of the app itself, which everyone likely already has, but what you can use it for. Most folks overlook the PDF option. Simply take your product manuals, whitepapers, and other docs and load them in bulk. Whenever you’ve got some downtime you can make a little progress or look up an important tech fact when your laptop isn’t nearby. |
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Linkedin (free)I find the mobile app useful when you’re at the customer site and you find out you’re going to meet someone unexpected. During a 5 minute break (restroom or otherwise) you can do a quick search and get some good data about the prospect. usually it turns up at least something in common you can use to build rapport. |
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Card Munch (free)Snap a quick photo and it gets turned into a contact record. Good for removing clutter and having to keep track of them for later. Side tip: Keep the cards out and accessible while in the meeting. Arrange the cards in the seating order of the table to keep names straight. Only after the meeting should you scan and discard. |
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O Player HD (free)If you’ve tried to take some movies with you on the road, you know what a pain it is to convert everything to Quicktime format. O Player plays pretty much everything. Even better, it can wirelessly access a Windows/Samba share to copy files (in addition to via iTunes). While the entertainment value on the plane is good, it also is great for productivity. Similar to iBooks, you can load up the webex recordings and other (e.g. .avi) content. Fill in your downtime into some training cycles. |
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ApptDialer ($4)This is a gem of an app for iPhone users. I’m sure you’ve noticed (and if you’ve used a Blackberry you definitely notice) that you can’t direct dial a conference number+passcode from the Location field in a calendar entry. Since some of them have 10-digit passcodes this quickly had me searching alternatives. Outside of jailbreaking your phone, ApptDialer is the way to go. It gives you a slide wheel of all numbers in an invite and constructs the complex dial code for you. Don’t tell them, but I would have paid $10 for this. Side tip: If you’re always dialing into a certain bridge like yours, your reps, boss’s etc. you can construct the same dial sequence in a contact record which is even quicker than using ApptDialer. Why Apple blew this feature so badly I don’t know, but I’m sure it involved a kickback from someone. |
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Calendar Alarm ($2)This is another app for the blackberry->iPhone converted crowd. You quickly notice there is no way to snooze a calendar invite. Cal Alarm does a bit more but that’s the killer feature that actually made me shell out a couple bucks for it. |
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Webex Meeting Center (free)Most of us spend a good deal of time delivering webex-style presentations to remote customers. This app is handy for two reasons. First, it allows you to view While I mention Webex, GoToMeeting and others are available that have a similar featureset. |
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Dropbox (free)I don’t keep it a secret that I love dropbox and use it for a great many things. The dropbox app works as advertised and comes in very handy for accessing notes and any other files that natively open on the iphone. Since I keep my active customer folders inside Dropbox it gives me access to pretty much everything else I need on the road. My one complaint is that I can’t set it to sync all files in certain folders. That would be the icing on the cake. |
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Toodledo ($3)With a myriad of free options why pay 3 bucks for a task list? The answer is simplicity in my case. Toodledo is the only free web service that allows for Outlook synchronization. I wrote about this in depth in my GTD series. Toodledo made a smart business move charging a 1-time fee for an app (something I would do) to pull money in from an otherwise free service that many rely on. This allows me to keep 2 different computers, and iPad and iPhone all synced and it works very cleanly. Side tip: Many people sync Outlook via “contexts”. The Toodledo app relies on folders. Therefore, you’ll need to reset your sync app to map Outlook categories to folders. |
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Flight Aware (free)This app simply gives you the most reliable flight status of any source/app I’ve tried. They must have a mole in flight traffic control because I get time updates several minutes faster that competing services. The first update is almost always the eventual arrival/departure time as well; contrast that against SWA/AA/UA/etc updates that seem to update in increments of 15 minutes (my guess is to let passengers down easy?). |
Stop Charging Customers Extra
February 3, 2011 By
One thing that bothers me selling and buying enterprise software is the propensity for some companies to try to charge for every little incremental addition in the product.
Oh, you want the reporting engine, that’ll be $50 a seat extra. Two processors in that system, that’ll be a extra $1000 per agent. You want the product to actually do what it says in the PPT? Yea, that’s gonna cost you.
You get the drift.
As SEs we rarely get much say in the price point and structure. While we would love to avoid the price conversation altogether, it does come up during technical conversations. Customers have (rightfully so) gotten good at ferreting out where incremental charges come into play.
Rather than play that game and deflate enthusiasm for all the cool stuff I’m going to show them, I now use a different tactic. Between my rep and I we never go in with anything less than an all-inclusive license plan and mindset.
So when the inevitable question comes up about a particular module being extra, my answer is simply “no, we include it” and my rep can later follow up with the question “do you think you’ll take advantage of this feature?”. If the answer is no, guess what we can offer them: A discount!
If you think that’s a bit underhanded, imagine the next time you buy a car whether you’d like a sticker price to be all inclusive, letting you find ways to find ways to save versus seeing a low sticker and being hit up constantly for this add-on or fee until you’ve had enough. I think the former is a far better (and honorable) buying experience.
Is Your Rep Falling Down on the Job?
January 20, 2011 By
What do you do if your rep is pulling his own weight?
This is the gist of a question I recently received from a newer SE via email. It’s a tough question and one I don’t think I’ve addressed here before. Since the answer is involved I thought it would be best to describe my approach more thoroughly here.
First, when you’ve worked in the business long enough, this situation invariably happens. Usually it doesn’t start to manifest until you yourself have been in the role long enough to have worked with a variety of reps to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Second, when you’ve been in the business long enough, the situation will eventually reverse and, justified or not, your abilities will be called into question.
This is a face-paced, high risk/return game we’re in. Succumbing to the continuous pressure and jumping to rash decisions is all too easy a trap. All it takes is a quarter or two of missed results for the pressure to be ratcheted up enormously. It’s in your best interest to take a step back and rationally assess the situation. It takes real skill not to get caught up in the blame game.
Don’ts
- NEVER go straight to your boss or the sales manager with the issue. Put yourself in their place and ask how you’d react to that. Not positively I’m sure.
- Don’t assume you know everything the rep is and isn’t doing. I see it time and again where SEs don’t appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes to get meetings together, remove business barriers, negotiate contract/legal, etc. Get the “my rep just schedules the meetings and I do all the work” out of your head. It’s hard to counteract the overconfidence effect or egocentric bias.
- Don’t assume your rep has the benefit of seeing the strategies and tactics other reps you’ve worked with are using. Just because you’ve seen the presentation done a dozen different ways (and have learned what works best) doesn’t mean your rep has. It could just be a simple coaching issue.
- Do not ignore the problem if you feel it is impacting revenue. At the end of the day you are paid by the company to maximize revenue for a set of accounts. You are accountable for your sales targets, even if less directly.
- Never take matters into your hands and subvert the strategy your rep has put in place. That directly undermines trust in the relationship and damages your reputation.
Do’s
- Almost without exception you should bring up the problem with your rep directly first. Start with a casual comment. Maybe something like: “Joe, I saw the PM give this presentation the other day and he skipped the 15 minute company introduction slides and the audience really seemed to appreciate it. Maybe we should give that a shot.” That sounds way better than “Dude, you’re putting them to sleep in there!”
- Escalate the directness of your comments in response to their effectiveness. Have the frank conversation and get it out in the open in a non-threatening way. For those with some difficulty with this skill, I recommend Crucial Conversations
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- Be cautious and courteous with offering advice. Your reps will appreciate advice from you about as much as you’d appreciate their advice about being a better SE. Mileage may vary.
- If all else fails, you have to get management involved. Typically there will be a dedicated SE manager you can interface with. Only take this step if you’ve exhausted every other avenue and your rep knows you feel strongly enough involve others. The last thing you want is them getting called into their boss’s office about an issue they thought was between you two. That whole “trust” thing is kinda important.
- Even better: Offer to discuss it jointly under an “account strategy session” with the sales manager. Let the manager mediate. It doesn’t have to be a negative conversation. If you’ve done your homework, acted professionally, and still been outvoted, you’ve done your part. It’s out of your control and you can rationally decide to stay or explore other options longer term.
The golden rule should really be your guide here. Put yourself in his place, think of how you’d like your SE to react and follow that approach. The most important thing is to maintain the trust within the relationship. Your career success as an SE is ultimately determined more by whether the sales force respects and trusts you versus just how well you can demo the product.