Identifying Your Competitors Strengths

The usual way to go about analyzing Competitor strength is to go ahead and build a SWOT analysis starting with the strengths and moving into the weaknesses.The key point here is that you need to reduce whatever anxiety the client has with your firm. Go through each objection they may have and show how you are a safer bet and are more likely to deliver the goods, ahead of schedule.
 
Usually the client gets a good feeling once he knows that the seller understands his problem
So if you help the client see where they could go wrong with other applicants, then that helps us reduce the number of applicants. Write to reduce the assessor’s anxiety. Once you tailor your material in this way, your success rate will increase dramatically.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

The Solution Approval & Review Meeting(SOAR) - Points to remember

Often I have seen people feel overtly cocky about the SOAR meet and then get shot down in a couple of seconds, so in order to prevent the sort of disasters that SOAR meets can be, I have laid down some important points which can be followed to ensure your proposal has a fighting chance to succeed

• Analyze thoroughly the Approval process
• Try to engage people before for a informal talk to gauge the mood and also form alliances
• Prepare, prepare, prepare & prepare - The single most important thing to consider
• Position it for your audience to help them convince them of their benefits
• Keep it simple
• Answer questions with confidence

Do:

• Meet with important stakeholders in advance of needing their formal approval
• Position your idea in terms of the benefits your audience stands to gain
• Answer questions concisely and confidently

Don’t:

• Assume that your audience will believe it’s a good idea just because you do
• Overwhelm your audience with detailed analysis or specifics
• Get defensive or angry when people challenge your idea

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Guidelines for Modelling

The best advice/guidelines that I usually lay down for a modelling process especially a client facing data model is as follows :

•  Model should be iterative
•  Model should be dynamic
•  It should be economical in data
•  It should be economical in its views
•  Concepts should be clear and recognized
•  Model structure should be clear and recognized
•  Models should be consistent to previously available models ie. -  if they exist
•  Try and make models as correct and complete as required
•  The different concerns/viewpoints regarding the components should be treated orthogonally rather than in a scattered manner.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Basic Modelling Activities

As real life modelling is usually not linear and tends to be highly interactive, I have often tried to detail the activities involved in a modelling process, some of them are explained as follows :

1. Establishing the purpose, scope and focus- What part of reality will be described (Mine usually consists of three categories - conservative,normal, optimistic
- What aspects will be described - (probably the features of the product)
- What level of detail will be available - (Very important aspect as a lot of detail tends to confuse people...;-))
2.Selecting one or more viewpoints
3.Creating and structuring the model- Enterprise architecture to be used/not used ?
- Can you elicit and add additional info if you need
- Based upon the available information  you then engineer a model
- Or you can create a model via a visual representation
4. Visualizing/Using/Testing the model- Validation.Obtaining Commitment (The hardest part, so be ready to fight it out !)
- Informing the other stakeholders
5. Maintaining the model

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

The Zachman Framework - Helping define perspective

Whenever asked to advise on a framework that helps project an ideal set of rules and architecture for the management of complex IT products, I have always recommended the Zachman Framework as it helps define how perspectives are related according to certain rules or abstractions and also the schema of the architecture

All in all It allows different people in the team to look at the same thing from different perspectives. This helps create a holistic view of the environment, an important capability illustrated in this figure provided by zachman

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Rational Unified Process chart

When asked to explain the schedule and the timelines for a given project, I have often relied on the RUP process chart to explain the entire schedule as it provides a disciplined approach to assigning tasks and responsibilities . The obvious goal is to ensure the production of high-quality tools that meets the needs of its end-users, within a predictable schedule and budget. 

The product life-cycle is broken into four cycles, each cycle working on a new generation of the product
• Inception phase  - Here you just establish the business case for the system and delimit the project scope. 
• Elaboration phase - Usually the elaboration phase is used to analyze the problem domain, establish a sound architectural foundation, develop the project plan, and eliminate the highest risk elements of the project.
• Construction phase - This basically is a engineering process where emphasis is placed on managing resources and controlling operations to optimize costs, schedules, and quality
• Transition phase - The purpose of the transition phase is to transition the software product to the user community. This involves clearing bugs updating new releases, finishing up some features

Shown below is a chart that helps (courtesy Wikipedia)

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Include Cash Flow Balances/ Projections of the company in the Business Plan ?

This is one of the questions that have often cropped up while discussing the business plan with the sales team. My personal opinion to them, is to always include cash flow Balances/Projections  in the Business plan because it acts as an ingredient that helps project the fact that our business operates smoothly.

Also by a lot of people often mistakenly believe that a cash flow documents will show the profitability of a project. Although closely related, these cash flow and profitability are different. A cash flow statement lists cash inflows and cash outflows while the income statement lists income and expenses. A cash flow statement shows liquidity while an income statement shows profitability.

However if you believe that the business plan/Presentation is getting too lengthy and boring you can always cut that element with a one-liner stating your stability and your YOY (Year on Year) Financial profitability numbers and that should also do the trick for you.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Opportunity Assessment Framework

There is a need to effectively assess opportunities so that they can be managed effectively, in order to do that we had to often classify an opportunity into three categories.

1. Company Business Goals - This is a category that evaluates if the opportunity builds brand awareness, increases revenues, lower operational investments or helps us in cross selling across the divisions
2. Impact on the Client & the Software/Services Industry : It usually covers factors associated with customer satisfaction and our industry standing to increase our market share
3. Competitive Stance : This evaluates if this opportunity is a medium for us to enter the market/leapfrog/or attain par with competition. A second point should assess the window of the opportunity that is available for us to exploit 

With all this you could also add framework aspects which contribute towards customer loyalty, Supply or demand constraints, your team's delivery record, or any other aspect that you may find useful to your particular organization.

 If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Alternative Business Case Report (Roadmap)

Areas where Business Value can be quantified

Business value is a critical component that needs to be projected effectively, in order to do that I have gone ahead and compiled a list of areas where they can be explored, Although some of them can be a little tricky to quantify, but then this is something that needs to be discussed with your marketing / Solutions/ Finance/ Leadership  teams to see if they have any data to support the claims.

1.    Corporate

• Results oriented  company
• Brand Differential
• Innovative Products
• Error free products
• Ease of Doing Business

 2.    Marketing

• Brand Differentiation
• Product Solutions
• Strong Distributor’s
• Strategic Alliances
• Exceptional Service

3.    Operations

• Agile Capacity
• Low cost Products
• Error free Products
• Supply Chain
• Ease of Doing Business

4.    Information Systems

• E-Commerce Capability
• Project Management
• Service and Reliability
• Supply Chain
• Flexible Systems

5.    Human Resources

• Results oriented  company
• Leadership Depth
• Personal Growth
• HR Expertise
• People Capacity

6.    Finance

• Streamlined Finance
• Fiscal Insight
• Analytic Capability
• Financial Information
• Cost Management

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Software Demonstration Stages (Terms)

Although this is something that appears to quite a basic accepted practice across all software & service companies, but I am just mentioning this since I found out that a ot of Sales reps are not aware of this so let's get that cleared !

The way we see it, there are three categories or levels of demos (or "software experiences" that go by the name of demo):

Stage 1: The overview : This is the stage where you educate the prospect by providing him with information about what your company does and and what your software or service solves. The delivery mechanism usually involves power-point presentation and videos. Here your prospects don't actually operate the software — they just watch it !!

Stage 2: The Details : This stage involves in showing your prospect detailed functionality of your software. This is sometimes unguided (e.g., you let the user download a sample or presentation), and this is sometimes carefully scripted and managed (e.g., an in-person or Web-based step-by-step walk-through of your product).

Stage 3: The Trial Version (Optional) : Now some companies may offer this sort, where a sample version is released or a standardized version is released to the prospect so that they might experience, The client usually pays for the consulting and installation, However you may want to forgo the license fees in anticipation of a larger roll-out. Usually this is the the stage where your company plays the coach 

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Due Diligence Analysis Model

Before any sale, we should ensure that steps should be taken to secure the best value in any deal. This is a vital element before contemplating any transaction. We usually tend to use very basic due diligence models which allow us to assess the potential clients in terms of their financial health and how they may contribute towards our growth

Usually while designing a Due Diligence scorecard we take into account the following factors
1. Financial Performance
2. Brand Value
3. Business Conditions
4. Prospects for the Future
5. Client Organization
6. Competitive Environment
7. Quality of Assets
8. Structure of purchase transaction
9. Other Critical Risks

These 9 factors can be subdivided into many more factors which can be assigned specific weight-ages which would contribute to the final rating that can be assigned to the client

All this is based upon financial & Legal documentation, Insurance Policies,Research, Press Releases, Intellectual properties & Strategic Agreements

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Activity Based Cost Model (ABC Model)

Often to understand and figure out answers to questions like :
1. What is the true costs of the services we are providing to our clients?
2. How much should we charge clients for the cost of our services?
3. What are low and high priority activities in terms of funding

I usually tend to prefer using the ABC model, as the this type of model helps us allocate costs in an effective manner. This model is based on the principle that activities incur costs through the consumption of resources.

This type of modeling uses a two step process to allocate costs:

Step 1: You have to pull actual costs (what was spent) per the most reliable source, such as the General Ledger. Once you have identified the actual costs, then you have to determine how to allocate all of these costs (resources) to the activities that are performed by the department (or what-ever domain you are building the model towards). Labor costs are typically allocated by looking at the percentage of time people spend on various activities.

Step 2: Once you understand the costs by activities, then you need to allocate these costs to your cost objects (such as the different service lines you perform for customers). For example, the number of help desk tickets processed is an output driver to allocate costs from the help desk activity to help desk support costs.

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com