Last year was a very turbulent year for IT spending. Most companies were trying to reduce their costs and weren’t spending cash on their IT infrastructure until the dust settled from the great recession of 2009. Luckily, the tech industry tends to rebound fairly quickly from recessions because it plays such a critical role in the business functions of Fortune 1000 companies. Without maintaining and innovating their IT infrastructure, companies are at a competitive disadvantage, and it can start to affect their revenues and customer satisfaction.

EMC is one of the largest sellers of enterprise IT software and hardware and they have been an industry leader in developing innovate technology for decades and have weathered many recessions. In January 2010 they released their quarter four earnings report and their CEO, Joe Tucci, had a lot of commentary on where he thinks companies will start to spend their 2010 IT budgets.

He stated the number one priority for CIOs in 2010 is storage. CIOs will use a significant portion of their budgets to optimize their storage systems and methods including back-up disks with data de-duplication, storage consolidation, unified storage, tiering of storage, and business continuity. Companies’ data requirements are increasing every second and their valuable data needs to backed up and secure. Data storage initiatives will accelerate throughout the next decade, and cloud computing will be a major player in the data storage industry.

Virtualization is another area that Tucci identifies as somewhere that CIOs will be spending their budgets. Virtualization decreases the amount of physical hardware and redistributes how networks and computers are allocated across the infrastructure. It reduces company costs and increases the efficiency of their IT systems. Along the same lines as virtualization, he sees security and governance, risk, and compliance spending accelerating in 2010. EMC is increasing their development of private clouds and are working with Fortune 1000 companies to redistribute their data centers using virtualization. All of this is great news for IT sellers trying to penetrate Fortune 1000 companies this year.

EMC’s CFO Daivd Goulden also commented on how spending started to increase in Q4 of 2009, “I think we also saw even maybe a little extra in some of that spending the customers didn’t do in Q1 and Q2 as companies got more confident in their next year 2010 business plans, they were doing a little bit of catch-up because I think they really starved their infrastructures in Q1 and Q2,” he said.

Now is the time to identify your prospects using sales intelligence resources and start forecasting your sales pipeline for 2010. Sales reps can’t rest on the laurels of 2009; they must identify current company problems and opportunities and then communicate how their solutions can help them leave the low points of 2009 behind.

- Mark Kilens
mark . kilens@salesquest.com
978.749.9999 ext. 118

Unfortunately, a harsh reality in sales is that, on average, 30% of leads in your pipeline will not convert to close. While sales forecasts are certainly not always correct, because sales can be a very unpredictable line of business, they can be extremely helpful in bringing more deals to close.

Sales forecasts can be helpful for time management for sales reps, as they can highlight which accounts they should spend their valuable time selling to, and which accounts are not highly likely to buy. Then, over time, these forecasts provide historical data on close rates for a variety of types of leads. The more forecasting you do, the more accurate you can become with your predictions if you assess the actual closing rates against your previously forecasted numbers.

The debate of over whether sales forecasting is worth spending time on is a heated issue within organizations and even the blogosphere—and both sides of the argument are valid. It is true that most forecasts are not going to be completely accurate, but it is also true that forecasting accuracy CAN be improved, and also that they can be helpful when they are not 100% correct.

The real issue is how much you depend on your forecast, and even more importantly, what you depend on it for. The worst thing you can do is to treat your forecast as a prediction of the future; depending on not-yet-closed sales to operate your business is, obviously, extremely dangerous, like using a credit card that you might not be able to pay off. In this respect, yes, sales forecasting may not be a good idea.

On the other hand, using this data to analyze patterns in your sales cycle and improve upon the process is a worthwhile endeavor. Sales forecasting templates are a good way to keep this information functional, consolidated and ready to analyze, especially if your CRM system does not already have a sales forecasting functionality. The more you can compare forecasted numbers with actual numbers, the more value you will get out of your future forecasts, and the more accurate they will become.

With a template, you may begin to see patterns in what types of leads are coming to close, which of your products are selling better, and ultimately be able to see how much time you are investing into these deals that is either profitable or a complete waste. Taking the time to fill out a template on a daily or weekly basis forces you to think about where you should be spending your time, and how long it might take you to close the sale, so that you can allocate your efforts appropriately and efficiently.

- Carolyn Sebasky
carolyn . sebasky@salesquest.com
978.749.9999 ext. 107

Crafting rock-solid positioning statements is essential to qualifying and closing a sale. The statements should also incorporate your product’s value propositions; they must relate to the problem or opportunity you’re trying to solve for the company. Creating positioning statements can be very difficult if you don’t have correct knowledge about the account you’re trying to close. Utilizing sale intelligence resources and asking the right questions are the best ways you can collect information about a company. In 2010, companies are increasing their technology spending. Therefore you must understand what they need to deliver to their CEO, so you can align your positioning statement with their current problems or initiatives.

A positioning statement cannot be just a statement about your product or company, its benefits and why it is better than your competitors’ offerings. A great positioning statement will convey a story to the audience and trigger a connection with them, so that they have to immediately act on it. Understanding what is currently driving their business is critical to creating a powerful positioning statement. Sales intelligence data and sales enablement resources help you paint a picture of accounts that includes past, present and future information. They will enable you to uncover your prospect’s relevant problems or initiatives and help you align your product or service so that you can create a compelling story with factual information.

The positioning statement should include who you’re targeting, what their problems are, your differentiator and value proposition. The alignment with their problems and how your solution solves them must be at the heart of the positioning statement. They need to align, or there isn’t a chance high probability for making a sale. It should be crystal clear to the buyer why they should choose your solution over someone else’s. If this is proving to be difficult, try going after another prospect. You don’t want to be kicking the tires with a prospect that isn’t a fit, and the positioning will help you determine what tires to attack by identifying the company’s business drivers and aligning your solutions with them.

- Mark Kilens
mark . kilens@salesquest.com
978-749-9999 ext. 118

Iqbal Rashid, a lead generation specialist, discusses how to develop a powerful positioning statement.

Over the past decade, companies have spent millions of dollars updating their technology systems and infrastructure in order to stay competitive and maximize their profitability. However, over the last two years, spending fell off dramatically as most businesses were looking to cut costs rather than invest money in their IT systems. Cost cutting isn’t over, but companies are starting to increase their technology spending in 2010. According to the December 2009 CIO Economic Impact Survey, CIO budgets and capital spending are both increasing from the previous years levels. When asked the same question in May 2009 only 14% of respondents said their budgets would be increasing compared to 40% in December 2009.

This is terrific news for companies trying to penetrate new accounts, up-sell current accounts or secure renewals. With that said, the competition going after these newly increased budgets will be extremely competitive. Reps will now need sales enablement resources to help them be the first to the deal and capture the attention and interest of their audience. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to stay on top of prospects and accounts, and using account plans and sales intelligence tools are a great supplement. Decreasing the time spent researching and qualifying prospects, and using that time to begin the relationship building process, can give you a head start on your competition.

Applications, hardware, and mobile/web were the top three areas that CIOs are going to be spending more of their budgets in 2010. New project spending is also predicted to go up, which will contribute to the company’s top line revenue. Most companies indicate they will be spending more of their budgets on their infrastructure and not increasing their employee count or spending budget on consultants. These areas, coupled with the top ten emerging technology trends, are shaping the next decade of IT strategies around cost cutting and greening IT, but productivity and improving the company’s bottom-line are important drivers for those strategies.

- Mark Kilens
mark . kilens@salesquest.com
978-749-9999 ext. 118

With every aspect of life, there is an understood code of etiquette that determines how you should act to be “socially accepted.” These codes vary depending on if you’re with friends or at work, as well as if you’re out at a dive bar versus a formal event. The sales profession is no exception to these sets of standards; there is a manner of acting that will earn the respect of your prospects, strengthen your sales pitch, and help you to close more deals. That being said, straying from these protocols is how faux pas are formed.

While faux pas in the world of sales may not be as material as mismatching socks or flood pants, the implications of committing a sales faux pas are arguably more devastating. Committing these five “no-nos” will almost assuredly cost you the sale, or at the very least, will lengthen your sales cycle and hinder your ability to hit your quota.

1. Bashing the competition: Play fair; knocking down your competitors as the heart of your sales pitch only tells your prospect one thing—that you want their money. You should be selling AGAINST your competitors as a method of proving the value of your solution. It is not only classier and will earn you credibility, but when your selling points align with the problems within their organization, it will show that you truly understand their business needs.

2. Focusing on price: Only talking about price won’t convince anyone of ROI if you don’t prove value, no matter how much of an “awesome deal” you’re giving them. A sale means nothing without perceived value behind your product, and as a salesman, it is YOUR job to make that value understood.

3. Not taking the time to understand your prospect: Without a customer, your product is useless. Doing a little bit of research to make sure you solution is ACTUALLY a “solution” to you prospect’s problems can either help you close the sale or serve as a warning that you’re wasting your time trying to sell to someone who doesn’t need what you’re offering.

4. Pitching immediately: Getting the right decision maker on the phone is one of the hardest parts about selling; don’t waste both parties’ time by going straight to the pitch. Remember that this person is making a sacrifice to talk to you. They don’t want to hear about how great you think you product is, they want to know HOW your product can help them. Make sure you can answer that question before you get on a call, and catch his or her attention immediately.

5. Only talking about your product: No one cares! Delivering a standard pitch detailing how fantastic your product is accomplishes nothing, except likely annoying your potential customer. Taking the time to understand your prospect’s business needs before and even during an initial call will allow you to customize and tailor the value prop to their needs, which will greatly increase the probability that you close the sale.

These bad sales habits are a surefire way to annoy your prospect and potentially lose a sale; they have become no-nos for a reason. Of course, avoiding these bad habits will require extra time, effort and research in order to educate yourself before moving forward with an account. But, taking this strategic approach will allow you to ask appropriate questions, target your prospect in a way that will help them to trust you, and therefore make it easier for you to create a meaningful value prop and shorten your sales cycle. Just as you may cringe at someone walking down the street wearing socks with their sandals, a potential customer may write you off if you don’t make the effort to avoid these sales faux pas.

- Carolyn Sebasky
carolyn . sebasky@salesquest.com
978.749.9999 ext. 107