Ideas around Agility in Technology Services Sales in this emerging era for beginners

What is now being dubbed as ‘Crowd-Sourcing’, ‘Out-Sourcing’ certainly has reached the masses through masters and otherwise. As companies out there demand more and more agility in the solutions it raises the bar for us the sales professionals to get equally or more agile to create that successful end to end experience. Enclosed below are few ideas which I felt could offer certain help, these could be of benefit to sales/business development professionals who have just recently taken up their career in this technology solutions/services sales or are at the initial stages of it

2 Ps and the P : I could as well have said 3 Ps but the symmetry between the 2 and the 1 prompted me to keep them that way … the 2 Ps are Play and Pause which signify the judgement we as sales professionals make while dealing with a client/prospect, this is at its best and successful when is truly personal without any external influencing. It would be tough to understand and justify the reactions of people in the first go but the more we interact (exchange ideas, try understanding their needs, point them to few good sources of information, take help of any of the contacts you would know in common who could value add to the interactions) the stronger the bonding gets. The third P which plays a critical role complimenting the two Ps is Perseverance. Many a times Perseverance is taken too literally where a contact is not made for the duration agreed between the client/prospect and the Sales individual, it doesn’t have to be that way. Professional relation is as important (sometimes more, but certainly not less) as personal, vital care and contemplation is involved in selecting a partner as people would otherwise do in personal life, as most of us would have noticed many a professional relation extend becoming allies sometimes cutting the borders, cultures and languages.

Intermittently people get judgmental on the basis of prior experiences (of interactions with people), yes, it does work but not for the majority, reason being people are people. If I were to say that I experienced a Sony Vaio or an Apple Mac or Windows XP in the States and I found them to be different or similar in UK it makes a case, but if I say a person from a line of business in the States would transact largely the same way to a person of a similar profile in UK or Europe I am going awfully off beam

Mode of communication : is as crucial as the communication itself. It is for us sales people to know which means of communication is our client/prospect comfortable with – eMail, Snail Mail (there still are people/organizations which are comfortable, ritually may be, in dealing initially this way), Phone (Mobile and/or Landline) and Mobile-Text, this does now and then would make or break a contact

Whether it is about involving relevant subject matter experts or someone who would influence the relation/decision making you are the best judge on timing their entry into the relation.

Prescriptive to Facilitative : Selling has come a far way from just being a part of trade, it is much more today than getting the show on the road. Client/Prospect expects the sales individual and the transactions with him/her to be educating to either party involved in the discussions, a true partnership is envisaged. Lot of times with the outsourcing organization limiting the scope of work to their business perspective technology companies will have to shape up considerably being a consulting arm to an outsourcing arm, then an architecting arm and eventually a delivery one. Sales professionals have to fervently accept this need of the hour and equip themselves with knowledge of the arena they operate in much beyond their own offerings. More than mapping client’s needs to the organizational capabilities or offerings sales individuals would have to engage in knowledge-sharing, brain-storming sessions of course along with the key stake holders from both the parties involved which would not only result in sound solution ideas but leave very few stones (almost negligible) unturned along the way.

Subject Matter Expertise (SME) and Selling : The SME has been in existence for long, in fact due to the longer existence it has shaped up to a robust matrix with the organizational divisions (Operations, HR, Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, of late Procurement, Outsourcing and more) as subjects on one axis and on the other axis it would be the service(s)  offered by the consulting partner in areas like and including Productivity assessment and enhancement, Operational Management and many other quantifiable RoI oriented ones.

SME was largely practised by one or two Tier 1 players for long before becoming a part of the portfolio of many of the Tier-1 players and only a handful Tier-2 ones, I mean in an established and thoroughly practised sense. Many Tier-1 companies have budgeted to have around 40-100 or more SM experts each on permanent rolls this year (2010) alone who bring wealth of SME with them to the organizations and to the larger community in a wide range of subjects

Knowing more about our client/prospect : Market expansion is chiefly being driven by demand as a result of which most of the companies are exploring places they hadn’t planned or thought of. It would be momentous for us sales professionals to possess knowledge of any foreign languages  (widely spoken ones to start with) which would not just help us help our  organization but enrich our own knowledge on international cultures, cuisines, people and a lot more, travelling (as a visitor/tourist) indubitably would help extensively, virtual at times though not ideal ;-)

Latent Transparency : Lot of times both the client/prospect and the individual(s) representing potential partner organization tend to shy away from discussing few things assuming the aspects either aren’t of relevance or are not of immediate importance which unnoticingly slip through the cracks. So we from the sales front would have to capture this delicate information by holding talks with both client/prospect and the team(s) involved from our end. We also have to perseveringly carry out this activity of bridging the gaps and as we do that it is also imperative for us to document the transactions as otherwise the essence vanishes


Being adaptable : With signs of market upturn now being seen and felt there would be many reorganizations taking place in both our own and the client/prospect organizations at times posing new challenges, we have to be ready to face the switch boldly and come out with flying colours.

wishing you the best always, all ways