Getting to Yes With the Business Decision Maker

Hugh Taylor

Goals of Today’s Session

• Improving our ability to engage with business decision makers in the marketing process.

• Gaining a better understanding of the BDM persona and what drives them.

• Building up our BDM marketing “muscles” and learning to think in terms of business value messaging for the technology sale.

2

A Little About Us

• Hugh Taylor Marketing Communications

• Content Creation for Technology Marketers

• Clients include:– Microsoft

– Sybase

– FirstData

– Quark

• Former Microsoft Communications Professional (IW Comms)

3

The Buying Committee

• The buyer side of an enterprise software sale invariably consists of a committee of stakeholders who each must approve the vendor and proposed solution.

• This group might include multiple buyer personas:– Developers– IT professionals– IT managers– Security experts– Architects– (LOB) managers, also known as business decision makers,

or BDMs

4

Buyer Personas

• The software solution must meet the needs of each member of the group in order to be selected.

• Each persona has its own needs for the solution, but the BDM’s point of view on software is markedly different from the others. – While developers, architects and security experts have

divergent requirements for software, they tend to evaluate solutions from a technological viewpoint.

– BDMs typically do not. – BDMs look at software from a business perspective.

5

Success

• The successful enterprise software vendor is able to persuade BDMs of the business value of its solution.

• The process of persuasion must last throughout the entire lifecycle of the transaction, from demand generation through RFP and close.

• We must understand the BDM and the world in which he or she operates.

• With a grasp of the BDM mindset, we initiate a dialogue that communicates a strong business value proposition for the solution and creates a foundation for a long-term, trust-based relationship.

6

Our Goal• A BDM is a potential influencer or

champion of an enterprise software solution.

• In some cases, the BDM is the ultimate decision maker.

• We want a “Yes” from the BDM. To make the sale, we need the crucial business level approval that will put our solution over the top. Yet, chances are, we want more than a simple “thumbs up”.

• Our goal with the BDM should be to develop a long-term relationship based on trust, business advantage, and financial value.

7

The BDM Buyer Persona

• Gaining the trust of a BDM and persuading him or her of the business value of our solution is not a push-button process.

• As a start, we have to understand the BDM’s persona and perspective on IT.

• A BDM is running a business. – Responsible for increasing income and reducing costs in order to

achieve continuous earnings growth. (Hiring and firing, product development, overseeing sales and managing operations…)

– At the same time, the BDM bears ultimate responsibility for managing risk on a global basis. It’s a broad, stressful role.

– The good news is that IT has a long, successful history of helping BDMs further their business objectives.

– The bad news is that we can easily fall into communication traps that undermine our efforts to win the trust of the BDM and showcase our solution as being essential in business terms.

8

A Hypothetical Solution Sale

9

Three Traps

• Being excessively technical : Deep discussions of technology and product features can be helpful when communicating with ITDMs. However, the BDM typically does not have the same depth of appreciation for technology.

• Using scare tactics: Unfortunately, many software vendors rely on a fright-inducing story to jump start the business relationship.

• Ignoring IT’s track record :A BDM may hear a pitch for new software as, “Here is technology that will help you achieve your goals in a particular aspect of business operations.” In a lot of cases, though, that type of message is going to hit some pretty skeptical ears.

10

Connecting with the BDM

• How do we build a relationship with the BDM without falling into these common traps?

• We have to engage the BDM in a dialogue that reinforces our understanding of the business situation and affirms the business value of our solution.

• The right kind of dialogue that will move the relationship forward involves the “Chain of Yeses.”

11

Business-Oriented Story Telling

• The secret to connecting with the BDM is to tell a story that will draw the BDM into a productive dialogue.

• A good story hooks the BDM and moves him or her down the path from consideration to preference, and ultimately to selection of our solution.

• The story is about strategy and financial gain, leadership and team empowerment. It succeeds by engaging the BDM in a thought process that looks at the business challenge from his or her perspective.

• And, it’s told in the BDM language.

12

The Story

• This BDM-facing story establishes a realistic business scenario.

– There is a problem, but there is more than one possible solution.

– The scenario-based approach allows the vendor and the BDM to consider how a particular solution might lead to the best business outcomes.

– The BDM facing story should include both a financial return on investment as well as intangible drivers of business advantage.

• BDMs tend to think in terms of competitive dynamics. They want to know how a proposed investment will further the competitive positioning of the business.

– Operational advantage – Will the proposed solution make the BDM’s business more efficient or effective in operational terms?

– Strategic advantage – Can a software solution confer a strategic advantage on the BDM’s business?

– Knowledge Advantage - Will the solution help information workers capture, preserve, and share valuable organizational knowledge?

13

The Solution

The distributor portal functions as an intermediary between sales, operations, and the distributor. The portal will replace the current inefficient set-up and provide distributors with a single online location to access information about price quotes and seasonal promotions.

14

Return on Investment (ROI)

• ROI is a subjective concept in the enterprise software context:– Often gets misused or loosely applied in discussions

where specificity is required. – BDMs have a distinct sense of what ROI is all about,

and it is a point of view that is usually quite different from that of ITDMs.

• In a simple sense, ROI is always about the same thing: – Money gets invested. – Then, there is a savings or increase in income that

results in a positive return from the investment.

15

ROI for a BDM vs. ITDM

• In most ITDM-facing discussions, the ROI is approached as an IT-centric issue. – Reductions in hardware costs or – Reductions in maintenance fees, and so forth, resulting in a

return on the IT investment.

• This is a completely valid approach to ROI, but one that is not particularly motivating to the BDM.

• The one absolute truth that we all need to grasp before discussing ROI with a BDM is that the BDM does not have to make an investment in IT.

• Proving ROI to a BDM must therefore answer a basic, existential question about the solution. Should the solution even be under consideration?

16

Key ROI Questions

• If the BDM-facing communication is to cross this critical bridge, you must be prepared to answer the following questions:– Will this solution help me save money, make more

money, or both?– What will this solution cost me now?– What will this solution cost me later?– Will there be opportunity costs to implementing this

solution?– Will there be unexpected future costs?– Will this solution inhibit me from other potential actions

I might want to take down the road?

17

Getting Specific with ROI

Time Required for Process Step (Person/Hours)

Process Step As Is With PortalReceive and process RFQ 0.10 0.05 Sales supervision of RFQ 0.20 0.10 Operations communicating RFQ response

0.20 0.10

Preparing proposal draft 0.50 0.50 Discuss proposal 0.75 0.50 Finalize and submit proposal 0.75 0.25 Receive and process order 0.10 0.05 Oversee order in manufacturing queue

0.50 0.20

Facilitate delivery 0.20 0.10 Invoicing 0.10 0.05 Total 3.40 1.90

Reduction in time 1.50 44%Cost per worker/hour $ 85 Savings per order $ 128 Orders per year 18,000 Total annual savings $ 2,295,000

Wherever possible, we should articulate specific, hard dollar factors that will affect the solution in the business context over the short and long term.The table is an example of an ROI calculator spreadsheet that breaks the order processing workflow into discrete tasks and compares how much information worker time they would require with and without the distributor portal.

18

How Do We Know ROI facts?

• How do we know how much a BDM’s company spends on its order processing? – We don’t, of course, but the modeling process shows

the BDM that we are thinking about ROI the way he or she is.

– You can present savings as potentialities, e.g. If the portal could reduce order-processing labor by 10%, it could realize a savings of $520,000, and so forth.

– Best practice: Provide a digital Excel version of the ROI calculator to facilitate a realistic ROI discussion with the actual BDM in the field.

19

Conclusion

• Getting to “Yes” with a BDM is an essential step in commencing an enduringly profitable, trust-based relationship.

• To initiate the dialogue that will allow the relationship to take root involves understanding what is on the BDM’s mind and approaching the software sale from the BDM’s perspective. – Use a compelling business scenario to discuss the business value of the

proposed solution. – Tell a story.– Show business advantage.– Show tangible ROI.

• Ultimately, though, no single piece of marketing material can do all the hard work of fostering a long-term relationship with the BDM.

20

Thank You!

hugh@hughtaylor.com

(310) 383-7041

www.hughtaylor.com