Francesco Ciriaci Get Plone To Business!
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1 Get Plone to Business!
description
Trust the power of Plone and build the trust in customers, colleagues and friends. Plone is, for many aspects, such a good product that it fails sometimes in presenting itself right. We can do a better job, of course. The talk will present common communication/sales problems and practices to try to solve some of these problems; through examples and case studies it will try to give arguments and ideas to those willing to spread the Plone word.
Transcript of Francesco Ciriaci Get Plone To Business!
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Get Plone to Business!
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A few words before
● About me ● About this talk– Requires some
knowledge of Plone...
– ... not for developers
– Business “biased”
– About sales
– Tries to help solving a common problem
– Needs your feedback
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Summary
● Very short introduction to– Marketing– Communication– Sales
● Getting Plone to Business (Sales process)● What's next
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Marketing
● Marketing
– Communication– Sales
● Plone marketing is– Poorly documented– Something we shall improve
● But great resources (plone.org, plone.net, forums, mailing lists, “web 2.0 style pr”, love.)
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Plone is ?
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Plone is
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Plone is a product
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Getting Plone to Business
plone(ISellable).getToBusiness()
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Sales: what could sales be
● Telling “stories”● Building trust● Pretending Plone is something it is not● Knowledge transfer● Consulting● ...
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Two main ingredients
● The Champion ● The compelling event
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Main steps
1.Prospecting
2.Demo
3.Proposal work
4.Value proposition and final discussion
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Prospecting
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Be ready, calm and prepared
● Elevator speech● Know who you're talking to● Next appointment
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Elevator speech is not easy (1)
“Reflab: you don't know what they do, but they do it pretty well.”
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Elevator speech is not easy (2)
“Why don't you get a real job”
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Elevator speech is not easy (3)
(puzzled face)“... ahhhh, I see. You're a web agency, right?”
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Some hints
● Depends a lot on who you're talking to
● CM is very “intangible” matter, try to make it more physical
● We're not all “building sites”● Comparison with other softwares is ok, if “under
control”● Give a reference.
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Some Keywords
Web web 2.0 Innovation content management Sites
Intranet Collaborativeframework Zope3 adaptor
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Who you're talking to (1)
● Innovator– Will support– Will invest– Will listen
● Pragmatist– Will not trust you– Will ask for a
smaller (then smaller) (then even smaller) project
Plone is quite innovative!
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Who you're talking to (2)
● CTO profile
– Variable profiles
– Focuses more on the product
– Wants to go deeper in testing You
● Consultant/technical
– Interested in knowing more
– Focuses more on the framework
– Wants to go deeper in testing the software
Plone is a very good product
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... cool I created some interest
Next appointment
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Demo
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Demo... is all about preparation
a)General software presentation
b)Live demonstration
c)Indepth: Q&A
d)Larger group demonstration
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General presentation - Overview
● Overview– General description– Base functionnalities– Zope– Python– Other nice things that you love (at your own
risk)
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General presentation - MoreInfo
● Licence● Roadmap● Community● ... something that the person you're
talking to will love
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Common pitfalls
● ZODB (historically most famous pitfall)● Versions mayhem (Zope2, Zope3, Five, CMF, ...)● Hosting● (add yours here)
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Live demonstration
● Prepare, prepare, prepare● Use scenarios if possible (if provided)● Pre-populate with contents and users● Take your time, don't rush, stay in the UI● Starts with the basics
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Plone live demonstration tips
● Leverage the importance of the extra-cool super-usable Plone UI
● Show the “how”, not only the “what”● Focus on the default not on possible
customizations
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Q&A time
● Even more difficult phase● Very important for trust-building● Praparation again is important but more difficult● In depth of strenghts and weaknesses● Some questions could be (already) about
market, competitors, references...
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Q&A on Plone tips
● Do not avoid telling everything about Zope ● Python, if well presented, can be a plus.● Market and competitors
– Where do Plone rocks? (not, not on everything, sorry)
– Which are its main competitors?– References, numbers... (in your head)
Attend all sessions you can during this conference!
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Proposal work
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Proposal work - Do not do it alone!
● ... write, rewrite, sweat, improve (with your staff and the champion) – Listen– Train – Improve– Listen– Improve– ...
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Competitive strategy
● Frontal ● Flanking
Requires defined and clear evaluation criteria
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Plone Strategy Tips
● Default, simple● Leverage Plone power and flexibility here● Single solution, not a collection● Avoid the “all included/not included” trap
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Value Proposition
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Value proposition
● The bigger the project the more formal● Aimed to the economic buyer● Focus on
– Metrics– References
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Metrics examples
● Time to publish ● SEO● ...
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Building a value proposition for Plone
● Scarce formal material, yet● Plone.net helps● Mostly based on own data and experience● References are also provider-depended
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Then... repeat
● Final discussion● Formal purchase order● Implementation
... and repeat.
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What's next?
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42nd slide
● See more in evangelism ML● Friendly competition in marketing/sales? ● Support for Marketing
Q&A
