Selling Information Management To An "Appified" Enterprise
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#AIIM13 #AIIM1 2 #AIIM13 Selling information management to an "appified" enterprise Nick Inglis Director, Professional Development AIIM @nickinglis
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If you’re a salesperson for an on-premises information management platform, you’ve got a problem. Apps. Those damn apps give too much power to the users and now IT departments aren’t spending their money on your system. You have spent years building up your robust and perfect system that has every feature and configuration setting imaginable. What could go wrong? IT guy, rejoice! We’ve added more features and whatever you want to do, you can do with our platform... just pay the ongoing maintenance fee and I’ll send you this year’s model... Wait, what? You’re not renewing? You chose what as your new system!? There’s an adage that you’re going to want to remember right now, but it’s going to be a tough pill to swallow... If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Microsoft seems to get this. They’ve got SharePoint and now they’ve got SkyDrive, ok, they’ve had SkyDrive, but now they’re integrating with SharePoint. SkyDrive is a cloud repository primarily for file sharing and online storage and they literally name Apple iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox in their messaging as points of comparison. The funny thing is, SkyDrive was started as a consumer product, not an enterprise product. What’s going on here? Why would Microsoft want to have SkyDrive? If you think about it, isn’t this what SharePoint and Office365 have already promised us that it would do? Yes, but it comes down to this, SharePoint won’t ever have a shiny free icon on your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows 8 device. SkyDrive does. Microsoft knows that if it doesn’t get a strong consumer footprint that in this insane BYOD (bring your own device) culture that it has the potential to lose ground in the enterprise. That’s how strong the appification of the enterprise is. Appification has moved the mighty giant Microsoft. Microsoft is showing with SkyDrive that they’ve learned some lessons from Box and Dropbox. They’ve learned that a consumer product can quickly bridge a gap and become an enterprise product. They’ve learned that the consumer products that make the leap and become an enterprise product can take significant market share. They’ve even learned how the freemium model and iterative development work. They’ve now got that figured out and they’re Microsoft. 2GB Free? 5GB Free? No, 7GB Free! We’re Microsoft! To the Cloud! With SkyDrive, Microsoft is putting up their best defense against their apped-up competitors, putting up their best offense against their legacy platform rivals, and making a bold preparation for the future with a simple statement that I never expected to hear from Microsoft, “download our free app”. So, back to you, how do you sell your platform? Guess what, you don’t. For better or worse, lately, a growing number of companies don’t give a damn about your retention schedules, disposition support, legal holds, or even their own information management policies. For better o
Transcript of Selling Information Management To An "Appified" Enterprise
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Selling information management to an "appified" enterprise
Nick InglisDirector, Professional Development
AIIM@nickinglis
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Two Talks In One
Talk One: ECM Companies What are we doing? What do we do? What should we be doing?
Talk Two: ECM Salespeople Three Salespeople, Two Good, One Great Are you small? Are you big? The product development agenda: Set it
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Talk One: Companies
Selling information management to an
"appified" enterprise
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What Are We Doing?
Math.
ECM + ??? = $$$
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Examples
Microsoft:ECM + Collaboration =
$$$
Box:ECM + Apps = $$$
Nuxeo/Alfresco(Open Source):ECM - $$ = $$$
Salesforce.comCRM = $$$;
CRM + ECM = $
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What To Do?
Stop doing math.
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What To Do?
Image Credit: http://piperbasenji.blogspot.com/2012/01/words-and-phrases.html
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When ECM Is Ubiquitous…
ECM Is Commoditized.
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Remember ECM?
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is the strategies, methods and tools used to
capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an
organization’s unstructured information, wherever that information exists.
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What Has Been Our Selling Proposition?
Most ECM Solutions Over The Last 5 Years –
“We are an enterprise platformfor everything.”
“Comprehensive solution.”“Can it do X?”, “Yes.”
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What Has Been Our Selling Proposition?
When you do EVERYTHING,you are the BEST at NOTHING.
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Are We Cloudwashing?
How do we leverage the cloud to the benefit of
organizations?Are we helping
companies or just making sure the answer to the
cloud buzzword is “yes”?
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Solving The Problem
API
AppsCRM
ERPHR
ERMCollab
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Solving The Problem
Do What YOU Do Better Than Everyone Else
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Solving The Problem
If You’re Small Niche Solve big problems
in small segments
Broad Niche
10%
1/2 of
or
100%
1% of
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Solving The Problem
If You’re Large Don’t plan on world
domination Start with a solid product Broad applicability of
product Solid API to provide multiple
niche opportunitiesI cannot recommend this book. I don’t want competition…
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Talk Two: Salespeople
Selling information management to an
"appified" enterprise
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Solving The Problem
Three types of sales people “My Product Is The Best” “My Product Is The Best For ____” “I don’t know who my product is the best for”
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My Product Is The Best
Short term Confident
salespeople will be successful
Long term Unhappy customers Misalignment
between product and business needs
Image Credit: http://www.irenesinternet.com/lol/gullible/
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My Product Is The Best For _____
Long term success Adoring customers Alignment between product and business needs Smaller success up front Larger success long term
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I Don’t Know Who My Product Is Best For
Your options: Figure it out Resign Get fired
Image Credit: http://www.notoriousspinks.com/2011/01/04/30-day-road-to-disovery-day-3-goals/clueless/
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Unique Features
What are the unique features of your product that sets it apart?
What types of companies would benefit most from those unique features?
Do you know enough about the industry to make that call? Take AIIM Training
ECM Sales + (ECM, BPM, Your Product Category) Ask An Expert Who Is NOT From Your Company
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What does your product dobetter than everyone else?
There is always an alternative to what you’re selling.
Why should your prospects purchase from you rather than your competitors?
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What does your product dobetter than everyone else?
What is your niche? Don’t wait for your marketing team to position
your product towards that niche. Own it, explain why you’re the best option,
sell it.
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Understanding Your Niche
Who are the 10 customers who are the most satisfied with your product? (Not who makes you the most money) Can you group the 10 most satisfied customers
into less than 3 groups? Go after similar companies.
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Driving The Agenda
If you’re small and you start getting a lot of wins… you will set the agenda of product development.
If you’re large and you start getting a lot of wins… leverage prior wins for future wins.
Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roller_chain_drive_(Army_Service_Corps_Training,_Mechanical_Transport,_1911).jpg
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API Turnkey Solutions = Niche
API Your Way Into A Successful Niche
Sell a specific set of connections to your product for a turnkey niche solution.
Niche
API With This
API With This
I Sell This
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Conclusion
ECM is a solution: don’t minimize the value of the management of content
Understand your product Know what you do better than everyone else Leverage APIs Niche your way to success
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Thank you.
