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Notes from the session:
Raj Rajamani Speaker (from CA)/Note Taker - Tony Harris
Director, Product Management, CA Technologies -- enterprise security products (b2b sales)
Revenue growth - simple most important factor
==> Sales = most strategic activity, not merely tactics
Classic problem:
product based business review - including challenges & issues - and plan to meet them
when doesn't meet the sales goals - becomes a blame game
>> senior management - becomes investigator - what IS the problem?
RESULT - key learnings for this session
Coverage = need pipeline of 3x - 5x to meet the number
if only 1.8x = issue
monitor monthly - then weekly - then daily in close of quarter
Velocity
can help id what is real
chart - look at under 6 mos, 6-9 mos, over 9 months - vs under 30, 30-90 day, 90+ day
Look for Regional Differences
Period review - compare changes to pipeline stages from one time period to time period
Cost per Lead
compare the cost/lead and conversion rate to optimize ROI for marketing campaigns
Key Question: What would be the impact of 10% additional spend? of 10% reduction?
Alternate model: Splunk - Freemium model to generate leads
Price Elasticity
- Focus on expanding the pie & expanding your slice of pie
Price to enable sales to take all the available money on the table - discounting will price to specific customer/opportunity
best possible experience vs alternative minimum experience
Product-Market Fit
what if sales can't meet # based on product problem
Average Selling Price (ASP) & Discounting
Review ASP of bookings over time periods
AND ASP/Unit of bookings over time periods - example shows growing discounting per unit - indicative of product issue
can you also graph ASP are possible to look standard deviation/variance -- though not as common
most of the metrics are supplied by decision support team (larger organizations)
Another example - product marketing fit
Hardware, vs license, vs support (renewal)
-- look at monthly renewal %
>> customers had moved to alternative products before support renewal rates
Win/Loss Ratio
Salesmanship bias: Not likely to get loss report data that isn't biased
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Traditional Approaches
a) public filing (SEC)
Interview lost accounts customers, sales reps
competitive labs - "independent" purchase & tear down product
hire from competitors sales team
reseller prices - e.g. through CDW
Track MarketShare & Market growth
use your ASP/deal to estimate their # of customers based on their revenues
eg: IDC market statistics
BUT REMEMBER:
Garbage In, Garbage Out
therefore -
Suggested books:
Selling the Wheel - Jeff Cox/Howard Stevens