1 post tagged “id212”
Ed and Julian are presenting. The room (the front third of the Dolphin ballroom) is absolutely packed to the rafters.
Ed and Julian introduce themselves, explain that this session isn't for sales guys (go play with your Blackberries!), and isn't too technical.
Why am I selling Notes to my company, because it is good for your company. Will make a difference to profitability, IT availability to Execs etc. And from that, will be good for your job. Make it easier, when you havehelp, resources and budget for the projects us Notes guys will be working on, thus leading to working on better, bigger projects.
A secret... Users don't love their jobs, but any improvements can help. Getting rid of paper, and moving to IT-based workflows will make their jobs easier.
May also mean we learn something, new hints and tips for Notes, or work on new cool projects - wikis, blogs, Web2.0 etc.
Ed: There are Barbarians at the gate! If Notes-focused folks aren't talking about Notes in their organisations, then the assumption is that it isn't doing well. Notes can be a very quiet product, in terms of just doing the job.
Who are we selling to? Managers (Ed says this is a big part of his job) must hear about ROI, TCO, business benefits and extensions, not technical improvements.
Julian: Selling to Other departments. Accounting departments are good example, being very spreadsheet-focused. For charts and calculations this is fine, but if you're trying to build a business workflow then they need to be told that there is a better way. "Bubbling Up" from departments...
Selling to End Users. "Bottom Up" from the real users of applications. Have heard of managers that prevented applications being used because "apparently its just terrible" - i.e. their reportees complained it wasn't usable, or they hadn't had training, but the reputation goes up through the organisation.
Peers. There will be non-Notes people in every organisation "the dark side", need to be told about the coool stuff that Notes can do - clustering from iSeries to an xBox running Linux etc! Other examples include multiple programming languages, such as Javascript, AJAX and so on.
Yourself. Need to know the product, and evangelise about it to sell it to others.
Ed: How? Need to be an Evangelist - "a bearer of good tidings". Julian opens his shirt to show a Superman t-shirt. LOL.
It will be fun, to evangelise, to show people the great features etc,
Trust us, need to establish trust with others in the organisation by showing responsiveness to needs and wants from users.
10 techniques for selling in your organsation:
- The Killer App - shows screengrab of old Dennis (http://youtube.com/watch?v=-GXRa4ttRqs) Leary commercial extolling benefits of $1.2m saving at Daimler-Chrylser resulting from a Notes app. Not talking about huge complex apps that will never be replaced, instead the one or two "showcase" apps that they use everyday in the course of their jobs. They need to be slick, good-looking apps, that are usable, portable and fitting to their job roles. These are the window into Notes for many users, and hence form users' perceptions.
- Talk about the end result, not just technology. Capabilities drive business decisions, and IT is seen as a valuable contributor and team player. "The destination is the benefit, not the journey". Ed notes that the people at Lotusphere and the Blogosphere are not talking about the technology behind Lotus Connections, instead are focusing on the business benefits that are available from the new products.
- Talk about integration. Too many corporations have allowed Notes to become a niche piece in their organisations. The Notes 8 infrastructure allows a renaissance in Notes&Domino's value to their organisation. Notes SAP integration is a good example. "Situational Applications" simple, fast and easy to develop, suit business need, little or no recognised budget, but go under the business radar. Ed notes that the steering committee in many organisations only got involved in >$100k projects, and therefore Notes situational applications never reached either IT or Executive radars.
- Find out what individuals need or want. Might be hard to listen, but will pick up new ideas to improve or add new applications. Suggest reading of Alan's blog. However, users don't always ask for what they want, or know how to ask - need to talk to them about their problems, business processes and so on.
- Keep It Simple Stupid. Complexity can kill a good application - noone reads help files, functionality should be no more than 2 clicks away, forget about edge cases in the initial design etc. Julian uses the example of fixing a car engine - need a button that says "fix engine"!
- Solve real problems.
- Be willing to admit that other technologies are good too. After agreeing about how good they are, then tell about how good Notes is. Besides, we can integrate and thus protect investments already made.
- Upgrade - new versions have great new features, thus need to sell upgrades very effectively. Need to come back from LS, and really communicate the benefits to the organisation, in order to get the ability to upgrade and thus see new features. Use a pilot group, possibly some of the most vocal anti-Notes folks in order to win them over. Also need to document feedback from Pilot, anecdotal and statistical. Need to translate from technical improvements to business benefits.
- Be a willing helpdesk, and offer tips, even if if it isn't your job. Look at training process - make sure it is effective and avoids the "sneakernet". Run "lunch and learns" in order to get message out.
- Learn what "ROI" really means - it isn't necessarily about spending new money, instead need to get benefits from the infrastructure.
- Analysts and press reports ("Notes is Dead" is Dead!)
- ibm.com resources
- Blogs (mentions for dominoblogs.com, alanlepofsky.net, marybeth, taking notes etc.)
- OpenNTF
- Lotusphere community - You are not alone.
