Company executives are under enormous pressure to meet monthly & quarterly sales targets and are always looking for ways to accelerate sales. No matter if your sales cycle is one week or 2 years, they all feel that the sales cycle is too long. The sales cycle has a direct impact on revenue and this becomes even more visible in a challenging economy and highly competitive markets. Many times, those of us in Product Management and Product Marketing roles blame the sales team for poor execution. While part of that is true, there are actions that Product Management and Product Marketing can take to help reduce the sales cycle and accelerate sales revenue. Join Tom Evans as he shares insights on how to empower your sales team to grow sales revenue. Key Takeaways from participating in this webinar: - Understand five indicators that your company is having issues with long sales cycles - Learn the eight most common barriers that cause sales cycle issues - Discover six actions that Product Marketing can take to improve on sales cycles Who Should Attend: You should attend this webinar if you have experienced any of these: - Your product is falling short of revenue targets. - At the end of every quarter, your sales team faces pressure to accelerate deals. - Too many discounts are made in order to close sales. - Prospects keep delaying purchase decisions. - Conversion rates of prospects to deals are low. Participate and Win! Participants during Q&A are entered into a free drawing to win a $50 Amazon gift card, and one hour free product management assessment or consulting for the first 10 people that request it. Why Attend: In this webinar, we'™ll review the eight most common reasons for lengthening sales cycles and will propose ways to overcome these barriers in order to accelerate the sales cycle, accelerate sales revenue and make sales executives your Best Friend. About the Speaker: Tom Evans is Principal at CompellingPM and is an internationally recognized authority in product management, global marketing, business partnerships and entrepreneurship. In his extensive experience, he has helped start-ups through Fortune 500 companies create and launch winning products and has led business development efforts in the US and global markets. Tom has a BSEE from The United States Air Force Academy, an MSEE from The University of Dayton, and graduated with honors with an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin. Tom has achieved the designations of Certified Product Manager and Certified Product Marketing Manager from the AIPMM.

1. What Product Marketing Can Do to
Overcome the Eight Most Common
Barriers to Accelerating Sales Revenue
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
@compellingpm
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 1

2. Symptoms of Sales Cycle Challenges
• Your product is falling short of revenue targets.
• At the end of every quarter, your sales team faces
pressure to accelerate deals.
• Too many discounts are made in order to close
sales.
• Prospects keep delaying purchase decisions.
• Conversion rates of prospects to deals are low.
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3. Eight most common sales cycle barriers
1. Lack of sales methodology
2. Sales team (channel) has not been properly enabled
3. Solution does not address a significant (or top of mind) pain for
the economic buyer
4. Your message doesn’t communicate compelling value
5. You’re selling to the wrong level of buyer
6. Sales leads not well qualified
7. Sales tools don’t help advance the sale
8. No system to track sales process (lack of visibility)
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4. 1. Lack of Sales Methodology
• Issue
– Sales team does not have disciplined process to
move prospects to closed opportunities
• Steps to Overcome
– Choose a methodology that best matches
company’s needs.
– Train the full sales team (plus marketing and
executives)
– Build sales tools to support the methodology
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5. Example tools for “Solution Selling®”
• Reference Story
– Helps show that salesperson is knowledgeable of
buyer’s problems
– Helps buyer admit pain
• Pain Sheets®
– Helps salesperson diagnosis Pain for different buyer
profiles
• Telephone Script
– Creates interest in first 20 seconds
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Reference: Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets by Michael Bosworth, 1994
Solution Selling & Pain Sheets are registered trademarks of Solution Selling, Inc.
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6. 2. Sales team not enabled
• Issue
– Sales is selling anything to everyone with little
effectiveness
• Steps to Overcome
– Create well defined market plan (target segments,
buyer pains, messages, etc.)
– Create core set of sales enablement tools
• Executive Level Presentation, Product Backgrounder,
Needs Discovery Guide™, Message Driven Demo™
– Train the sales team (plus marketing and executives)
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Needs Discovery Guide and Message Driven Demo are trademarks of The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
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7. Sales Enablement (Base Components)
• Product Backgrounder
– Succinct key elements of market plan
• Needs Discovery Guide™
– Per buyer profile: Challenges / Impact / Capability /
Benefits
• Executive Level Presentation
– High level discussion of how your solution
addresses needs. (10 – 15 slides)
• Message Driven Demo™
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
Needs Discovery Guide and Message Driven Demo are trademarks of The Lûcrum Group, Inc.
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8. 3. Solution does not address a
significant pain for the economic buyer
• Issue
– Solutions solves problem, but not a big one.
– Solutions solves big problem for user, but buyer
doesn’t feel it.
• Steps to Overcome
– Discover key issues for buyers in your market
• Market trends, business drivers, strategies, challenges,
goals
– Identify a need that increases the importance to the
economic buyer?
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9. 4. Message not communicating
compelling value
• Issue
– Message does not cause buyers to want your
solution.
• Steps to Overcome
– Discover key issues for buyers in your market
• Market trends, business drivers, strategies, challenges,
goals
– Develop message(s) that speak to these
– Focus on the top 2 – 3 messages that have the
highest impact (value & differentiation)
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10. Six Steps to a Compelling Message
1. Who is our audience?
2. What are we selling?
3. Why should our customers care?
4. What we can do for our customers?
5. Why us?
6. Create your message(s)
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11. 5. Selling to wrong level of buyer
• Issue
– Selling to the user, technical buyer or middle
manager who has no authority to buy and little
influence.
• Steps to Overcome
– Sales training and/or sales enablement problem
• Or maybe a hiring problem
– Product doesn’t address an executive level
problem
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12. 6. Sales leads not well qualified
• Issue
– Bad sales leads waste time of the sales team, results
in low conversion/close rates & long sales cycles
• Steps to Overcome
– Define a well defined target market (Market Plan)
• Specific segments & buyers
– Define lead qualification criteria
– Lead nurturing programs
• Move lead to qualify prospected (sales ready)
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13. Lead Qualification/Scoring
• Work with sales
• Start with perfect lead
• Demographics
– E.g., revenue, employees, project budgeted, company
profile, buyer role, order size, urgency
– BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
– Source
• Interactions
– Forms completed, click email links, downloads, website
pages, phone call, data completeness
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14. 7. Sales tools don’t help advance sale
• Issue
– Many bottlenecks in funnel, low conversion rates, sales don’t
use tools, etc.
• Steps to Overcome
– Ask the sales team
– Understand the typical “buying process” (and players)
– Understand the key concerns, roadblocks for each buyer
type at each phase of the sale
• E.g., Cost (TCO), Needs Assessment, Business Case, Risk, ROI,
References, Approval
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15. Understanding the Buying Process
• What are the typical phases of the buying process?
• Who are the typical buyers & influencers?
• Who is involved at each phase?
• What are their main concerns at each phase?
• What are they doing at each phase?
• What are the typical barriers to moving ahead?
Build tools that address buyers and influencers needs
at each phase!
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 15

16. 8. No system to track sales process
• Issue
– If you can’t track sales opportunities, you can’t manage
them
• Steps to Overcome
– Implement a Sales Force Automation (SFA)/Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) system
• Full picture of prospect
• Put more rigor into sales forecasts (e.g., probability of close)
• Manage sales funnel, close rates
• Monitor sales projections & sales team performance
• Access to current sales tools
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17. Summary
• Deeply understand the buyers and user in
your target market
• Create a powerful messaging platform
• Well defined Go-to-Market Strategy
• Define and manage your marketing & sales
funnel
• Create effective sales & marketing tools
• Enable your sales team
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 17

18. My Next Webinar
How to Develop a Deep Understanding of Your
Target Markets – The Starting Point for Great
Product Marketing
June 21, 2013
http://www.aipmm.com/aipmm_webinars/2013/0
5/how-to-develop-a-deep-understanding-of-your-
target-markets---the-starting-point-for-great-
product-ma.php
Copyright 2013. The Lûcrum Group, Inc. 18

19. Upcoming Training
• Optimal Product Management & Product
Marketing
– June 10 – 12 (Dallas)
– Sep 9 – 11 (Austin)
• AIPMM Certifications
– Aug 6 – 7 (CPM – Austin)
– Aug 8 – 9 (CPMM – Austin)
More dates/locations - www.280group.com
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20. Free 1 Hour PM/PMM Consult
• First ten to submit information on form
• http://compellingpm.com/freeonehour/
• Please include background on topic or issue
• Must include company info (no Gmail)
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21. Thank You!
Tom Evans
CompellingPM
tevans@compellingpm.com
@compellingpm
www.compellingpm.com
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