Comments for Barrall http://barrall.com/wp Building Business Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:48:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Comment on Don’t Engineer Anything You Can’t Sell by Ken Rosen http://barrall.com/wp/2011/03/14/dont-engineer-anything-you-cant-sell/#comment-52 Ken Rosen Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:48:08 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=207#comment-52 Geoff, It no longer surprises me when you I come to identical conclusions from different directions...and this is one more time. So many companies struggle with the Marketing/Engineering relationship and try to define it via Market Req'd Docs (MRDs), Product Req't Docs (PRDs), and the like. I've moved to getting Marketing to simply create the market-responsive brochure they'd like to distribute in 12-18 months. The product plan makes sure Marketing isn't lying. It's a collaboration, of course, on both sides. But I agree that clarifying the story upfront helps prevent a long list of feature requests that don't culminate in a core, compelling, profitable result. Cheers, Ken Ken Rosen Performance Works Geoff,
It no longer surprises me when you I come to identical conclusions from different directions…and this is one more time. So many companies struggle with the Marketing/Engineering relationship and try to define it via Market Req’d Docs (MRDs), Product Req’t Docs (PRDs), and the like. I’ve moved to getting Marketing to simply create the market-responsive brochure they’d like to distribute in 12-18 months. The product plan makes sure Marketing isn’t lying. It’s a collaboration, of course, on both sides. But I agree that clarifying the story upfront helps prevent a long list of feature requests that don’t culminate in a core, compelling, profitable result.

Cheers, Ken

Ken Rosen
Performance Works

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by geoffbarrall http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-51 geoffbarrall Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:42:17 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-51 Totally agree. A good way to sniff this out is to determine if the customer is happy to devote time to exploring alternative workarounds so they can still use your product. If they are then usually they like your product but genuinely have a problem fitting it in, if not then it's most likely a "don't call us....". Totally agree. A good way to sniff this out is to determine if the customer is happy to devote time to exploring alternative workarounds so they can still use your product. If they are then usually they like your product but genuinely have a problem fitting it in, if not then it’s most likely a “don’t call us….”.

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by Robin Harris http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-50 Robin Harris Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:29:24 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-50 A related issue: often customers will say they won't buy because they want feature X, while the real reason is they don't see the point. Either they aren't the target customer, or they don't believe the product will deliver the value promised, or they don't have the political clout to get a new vendor in the door, or ??? Whatever it is, it often isn't feature X. A related issue: often customers will say they won’t buy because they want feature X, while the real reason is they don’t see the point.

Either they aren’t the target customer, or they don’t believe the product will deliver the value promised, or they don’t have the political clout to get a new vendor in the door, or ??? Whatever it is, it often isn’t feature X.

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by geoffbarrall http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-29 geoffbarrall Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:13:46 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-29 Well said. Well said.

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by Carl http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-28 Carl Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:05:44 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-28 I think some of the comments have missed the really important point - that is the sales team has to be able to sell the product/service with whatever features are there at the time. Yes you can say that perhaps that conversation with the CEO & the sales rep may not have been the right approach, but thats not the point. Sometimes businesses get sidetracked by the 'complex' things, when really at the end of the day business is quite simple, you only survive if you can sell your product or service with whatever features/functions it has at that point in time. I think some of the comments have missed the really important point – that is the sales team has to be able to sell the product/service with whatever features are there at the time. Yes you can say that perhaps that conversation with the CEO & the sales rep may not have been the right approach, but thats not the point.
Sometimes businesses get sidetracked by the ‘complex’ things, when really at the end of the day business is quite simple, you only survive if you can sell your product or service with whatever features/functions it has at that point in time.

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by geoffbarrall http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-27 geoffbarrall Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:26:40 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-27 Odette, Frank understood well what his market needed and regularly kept up to date with customer requests so that should be understood. As CEO though it was not his job to manage that process directly nor to provide his sale force with a timeline for improvements. That approach most often tends to stall sales as customers and the sales reps wait for "feature X" to become available and usually isn't welcomed by sales management. I also feel that the thought process in regards to companies needing to keep up with a rapidly changing market isn't a good idea. Young product companies don't have the resources to do that and product cycles tend to remain in the 12 -18 month range just as they always have. It's worth considering the adoption rates of any real changes in the storage marketplace as I think you'll see that things change a lot less rapidly than one might think. Take iSCSI adoption or SATA adoption both of which are still really breaking ground 6 - 8 years in. Much better to focus on differentiation and not try to ride every trend (cloud storage for example) as it occurs. There is usually time during the later stages of the maturation cycle for new technology to implement it in your product line. Odette,

Frank understood well what his market needed and regularly kept up to date with customer requests so that should be understood. As CEO though it was not his job to manage that process directly nor to provide his sale force with a timeline for improvements. That approach most often tends to stall sales as customers and the sales reps wait for “feature X” to become available and usually isn’t welcomed by sales management.

I also feel that the thought process in regards to companies needing to keep up with a rapidly changing market isn’t a good idea. Young product companies don’t have the resources to do that and product cycles tend to remain in the 12 -18 month range just as they always have. It’s worth considering the adoption rates of any real changes in the storage marketplace as I think you’ll see that things change a lot less rapidly than one might think. Take iSCSI adoption or SATA adoption both of which are still really breaking ground 6 – 8 years in. Much better to focus on differentiation and not try to ride every trend (cloud storage for example) as it occurs. There is usually time during the later stages of the maturation cycle for new technology to implement it in your product line.

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by Odette Faghani http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-26 Odette Faghani Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:12:50 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-26 Agreed you must sell what you have, but the vision for the future comes partly from clients asking for improvements. Frank should have taken the field reps' input and tried to get a timeline of when those improvements could be made while simultaneously exhorting the teams to sell what they had. His handling of the situation is quite dated, given that technology today changed at warp speed and companies that cannot keep up will falter. Agreed you must sell what you have, but the vision for the future comes partly from clients asking for improvements. Frank should have taken the field reps’ input and tried to get a timeline of when those improvements could be made while simultaneously exhorting the teams to sell what they had. His handling of the situation is quite dated, given that technology today changed at warp speed and companies that cannot keep up will falter.

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by geoffbarrall http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-25 geoffbarrall Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:40:01 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-25 Totally agree and in fact that's something that Data Domain did too. The question isn't about getting customer feedback which I'm sure everybody would agree is valuable but rather about having the ability to make sales with what's on the wagon. Feedback is valuable but you still have to make day to day sales ahead of product improvement. Totally agree and in fact that’s something that Data Domain did too. The question isn’t about getting customer feedback which I’m sure everybody would agree is valuable but rather about having the ability to make sales with what’s on the wagon. Feedback is valuable but you still have to make day to day sales ahead of product improvement.

]]> Comment on A Lesson in Sales Management From Frank Slootman by W. Curtis Preston http://barrall.com/wp/2010/11/08/a-lesson-in-sales-management-from-frank-slootman/#comment-24 W. Curtis Preston Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:58:51 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=203#comment-24 I think there's a middle ground between what you were doing at BlueArc and what Frank did. When genuine input from the field is met with a stern-faced CEO basically threatening termination, all you're doing is making sure you'll never get any input from that salesperson again. The proper response, IMHO, is "Please put that in salesforce.com. We use that to look for trends." Then when your salesforce.com report says that 60% of lost opps were lost because you don't have SnapMirror (or something like it). I think there’s a middle ground between what you were doing at BlueArc and what Frank did. When genuine input from the field is met with a stern-faced CEO basically threatening termination, all you’re doing is making sure you’ll never get any input from that salesperson again. The proper response, IMHO, is “Please put that in salesforce.com. We use that to look for trends.” Then when your salesforce.com report says that 60% of lost opps were lost because you don’t have SnapMirror (or something like it).

]]> Comment on Writing a Presentation to Raise Venture CapitalAn Illustrated Example by Writing A Presentation to Raise Venture Capital : The Overview | Barrall http://barrall.com/wp/2010/09/23/writing-a-presentation-to-raise-venture-capital-an-illustrated-example/#comment-17 Writing A Presentation to Raise Venture Capital : The Overview | Barrall Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:53:06 +0000 http://barrall.com/wp/?p=129#comment-17 [...] Skip to content BlogBioContact ← Writing a Presentation to Raise Venture CapitalAn Illustrated Example [...] [...] Skip to content BlogBioContact ← Writing a Presentation to Raise Venture CapitalAn Illustrated Example [...]

]]>