Tag Archives: Reference

How Do You Target CIOs of Large Companies? Six Suggestions

Situation: A company’s target customers are Fortune 1000 companies, some of whom are simultaneously clients and competitors. The key target is the VP/CIO. A prime concern of that individual is assuring that their IT systems never go down. What could the company do better to approach these target customers and reach the right decision-maker? How do you target CIOs of large companies?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The approach must be tailored to reach corporate level decision-makers:
    • Conduct a direct marketing campaign strategically as opposed to using a high-volume mailing with a low cost-per-piece.
    • Mail relatively expensive dimensional mailers to a small number of highly qualified prospects. Look for high impact to the best targets.
  • Research and identify the key targets within prospect companies.
    • The best success will come from prospects who have tried other options from the large competitors but are unsatisfied with the results.
  • Consider and research prospects within the large consulting firms. They may have tried IBM or similar options, but weren’t happy with what was provided, either because of cost, time or quality.
  • Also look at next-tier players. Success with these customers can become valuable references to the larger firms.
  • Position the offering as the “safe choice.”
  • Closely monitor customers and their experience with the offering – both pre-installation, during installation and post-installation. The key variables will be quality and ease of installation and adoption of the company’s offering.

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What are Best Practices for Interviewing and Hiring? Three Points

Situation: A company typically interviews candidates for open positions in a two-day process. The candidate talks to four or more people. The total time with a candidate is about 6 hours, and the hiring process, once a good candidate is identified, takes about 1 week. Is this typical of other companies? What are best practices for interviewing and hiring?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Extend the process – add some pressure to it.
    • All companies deal with pressure and stress from time to time. The team is frequently under pressure. Artificially create a pressure situation for a candidate – preferably later in the day when they are tired. This will help to identify whether they are cool under pressure, irritable or sloppy.
    • For example, put an engineering candidate in front of a computer and give them 30 minutes to do a job that you know would normally take 60 minutes. Don’t mention the mismatch to the candidate. The point is NOT whether they can complete the task, but to watch how they respond under high pressure.
    • This is not unfair to the candidate. It puts them precisely in a situation that they will find while working at the company. Give them the opportunity to demonstrate through their behavior that they either respond positively or really don’t want to be put into these situations.
  • Conduct thorough reference checks – including past employers or clients.
  • DISC profiles (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance) are used to improve teamwork and understand different communication styles
    • Identify an experienced local resource who can help to assess the DISC profile of the company.
    • This individual can advise human resources and hiring managers on the use and interpretation of DISC profiles of candidates to help assure good company fit.

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How Do You Transition from Service to Product? Four Strategies

Situation: A company is transitioning from a service model to a product model. A major challenge is meeting funding needs during the transition. Funding sources perceive the current service model as heavy on cost of sales vs. implementation and this hinders acquisition of funds. The CEO sees this as a short-term problem as the company will quickly start to generate more cash through the product model. How do you transition from service to product?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • In a competitive funding environment, it is important that the offering be credible. While others may be offering similar solutions, believability will prove to be a strong differentiator.
  • Where to focus over the short term?
    • Create a hybrid model as a transition between the current service offering and the planned product offering. Demonstrate that current customers have responded favorably to the product/hybrid opportunity.
    • Test this concept with an investor. The story is that the company needs funding to get to a saleable product model.
  • What is the message to investors?
    • Helping the company to achieve a short-term and very feasible objective gives the investor the following advantages: purchasing at a lower valuation, getting a larger share of the company for less, and at a low risk.
    • As the valuation of the company increases, the earliest investors will get the best deal!
    • During meetings with investors, ask them for advice on the current and following rounds and financing, and what they will find most appealing.
  • How do you mitigate the risk to the first investor?
    • Have a solid business plan and projections that have been vetted by others.
    • Have a list of referenceable clients.
    • Utilize the current service model and demonstrate the product/hybrid Package. Build a case on the advantages of the hybrid model including the financial case. The company is always there to provide back-up assistance to meet customer needs in the hybrid model.
    • Demonstrate flexibility – the customer can always choose the service model or convert to this if they wish.
    • A Key Point: You are selling yourself as the trustable resource, not the product or service.
    • Reference previous investment including founders’ investments. The founders did not invest to fail!

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How Can a Small Company Compete Against Bigs? Four Strategies

Interview with Sai Gundavelli, CEO, Solix Technologies

Situation: A company has top talent and a better technology solution. However their large competitors continue to compete by discrediting them – “nobody was every fired for choosing IBM!” How do you compete effectively against large incumbents?

Advice from Sai Gundavelli:

  • Invest in your product.
    • Work to attain best-of-breed status in your industry with a constant focus on and investment in building a great technology. Solix’s constant goal is to be the technology leader in information lifecycle management and Data Privacy.
    • Be organic and focus on integration, smooth operation and scalability. Build your system from the ground up. An organically designed solution where the pieces work seamlessly offers higher and more efficient performance.
  • Invest in alliances.
    • Solix continually invests in our partnerships, including our OEM relationship with Oracle Financial Services, and we have more such partnerships in the works that will help us expand our presence in the market. Partnerships increase your presence and visibility as you scale your own organization.
  • Focus your efforts.
    • We at Solix are 100% focused on our product, whereas our large competitors are juggling multiple priorities, like a juggler trying to keep a large number of balls in the air. While we are smaller, this allows us to more effectively focus our efforts without lots of conflicting priorities. We focus exclusively on information life cycle management and Data Privacy.
  •  Have others talk about you.
    • Solix’s answer to our competition is let our customers speak for us. We have many happy customers such as Honeywell, Duke Energy, American Tires, who are happy to participate in joint webinars and customer case studies. We work closely with them on the latest developments and direction and use their feedback to guide future product direction.

Key Words: Technology, Solution, SMB, Competition, Multinational, Incumbent, Product, Scalability, Flexibility, Alliance, Partnership, Focus, Specialize, Detail, Reference, Credibility

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