How do you identify and engage customers? Let AIIM show you the way.

1. How to sell ECM?
From reactive to proactive solution selling
Atle Skjekkeland
Chief Operating Officer
AIIM
askjekkeland@aiim.org
www.aiim.org
AIIM – The Global Community of Information Professionals

2. www.aiim.org/Training
The Need for Education
Most Prominent Inhibitors to Achieving Sales Quota
Insufficient Leads 13.3%
Poor Sales Skills 16.0%
Too Many Products to Know 21.4%
Information Gap
24.3%
(Industry, Solution, Etc.)
Inability to Communicate
Value Messages 26.0%
Source: SiriusDecisions PMM 2010 Survey

3. www.aiim.org/Training
Change The Way You Sell
―A recent Corporate Executive Board
study of more than 1,400 B2B
customers found that those
customers completed, on average,
nearly 60% of a typical purchasing
decision—researching solutions,
ranking options, setting requirements,
benchmarking pricing, and so on—
before even having a conversation
with a supplier‖
Implications? You need to create
relationships with an organization
before the customer requirements
are set.
3
Source: http://hbr.org/2012/07/the-end-of-solution-sales/ar/1

4. www.aiim.org/Training
Target Business Leaders, not IT
 ―While overall corporate tech
spending is up by 17 to 20% in our
latest data, spending by IT
departments is flat at best.‖
 ―It's business leaders, not their IT
colleagues, who are driving
purchasing decisions‖
 Ensure your solution is…
 Simple
 Scalable
 Safe
 Secure
Try to engage customers before  Sustainable
they have pinpointed a problem  Sexy
4
Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/07/coming_to_terms_with_the_consu.html

5. www.aiim.org/Training
Leverage Social Media
 ―According to a recent study by
InsideView, over 90% of CEO’s said
they NEVER respond to cold emails
or calls.”
 ―Replacing the decline in cold
calling is the warmth of social
engagement. Buyers are far more
responsive to social media
messages around relevant topics
initiated by the sales person or the
buyer.‖
 ―Selling through social channels is
the closest thing to being a fly on
the wall in your customer’s,
prospect’s and competitor’s
world.‖
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2012/11/05/t

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Provide New and Unique Insights (1)
 Provocation-Based Selling:
 Compels project investments
outside an existing budget
 Challenges the prevailing point of
view
 Addresses unacknowledged angst
 Targets strategic problems
 Begins with the business case and
then provides technical proof
 Starts an executive-level dialogue
 Uses an insightful hypothesis to
provoke a response
 Is proactive in leading, and forcing
issues out
6
Source: http://hbr.org/2009/03/in-a-downturn-provoke-your-customers/ar/1

7. www.aiim.org/Training
Provide New and Unique Insights (2)
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Provides new insights into your
What are the two business problems
biggest factors that
Keeps you up-to-date with the
would make you latest product thinking
amenable to a Is always challenging your
discussion with a existing ways of working
sales Knows what your competitors
representative from and peers are up to
a non-incumbent Knows all the latest tech trends
at any time in the and consultant-talk
cycle? (Max TWO) Has all the latest industry news
and gossip
AIIM research amongst ECM buyers, Oct 2012, N=88 purchasers
7

8. www.aiim.org/Training
Become a Challenger
According to a global study of sales
rep productivity among 6,000 reps
across nearly 100 companies by the
Sales Executive Council:
1. Every sales professional falls into
one of five distinct profiles.
 Relationship Builders
 Hard Workers
 Lone Wolves
 Reactive Problem Solvers
 Challengers.
2. Challengers dramatically
outperform the other profiles,
particularly Relationship Builders.
8
Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/09/selling_is_not_about_relatio.html

9. www.aiim.org/Training
Drive B2B Customer Loyalty
Customers value the Challenger
approach according to
research; The biggest driver of
B2B customer loyalty is a
supplier’s ability to deliver new
insights.
Source: Corporate Executive Board 9

10. www.aiim.org/Training
Reduce Uncertainty / Increase Value
In the most general and
fundamental sense, what the
professional service organization
really has to offer to corporate clients
is the reduction or minimization of
uncertainty.
Clients look at the following 3
uncertainties when buying
professional services:
1. Identifying uncertainty
2. Confronting concrete problems
3. Identifying true professionals
10
Source: http://hbr.org/1966/03/how-to-buysell-professional-services/ar/1

11. www.aiim.org/training
The New Role of Sales Professionals
Source: Sirius Decision
/ AIIM

12. www.aiim.org/Training
New 1-Day ECM Sales Training
 What problems do we solve?
 Many sales reps or channel partners are not meeting their targets
 Improve their ability to spot new opportunities for selling solutions
 Provide value and insights when engaging customers; not push
products
 Why buy sales enablement training from AIIM?
 AIIM has unique knowledge about why and how companies buy
solutions based on our industry research amongst our 65,000
community members
 Domain expertise and training content from our different training
programs with 25,000 course attendees
 New sales methodology for getting ahead of the RFP by providing
customers with new and unique insights while taking control of the
sale

13. www.aiim.org/Training
Course Structure
1. Foundation
• Why Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?
• ECM features and functions
• Impact of Mobile and Cloud Computing
• Selling Enterprise IT in the Age of Consumer IT
• Competitors and obstacles
• Exercise: What is your opportunity?
2. Identify Opportunities
• Opportunities in different vertical and horizontal processes
• Visual and verbal cues
• Decision makers and stakeholders
• Strategies for getting their attention
• Exercise: How to spot opportunities? How to get a meeting?
3. Engage Customers
• Establish credibility and value
• Offer unique perspectives and insights
• Demonstrate importance to their business
• Educate customers about how to solve their problem or capitalize on the opportunity
• Anticipating objections and how to handle them
• Evaluate the sales opportunity to ensure you don’t waste your time
• Exercise: How to engage customers? How to demonstrate value and get agreement?

14. www.aiim.org/Training
Course Research
IndustryHandouts
Attendees receive these resources to help them identify and
engage prospects
 Guidelines for spotting sales
Industry opportunities in different vertical
Watch and horizontal processes
Identify
 Template for offering provocative
opportunities
insights
and concerns
 Template for demonstrating
importance of problem or lost
Custom opportunity
Research  Template for educating customer
Document about their needs
benefits

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Engagement Model
Sample preparation videos

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Option: Ongoing Support
 AIIM can support your
ongoing sales efforts
through:
 Deal War Rooms to get
Lighthouse customers
 Crowdsource Use Cases
 Case Studies
 Video interviews
 Sales Contests
 Webinars
 Mentoring Programs

17. www.aiim.org/Training
Sample of AIIM Students
•ABBYY •HP •Philip Morris USA
•Accenture •Hyland Software Inc. •Price Waterhouse Coopers
•AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals •IBM •Progressive Insurance
•Bank of America •IKON Office Solutions •Ricoh
•Boeing Company •Kimberly-Clark •Shell Oil Products US
•Booz Allen Hamilton •Kodak •US Army Corps of Engineers
•Bureau of Engraving and Printing •Lexmark I •Department of Transportations
•Canon •Liberty Mutual •US Department of Treasury
•CIGNA Healthcare Insurance •US Environmental Protection
•Deloitte •Lockheed-Martin Agency
•Eli Lilly and Company •Microsoft Corporation •US Mint
•Fannie Mae •Petro-Canada •USAA
•Pfizer •Washington Mutual

18. www.aiim.org/Training
Next Step?
 Schedule a pilot in-person 1-day ECM
Sales Enablement for your sales reps or
channel partners
 Online preparation videos and
assessment
 1 day highly interactive training course
with max 12 attendees
 Customized exercises based on your
solutions and target market
 Contact Askjekkeland@aiim.org
 Course details at this link