http://dot.kde.org/2009/11/06/matthias-ettrich-receives-german-federal-cross-merit
Matthias and I were part of the Trolltech management team during my time with the company.
Congratulations, Matthias!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
To layout...
Tomorrow the completed V1 content is outta my hands and goes to layout. As it stands now, the entire suite of materials are much broader and deeper than I'd ever imagined presenting in V1, but it is what it is... I'm betting that by the time it gets laid out, it will approach 400 pages. sigh
While the content is being laid out, I need to synch up some website content w/the V1 materials... I've re-worked things considerably since, well... since forever. We've been doing some web site work / testing over the past few weeks and we're hopeful that when "the book" content is release-ready, we'll be ready to release and move forward... we hope to release NLT end of next week.
Here's a bit of a sneak-peek at what's included in the materials.
Sales Management: Right From the Start grew out of my frustration from seeing technically savvy but inexperienced Emerging ISV’s not achieving the level of financial success their efforts had obviously positioned them for. Drawing from detailed notes, tools and presentations I created and employed during my career, I have created a practical guide that I have defined by the following sections:
· Sales Is Not Rocket Science includes my perspective of Emerging ISV cultures and practices as I’ve experienced them during my career. SINRS also defines and provides working examples of what I believe are the ten minimum sales management fundamentals that every Emerging ISV should practice to maximize its potential.
· Identifying Your Hidden Revenue – Here’s What Matters details my step-by-step method for understanding how the sales organization currently functions in order for me to create a realistic and successful 90 Day Plan. Included are examples of spreadsheets and reports that I heavily rely on.
· Organizational Complexity Factors highlights the key organizational factors that heavily influence my efforts to optimize the sales organization and immediately increase sales results.
· And There’s Your Plan uses my serially-successful 90 Day Plan as a guide to refreshing a sales organization and quickly increasing results. Included with the 90 Day Plan are the meeting presentation slides I use typically use during the first 12 months. I've also included an Emerging ISV annual sales activities calendar.
· Unnatural Acts and Foregone Conclusions – Building a High Performance and Balanced Culture includes my observations on the best practices for aligning an Emerging ISV to achieve its truest potential.
· Emerging ISV Organized for Success Blueprint diagrams the organizational structure, including roles, reporting, practices and processes of successful Emerging ISV’s.
· Going Forward provides the structure for identifying and prioritizing your use of Sales Management: Right From the Start activities.
In this initial version of Sales Management: Right From the Start I’ve addressed the key operational / cultural issues as I’ve experienced them. Given the tremendous number and types of variables that Emerging ISV founders and their management teams constantly face, there are places that are left open for interpretation and application so please remember:
YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary
While the content is being laid out, I need to synch up some website content w/the V1 materials... I've re-worked things considerably since, well... since forever. We've been doing some web site work / testing over the past few weeks and we're hopeful that when "the book" content is release-ready, we'll be ready to release and move forward... we hope to release NLT end of next week.
Here's a bit of a sneak-peek at what's included in the materials.
Sales Management: Right From the Start grew out of my frustration from seeing technically savvy but inexperienced Emerging ISV’s not achieving the level of financial success their efforts had obviously positioned them for. Drawing from detailed notes, tools and presentations I created and employed during my career, I have created a practical guide that I have defined by the following sections:
· Sales Is Not Rocket Science includes my perspective of Emerging ISV cultures and practices as I’ve experienced them during my career. SINRS also defines and provides working examples of what I believe are the ten minimum sales management fundamentals that every Emerging ISV should practice to maximize its potential.
· Identifying Your Hidden Revenue – Here’s What Matters details my step-by-step method for understanding how the sales organization currently functions in order for me to create a realistic and successful 90 Day Plan. Included are examples of spreadsheets and reports that I heavily rely on.
· Organizational Complexity Factors highlights the key organizational factors that heavily influence my efforts to optimize the sales organization and immediately increase sales results.
· And There’s Your Plan uses my serially-successful 90 Day Plan as a guide to refreshing a sales organization and quickly increasing results. Included with the 90 Day Plan are the meeting presentation slides I use typically use during the first 12 months. I've also included an Emerging ISV annual sales activities calendar.
· Unnatural Acts and Foregone Conclusions – Building a High Performance and Balanced Culture includes my observations on the best practices for aligning an Emerging ISV to achieve its truest potential.
· Emerging ISV Organized for Success Blueprint diagrams the organizational structure, including roles, reporting, practices and processes of successful Emerging ISV’s.
· Going Forward provides the structure for identifying and prioritizing your use of Sales Management: Right From the Start activities.
In this initial version of Sales Management: Right From the Start I’ve addressed the key operational / cultural issues as I’ve experienced them. Given the tremendous number and types of variables that Emerging ISV founders and their management teams constantly face, there are places that are left open for interpretation and application so please remember:
YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Update Sales Management: Right From The Start
Greetings,
In finalizing the content and release details of SM:RFS 1.0, I've requested - and have received - feedback from many of my former founders / peer management team members / subordinates.
Earlier today I spent an hour+ today talking with one of my former founders re his "take" on the practices / processes I brought to his company (which experienced great growth, IPO'd and was acquired by a mega-company). While we were on the phone, he mentioned he'd looked over the BOS pages / blog and saw that "things" were seriously out of date.
Mea culpa, guilty as charged... sorry about that.
But, FWIW, I've been fairly wrapped around the axle on the project and, frankly, the scope expanded more than I'd originally intended (by a lonnnng shot) but - in the end - it's where it should actually be for it's initial release.
I've spent the past couple of weeks rinsing through final details and hope to release the full initial set of materials in a couple of weeks.
As they say on TV, stay tuned, film at 11.
best,
hal
In finalizing the content and release details of SM:RFS 1.0, I've requested - and have received - feedback from many of my former founders / peer management team members / subordinates.
Earlier today I spent an hour+ today talking with one of my former founders re his "take" on the practices / processes I brought to his company (which experienced great growth, IPO'd and was acquired by a mega-company). While we were on the phone, he mentioned he'd looked over the BOS pages / blog and saw that "things" were seriously out of date.
Mea culpa, guilty as charged... sorry about that.
But, FWIW, I've been fairly wrapped around the axle on the project and, frankly, the scope expanded more than I'd originally intended (by a lonnnng shot) but - in the end - it's where it should actually be for it's initial release.
I've spent the past couple of weeks rinsing through final details and hope to release the full initial set of materials in a couple of weeks.
As they say on TV, stay tuned, film at 11.
best,
hal
Friday, May 29, 2009
Free SnagIt download
I happened to see this over at JOS and thought it worth mentioning:
http://www.techsmith.com/Covermount/covermount.asp?ID=8
Re Sales Management: Right From The Start, I continue to work and make progress on the entire set of materials.
Thx to those who ask questions and offer encouragement, I enjoy the project and am pleased you find the materials to be of help.
best,
hal
http://www.techsmith.com/Covermount/covermount.asp?ID=8
Re Sales Management: Right From The Start, I continue to work and make progress on the entire set of materials.
Thx to those who ask questions and offer encouragement, I enjoy the project and am pleased you find the materials to be of help.
best,
hal
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Introduction to Sales Management: Right From The Start
As some of you know, over the past 3 years I've been creating and releasing materials regarding Emerging ISV sales management. Since the original release (Oct of '06, I believe) the materials have been downloaded ~11k times - many, many more than I'd ever imagined.
Encouraged by the positive response, I continued to create and release materials and have recently began rolling them up in to a formalized methodology entitled, "Sales Management: Right From The Start". Until recently, everything I'd created was released as free, download material. That changed when I created content very specific to the ISV market. Going forward, the basic material will continue to be no-charge and the paid-content may be purchased by those who wish to receive the very unique benefits of those offerings.
Recently I began working on this Introduction to Sales Management: Right From The Start presentation video.
Encouraged by the positive response, I continued to create and release materials and have recently began rolling them up in to a formalized methodology entitled, "Sales Management: Right From The Start". Until recently, everything I'd created was released as free, download material. That changed when I created content very specific to the ISV market. Going forward, the basic material will continue to be no-charge and the paid-content may be purchased by those who wish to receive the very unique benefits of those offerings.
Recently I began working on this Introduction to Sales Management: Right From The Start presentation video.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Competing against a legacy product / company?
"Back in the day" when I was a phone-based software salesguy, I ran in to the same competitors in ~80-90% of my new opportunities.
At Unison, it was a competitor located in Palo Alto (who just announced they were being acquired by Cisco, some 15 years after Unison IPO'd); at Elan, it was GLOBEtrotter. I was pretty meticulous in understanding my prospect's needs and so focused on what we could do for the prospect and not what the competitor couldn't do, I made sure to have a competitor x SWOT cheat sheet available, "just in case".
In talking and working with the Emerging ISV's today, I find that most of them are also dealing with an established / legacy competitor. So in addition to understanding the prospect's needs and selling to them, what to do?
Well, maybe the Rescue Program that the folks at Reprise Software have created will have some applicability for your sales / marketing efforts, too. As a consultative-oriented sales professional, the 3 things I like about their program are:
* Direct and Fun. Both in language and in setting expectations for how their team / customer relations will be handled - they want your business and they want to have fun in the process.
* Specific about key differentiators. In case their prospects haven't thought through some of these key issues, they've laid them out to use as discussion points between customer and salesperson.
* Earn your business mindset. It's pretty clear they want to earn your business and have fun doing it, isn't it?
Ok, I'll add a 4th:
* They're dedicated to creating good solutions for their customers. Software licensing isn't just what these folks do for a job - it's what they DO.
So if you're competing against an established competitor and are taking "the usual" approach to slogging out business day after day, perhaps you should consider creating some form of Reprise's Rescue program and see how it works for differentiating your company in these challenging times.
(Disclaimer: I worked with the entire Reprise team "back in the day" at GLOBEtrotter Software, remain good friends with them and have them listed as a Bright Orange Partner.)
At Unison, it was a competitor located in Palo Alto (who just announced they were being acquired by Cisco, some 15 years after Unison IPO'd); at Elan, it was GLOBEtrotter. I was pretty meticulous in understanding my prospect's needs and so focused on what we could do for the prospect and not what the competitor couldn't do, I made sure to have a competitor x SWOT cheat sheet available, "just in case".
In talking and working with the Emerging ISV's today, I find that most of them are also dealing with an established / legacy competitor. So in addition to understanding the prospect's needs and selling to them, what to do?
Well, maybe the Rescue Program that the folks at Reprise Software have created will have some applicability for your sales / marketing efforts, too. As a consultative-oriented sales professional, the 3 things I like about their program are:
* Direct and Fun. Both in language and in setting expectations for how their team / customer relations will be handled - they want your business and they want to have fun in the process.
* Specific about key differentiators. In case their prospects haven't thought through some of these key issues, they've laid them out to use as discussion points between customer and salesperson.
* Earn your business mindset. It's pretty clear they want to earn your business and have fun doing it, isn't it?
Ok, I'll add a 4th:
* They're dedicated to creating good solutions for their customers. Software licensing isn't just what these folks do for a job - it's what they DO.
So if you're competing against an established competitor and are taking "the usual" approach to slogging out business day after day, perhaps you should consider creating some form of Reprise's Rescue program and see how it works for differentiating your company in these challenging times.
(Disclaimer: I worked with the entire Reprise team "back in the day" at GLOBEtrotter Software, remain good friends with them and have them listed as a Bright Orange Partner.)
Friday, April 17, 2009
Intro to SMRFS image posted
A quick note to say that I've posted an image of the high level overview of Sales Management: Right From the Start over at http://www.brightorange.com. Next week I'll begin posting a series of materials, beginning with a brief intro screencast video of high level perspective.
As always, thx for visiting and until next time, be well.
best,
hal
As always, thx for visiting and until next time, be well.
best,
hal
