Category: Challenger Sales

Old Industry New Tricks | The Intellectual Property Strategy makes the difference

8/2/2019

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Speaking with manufacturing industry customers is more exciting than ever. The Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 meanwhile have arrived everywhere. However, the approach and progress vary significantly - especially, when it comes to the Intellectual Property Strategy.

While some companies focus on internal digital end-to-end optimization of their product design- and production processes for shorter time to market, individualized product offerings and cost efficiency, others are taking the digital value directly to market - leveraging their enormous industry process know-how, specialized data insight and their ability to predict or optimize their customer´s value creation.

There is a chicken-egg-interdependency of business- and Intellectual Property strategy. This explains, why IP-strategy discussions without a deep understanding of business makes no sense.
Bowman Heiden – Deputy Director, Center for Intellectual Property, University of Gothenburg

Seeking the core of business transformation in digital technology adoption only is not enough. The Intellectual Property Strategy will likely decide who takes control on the whole value chain and the underlying business model - who sits in the front seat and who must find a place on the backbench.

Even though that patents represent a part of innovation only, they still indicate where the energy is in a respective geography, industry, or even company. The annual reports of patent offices provide some interesting perspectives worth exploring.

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man, and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.
Warren G. Bennis

Let´s have a short excurse into research intense industries like bio-tech or pharma. The use of new developed seeding material or next generation drug is primarily not limited by the physical reproduction but by rights the patent holders reserved to protect their IP. Even, if you don´t like gene modified crop, patenting- or trademarking nature, separating the intellectual contribution from its physical representation may imply revolutionary effects to the business establishment in your industry as well. E.g. the agricultural-technology and licensing exports from the Netherlands meanwhile surpassed their traditional food production exports in value.

Decades ago, the Software Industry emancipated form Hardware Industry by introducing the commercial concept of selling usage rights for software independently from hardware - usage gets monetized while the IP remains in hands of the software vendor. This revolutionary approach explains the disruptive potential software has to traditional, hardware centric business models. Again, it´s about who takes control in a digitized industry to come.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

European Patent Office [EPO 2017] - Annual Report 2017

Infographics - International patent, trademark and design filings under the PCT, Madrid and Hague systems (2016)

With the separation of Software from Hardware arriving in automotive industry, a whole set of new proprietary software with respective End User Licensing Agreements (EULA) will be coming down the road. It seems we soon have to familiarize ourselves with the fact that we can´t own a car entirely anymore - primarily not because we all move into the share economy model but driven by the fact that the car manufacturer will no longer own or control the required software IP. Automotive Industry for years pushed towards external innovation and external labor to reduce capital lockup - Software IP will be a game changer for car vendors who want to keep control on their core business.

This idea is intriguing us because manufacturers need to go beyond selling physical car assets and must discover us drivers as customers - welcome to next generation Customer Relationship Management and the essence of customer intimacy for an old economy!

However, transformation in software industry is going deep as well. What has worked in a traditional productized Sell-To model needs to get complemented by Sell-With and Sell-Through approaches to meet the new customer expectations. Software IP gets embedded in products, cloud-based services become essential part of other products or your current customer may want to join forces with you on innovation. Either way, it´s time to revise value propositions, to reskill the salesforce and to tune the commercial backbone towards new ways of monetization. Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0 and a solid IP Strategy belong together and form the common ground for your business in near future, so let´s prepare for it now.

Good news, the cheese may already have moved on but the opportunity maybe bigger than ever and the driver seat is not decided yet!

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Account Planning | Busting the Napkin Myth

18/9/2018

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One myth keeps following me during my two decades in direct sales: Best Account Plans fit on Napkins!
Wow, what a bold statement - it feels equally untrue like: brightest minds fit into double-digit IQs.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Albert Einstein

Despite all standardization efforts, enterprise business environments keep getting more complex. The ability to innovate simple and effective approaches in business practice has become a competitive advantage. Oversimplification, however, is tempting but remains an act of negligence.

Account Planning means planning for results. In a number driven world of sales, the decomposition of an aspired revenue goal is psychologically the first step to accepting the challenge. While SMART goals and respective objectives may well fit on a small napkin, they by no means are the plan. I would even argue that it is the wrong end to start with - relevant account plans are starting with the customer.

In recent years, Business-to-Business sales has evolved in various dimensions, redefining how we engage with customers:

Sustainability - With Digital Transformation and the move to the Cloud, customer Business Models have embraced external vendors to become integrated part of the value chain. Continuously earning trust, adhering to ethical and legal standards, and delivering positive customer experience are non-negotiable foundations to sustainable commercial success. Yes, the definition of success is far more than transacting in the short term or "making the number" only.
Customer Alignment - Cutomer Centricity is all about understanding the customers business priorities and translating them into strong and precise value propositions. As much as, I agree no Account Plan should be called complete without customer validation. Aligning with customer key stakeholders on the plan and finally signing off on a joint business roadmap is what makes a good plan a demand generation engine.
Teamwork - Enterprise sales has become a team sport of specialized professionals, all working towards joint goals. It´s the heart of every effective Account Plan to ensure a common understanding and efficient orchestration with all stakeholders - internally (Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Consulting, Support, ...) and externally in the ecosystem (Partners, Advisors, Influencers ...).

Account Planning is a reflection on the evolution in sales but even more, so it is a yardstick on the sophistication of your teams work - what a great coaching opportunity or moment to personally benefit the customer relationship in form of executive sponsorship.

Imagine the business potential of getting the perception right by moving away from a necessary evil and abandoning the disrespect which a napkin implies.

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Selling Time | Time is Money?

21/3/2017

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Let me today share some thoughts on a recently published article on Harvard Business Review: “It’s 10 AM. Do You Know What Your Sales Reps Are Doing?” [HBR.ORG, 2017].

The title is a wonderful invitation to reflect on the state of your organization, your approach to sales strategy, quantity versus quality and ultimately whether you want to manage activity or result. In any case, business acumen needs to be first!

The article itself is offering it´s own approach to sales management. Of course, sales leaders should rely on supporting data and take fact based decision. It´s also evident that Microsoft provides great products and tools to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. However, the way how data is used in this article and at which organizational altitude a certain tool like Workplace Analytics is applied remains unconventional.

For example, the authors are not asking why “CRM self-reported data maybe inherently flawed” but propose the approach “to analyze the digital exhaust of calendar and email metadata” instead.

We can be rest assured that it will be 10 AM again and that time will tell how many of their top performing sellers are willing to accept the proposed micro management approach to optimization.

It´s clear that maintaining business data in CRM is not the first thing a seller will fall in love with but why should metadata from calendar, mail or any other app maybe in better shape or even be more insightful than explicit business information? - Data quality is about discipline but sustainability only can be achieved where relevant business conversation drives respective demand for it.

Times of the Lone Wolves in sales are over and contemporary solution selling approaches mandate efficient teamwork. The better you coach this in every interaction with your sellers, the more you inherently drive demand for systematic alignment. This will make the case for efficient Time Management and, ultimately it shows the difference between a metering tool and CRM as a sales productivity engine.

Selling into complex enterprises is a time intense endeavor, so let´s maximize selling time for your teams, e.g. balancing all internal work with the amount of time they need to spend properly serving customers. Time Management also remains a key enabling factor on seller level, requiring to systematically coach and develop every individual – probably starting with yourself!

If you want to learn more on how to practically approach Time Management, Keith Rosen recently published his new book: “Own Your Day!”. It´s worth reading and opens eyes on why your calendar may yet not be the ideal starting point to conclude optimization from.

Either way, Coaching or Inspection - you decide but be aware: No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! 😉

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BUSINESS LEADERSHIP BLOG

Old Industry New Tricks | The Intellectual Property Strategy makes the difference

Account Planning | Busting the Napkin Myth

Selling Time | Time is Money?

Andreas Engel

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