Conference 7.286::digital

    
    	This is not real world answers.
    
    	I have been doing new accounts for three years. This is the
    pitch...
    
    	Forget everything you read. The press only reports bad news.
    
    	Forget competitors BS. They're jealous.
    
    	Now, what is it you wish to accomplish for your organization?
    
    	Then let them talk for as long as they want to. Use open probes
    to keep it going. The end result is, the prospect will tell you what he
    wants to buy, at what price he'll buy it, and what you need to do to
    win the deal.
    
    	If anybody laughs at this - tell you what - I was 225% last year,
    and am already at 182% this year after having my budget tripled from
    Fy93. 
    
    	And I love the new Compensation plan....
    
    		the Greyhawk
    
    	

    I could not agree more with .3.  I have been selling new accounts for
    two years with good success using the same approach.  I would add that
    a two minute pitch is good to have in your pocket for those situations
    where you need to get the customer kick started.  In those situations,
    I focus not on the technology, but on the customer successes that we
    have had in the customers industry followed by the experience we have
    as Digital.  The bottom line with new customers is that you have to
    know the customer before you walk thru the door and be prepared to do a
    two minute drill.  Then be flexible enough to probe and listen if the
    customer will let you get away with that.  If not do the two minute
    drill, then probe and listen.  
    
    Good luck.
    
    I have had a lot of fun with new accounts.
    
    Steve

    RE: 3
    
    Greyhawk,
    
    Congratulations!  
    
    What is your current assignment?  I am not looking for specific
    account names.  I just want to know if it is a large, government,
    or SME accounts.(Sorry for the closed probe.)
    
    
    

    re. .4
    
    As a fellow sales compatriot that has been selling to new accounts for 
    the last three years, I like the way you describe the strategy for
    selling to new accounts. It really should be an appropriate mix of 
    keeping the customer's goals and problems in mind, understanding their 
    business, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your own products, and 
    just plain "being there" for the customer. Asking questions, listening,
    probing again, differentiating....relationship building over many
    months.
    
    This "being there" is a real challenge given the current state of Digital
    rightsizing.
    
    In the new account sales model I am eager to see if Digital
    understands and sets metrics accordingly to validate the undeniable fact
    that it takes a lot of effort to break into a new account (I always say 
    "it takes 10 times the effort to close $100K of business in a new account 
    versus $100K in an installed base account." Anyone agree, disagree?) 
    
    It has also been my experience that the sales cycle, on average, still
    proves to be 18 months or more and when you are working new accounts on a 
    12 month measurement horizon (the fiscal year), you are talking about a 
    very tough challenge indeed.
    
    Curt
    
    
    

    A little hint from someone who has been selling to roughly 200 SME
    accounts..... BEWARE
    
    Management has notified me that all accounts will be transitioned to
    channels as SME org/focus is "history"....... 
    
    apparantly only 405 accounts linked to industries will remain as of
    July .............
    
    Arthur

    More Best/Fastest
    
    Best middleware - DBI, Linkworks, etc
    Another best operating system (WNT - not ours, but Digital influence
    and a big differentiator)
    Best networks.
    
    

    Re:                      <<< Note 3147.7 by GRANMA::AFILIP >>>

    Arthur,
    
    If what you are warning is the fact that we are moving (trying?) more
    to  indirect  sales so the base noter may have a short  life  selling
    direct  to  new  accounts, then your point is valid, otherwise, as an
    ex-member of the Gary Eichhorn GSB/SME group, the model was always to
    use channels to sell into the SME segment (Eichhorn's motto was  "The
    VAR  is  the  Customer".   As we are well aware, Digital direct  sell
    costs  are  too  high,  plus  we  don't have the applications to sell
    directly to SME's.
    
    /OLD

    
    	Please let's get off the "best" stuff - anybody can knock holes in
    any product on the technology front today. None of this stuff is best.
    
    	Bytheby, I recruit new resellers. Talk about a serious sell. These
    folks already do Compaq, HP, SUN, etc. and I say "Geez you need to do
    DEC too". You'ld split a gut with some of the initial looks I get.
    
    	But when we really get into it, it makes sense for them. Nearly
    all my accounts are SME in size $5-100MM resellers. Every now and then
    I get one of the BIG boys, Comdisco and SSA in FY94 for example; but
    they
    are all people trying to do the best job for their company and thus
    they really are the same. It is not rocket science, it's work; but
    hey, if it was fun they would call it work, right?
    
    		the Greyhawk

    Here is what I have heard.
    
    The ultimate structure for Sales in FY95 is still being
    developed.  Most of the elements are in place.  One of the 
    elements is the naming of about 500 strategic customers.
    These customers will be serviced witha combination of
    existing account managers and product sales specialists.
    
    The plan for the SME space seems to have all existing
    customers(installed base) being covered by a DMO type
    organization.  The "new" SME rep. will be measured on
    new business in new accounts.  There won't be revenue
    goals.  Instead there will be a point system.  Points
    will apparently be awarded based on new customers,
    mktg efforts and seminars.  
    
    Has anyone else heard about this?  
    
    P.S.  Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling
          GOMEZ ADDAMS is smiling somewhere in anticipation
          of what's going to happen?

Re: .10                                         
    
>    	Please let's get off the "best" stuff - anybody can knock holes in
>       any product on the technology front today. None of this stuff is best.
    
    Digital culture is to aim at engineering the best product and believing
    that everything else will fall into place. When I was a product manager
    that's what I thought. Sure we defined channels and marketing plans,
    but they weren't the right ones and anyway our ideas of what the "best
    product" was didn't tie up with what most customers wanted. Our ideas
    corresponded to the top of the market and didn't scale down to small
    operations and small budgets.
    
    Now I'm doing sales in Digital Consulting I'm learning that product is
    just one small part of the success equation and I agree that sales is
    just a whole lot of work. Mostly I'm amazed at the amount of
    opportunities out there that we would be quite capable of winning if we
    heard about them on time. At the moment the limiting factor for me is
    not having enough people to cover the business opportunities. This is
    likely to get worse as downsizing continues.
    
    Just my micro-view of the universe.
    
    Mike

    
    
    
     Let's get specific:
    From a real live conversation this morning.
    
    
     Customer says: We dont want to buy ANY proprietary hardware. The big
    guys want big Intel machines running NT server software with WFW
    clients. We are worried about supporting any other environement. Why are
    you trying to sell me Pathworks? Help me change the big guys minds?
    
    
    
    
    What would you do/say. The part about "support" bothered me. For some
    reason the customer thinks our environment will be more difficult to
    support. This is a mature DEC customer with very typical setup and uses
    for computers.
    
      

    
    	They are right. So tell him you do not want to sell him and
    proprietary hardware either. Since NT runs on 2100 that takes car of
    the server piece. We sell Intel PCs. Voila. You have a client in the
    making. If he/she says but the 2100 is Alpha. You say so what? It is
    the operating system you are supporting, not the chip set. We got field
    engineers to do that stuff. And by the way.....
    
    	Get the picture. Every objection is a reason to agree, support, and
    show why the customer is right. And why doing business with you is the
    correct thing to do.
    
    	Good luck. Go get 'em!!!
    
    		the Greyhawk

    RE: .11, you are on target.  This (or something similar to it) is going
    to happen.  We will only directly support @ 500 large accounts.  The
    rest will be supported primarily through indirect sales/channels.

    re: .11
    
    Dunno if this is of any significance, but Gomez' favorite treat was to
    run two model trains racing around the track until they met head-on
    on a bridge, at which time he pushed the plunger on the dynamite
    detonator with fiendish glee.
    
    Oh... I guess that was his 2nd favorite.... the first was obviously
    Morticia when she spoke french.
    
    Lee

    
    	And I love the Addams Family, movies, TV, comics. But I think
    Digital today more currently resembles "Pigs in Space".
    
    	As for sales. We are getting more focused everyday. Is not a
    grunt issue, its a management problem. As one noter recently stated,
    there is more business out here than you can shake a stick at. We
    need to reverse our efforts and go back to new accounts. It may look
    like a pending wreck, but this may well save us all.
    
    		the Greyhawk

    The model you are talking about has already been implemented in the UK.
    Basically, we have around 140 major accounts (to be reduced slightly
    next fiscal) each of which has a dedicated account manager. These
    account managers also have presale resource available within their
    sales branches.
    
    There is then a tier of geographic accounts. Here they are sold to by
    VARs and Distributors but there is still a DEC account manager to talk
    to. That person would typically have about 50-100 customers against
    their badge. The goal here is that the sales guys pretty much align
    with the VARs rather than the customers. This is the SME and new
    business model.
    
    Finally, there is the rest of the market, left exclusively to the VARs.
    
    DC does NO presale work against sales cost centres. This type of
    presale is done from within the sales branches. DC has a presale budget
    of its own so it is down to sales to convince them that a project is a
    good investment if they want to get resources.
    
    So far it seems to be working OK given that it was implemented
    extremely rapidly. The move to selling via distrbutors will accelerate
    rapidly.
    
    The yield per sales head is around $2-2.5m pa in major accounts and
    $6-8m per head in "geography land".
    
    Paul

    I got one of those endlessly forwarded ALL-IN-1 mail messages yesterday
    that came from somewhere in the maze.  The general message was,
    "hey, we gotta do a much better job selling this ROTCON inventory
    in Q4!"
    
    It was interesting to note that 
    
    1)  Only one or two of the people admonishing us to sell this
        equipment are actually on the street selling and,
    
    2)  Many of the people that it was sent to have been laid off.
    
    So who's going to sell it, I wonder?
    
    Dan

    re:  .13
    
    One flaw in the conversation is the reference to the "big guy".  Too
    often we call low and expect our wonderfully-engineered product message
    to percolate up.  Others start with "the big guy" and influence him or
    her to influence the rest of the organization.  These people are called
    "successful sales people".
    
    

    re. 20
    
    My experience shows that every sale is different as to who is the
    "focus of decision power." 
    
    I've called on one major company where backing from a VP was absolutely 
    essential. You had to lay relationship groundwork at that level or 
    the deal would never go through.
    
    At another major company I called on, the level one manager owned a
    capital budget that often went into multi-millions. He/she didn't need
    to get any other approvals from anyone above.
    
    A good rep has got to assess where the focus of decision power is and
    call at that level. This level may be technical or business oriented
    and the sales call has to be geared to that orientation.
    
    Curt
    
     

    
    	.13 et al -
    
    	This is all very true. -Find the Fox (the true decision-maker)-
    	Relationships with "x" - Product knowledge - etc.
    
    	The one fact remains. You can't learn anything if you are doing the
    talking.

    I don't know how right I may be, but it seems sales are DIRECTLY
    related to the perception your customers make of you.  Now go back a
    few years and who would have tought Crysler made "reliable" cars, sure
    they had good engines (which would stall crossing an intersection) you
    would carry that resistor which would burn out in your glove box, the
    rust would eat them faster than the bank was pulling money from your
    account.  So what did they do? reorg and reorg??? no they advertised
    that their cars were cheap on fuel, cheap to buy and maintain, they
    pounded the message over and over again, then they took all the bugs
    out and told every one even the japaneese tought the Cryslers were
    better than their own....now we all beleive their cars ARE better.
    
    How does this relate to us?  well I think we make the best, but the
    buyers of other companies do not, the "know it all" analysts do not, so
    when a decision is made on what to buy, are we in the running? NO!!!!
    
    I even saw an analyst declare that the future of 64 bit computing is
    assured since Intel and Motorola (I think) have announced plans to
    produce such chips, this analyst then said DEC would not be there in
    the next millenium, but the two who don't have the product yet would,
    go figure.  Now this analyst is probably an idiot, but some people
    would beleive him and not buy our products since the name DIGITAL is
    now equated with impeding death.
    
    I think our future sucess can ONLY be assured IF we start advertising
    EVERYWHERE and IF we KEEP on advertising even if we don't see an
    increase in sales in the first few day of the quarter (did GM stop
    advertising it's cars when sales slumped? no they increased it!)  Good
    commercials, not directed at the elite minority, showing products and
    what can be done with them must be aired as soon as possible.
    
    I am not a regulat reader, but I just wanted to air my feelings.
    
    Jean
    

From a letter I sent to Mr. Bob Palmer back in November, 1993...


SUBJECT:  Alpha/AXP Advertising



     Dear Mr. Palmer,

     My  sincerest  thanks to you for taking the time to read this message.
     My name is Bob Martel.   I work in ASD's Semiconductor Packaging Group
     in Hudson, MA.  I hope I am not being too presumptuous by sending this
     message  to  you,  but  I  feel  strongly  about  this subject and the
     benefits  it  may  have for the company and I'm not sure where else to
     turn.

     Years ago, I  submitted  a  suggestion  to  the  Delta  Ideas  program
     regarding  commercial  television advertising for Digital products.  I
     felt then as I do now that this  is  an  area  where  our  company  is
     underexposed.   I was especially reminded of this one Sunday afternoon
     while watching a nationally televised football game  when  an  ad  for
     Intel's  Pentium came across the screen.  I couldn't help but think of
     how many people were being exposed to Pentium and the  "Intel  Inside"
     logo/slogan  during  that  one brief ad.  Since then, I've seen the ad
     run at other times on other stations.  Perhaps marketing studies  have
     shown  that  the  trade journals provide a better "bang for the buck".
     But undeniably, television is a much more powerful medium.  It is also
     viewed  by  a  different (or at least broader) customer-base than that
     reached through the trade journals.  Given the success Intel  has  had
     in  marketing  their  microprocessors  as well as their image over the
     past 5 years, I feel at least some of their  success  must  stem  from
     their television exposure.

     Digital has  a  clearly  superior  microprocessor  (AXP)  compared  to
     Pentium  or  Power  PC.   We  are  clearly making strides in marketing
     software to run with RISC/AXP, which  was  perceived  as  an  area  of
     weakness  by  some.   We have the tools to take market-share away from
     our competitors, but I feel we are lacking a  certain  image  for  the
     product  which  people can identify with.  Creating this image is done
     most expediently  through  television.   I  can't  point  you  to  any
     specific  surveys  to  back  up  this  claim.   I can  tell you what I
     personally remember as an average television viewer  over  the  years:
     the  HP  "what  if" campaigns, IBM's PC ads with "Charlie Chaplin" and
     "M*A*S*H", Apple's "George Orwell  1984"  commercials.   These  images
     stick,  and  often with no good reason...but they stick!  It's been 10
     years and I still remember them, but  I  don't  remember  any  of  the
     magazine  ads I've read during that same timeframe.  This is because a
     well-done TV ad creates an identity-link (audio  and  visual)  between
     something  your average consumer knows very little about (the internal
     workings of a computer or  microprocessor)  and  something  a  certain

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     group  of them can identify with.  Because they know one so well, they
     now feel that they know the other just as  well.   That's  clever  and
     powerful  advertising.   If  such  advertising  can  go  a long way in
     selling people on IBM, Intel, Apple or HP, "imagine"  what it could do
     for AXP and Digital.

     Granted, it is important to sell the PC vendor decision-makers on AXP,
     but  to  sell them without selling the general consumer-base only gets
     us 1/2 way there.  On the  corporate  level,  our  products  are  well
     known.   But  from the perspective of an average middle-class American
     who is considering the purchase of a PC, totally  confused  over  what
     they should get or what they might need, it may come down to something
     as trivial as an image-link that  makes  Joe/Jane  Consumer  pick  one
     system  over  another,  especially in the low end of the cost spectrum
     where profit-margins are low and where we are fighting to gain market-
     share.   Many people these days buy their systems from wholesale clubs
     like BJ's or Sam's.   We have the winning solution, but at present our
     competitors have the winning campaign. The recent ad campaign launched
     earlier this month began bridging that gap, but I feel we  still  need
     to go further.

     Beyond the concept of the single,  catchy  TV  ad  that  people  might
     remember, an ongoing TV ad campaign over many years enhances the image
     of a company.  It also demonstrates longevity:  that this is a company
     that  was  here yesterday, is here today, and as such will most likely
     be there tomorrow  to  support  consumer  needs.   We've  changed  our
     company's focus in so many ways over the past 4-5 years in response to
     current (and future) trends in the industry.  We no longer try to come
     up  with  clever  products and attempt to create a market for them; we
     respond to what our customers want and come up with clever  solutions.
     That's quite a radical change, but many still perceive us as the "old"
     Digital.  If we want to put that old image behind us quickly  (and  it
     is  to  our benefit to do so), I believe there is no quicker way to do
     it than with a well-targeted video media campaign.

     The beauty of television advertising is the impact  which  an  ad  has
     when  run  out  of  context.  People are more likely to remember an ad
     seen during "Seinfeld" (assuming it  was  clever)  than  one  seen  in
     Business  Week,  Upside,  EDN, EE Times, Electronic Design, Electronic
     Business Buyer, etc.  The impact is not  as  great  in  these  places,
     mainly  because  the  information  blends in too well with the general
     content of the publication (i.e.  you expect  to  see  it  there).   A
     well-placed TV ad finds you when you least expect it.

     I would like to thank you  again  for  taking  the  time  to  read  my
     comments  on  this  subject.   I am hoping that Digital will choose to
     broaden  its  exposure  in  the commercial TV market.  The happiest of
     Thanksgiving wishes to you and yours.

     Sincerely,


     Bob Martel

    .26
    
    And what was the response back?

An employee from the "Brand Communications" area responded to my memo.

The person agreed that television is a much needed adjunct to our communications mix
and stated that Digital has already commissioned its advertising agencies to develop
several creative approaches for consideration.  It was also stated that there probably
would not be a major Digital presence on commercial television before FY'95, but that
Digital may run some Personal Computer commercials in a limited test mode in Q3/Q4.

As an interim solution, I was informed that the Brand Communications group was
enhancing Digital's new branding campaign to communicate more clearly Digital's full
range of products and services, and the company's commitment to the success of our
customers, through magazine and newspaper advertising.  I was thanked for submitting
my concerns and told that such input is always appreciated.

Bob

    Boy, does that sound like, "Blah, blah, blah Fido"

    re -few
    
    You put into words my exact feelings, the continuity which is lacking
    in our ad campain(s).  Why is Kimberly Clark still advertising Kleenex
    when the name itself is now part of the vocabulary? or why is IBM still
    advertising when THEIR name is equated with computer?  the answer is
    simple MARKET SHARE  we have such a small one, ANY ad campain is bound
    to reap results, but as anything, it must be pounded in over and over
    (unless of course you are creative like Apple.  The 1984 ad ran ONCE in
    a superbowl game in the US, but it was so good and so well made that it
    was re-broadcasted FREE to Apple many times after all over the world)
    and we must show what we can do and make in a SIMPLE way.
    
    Jean
    
    PS I forgot to mention the ads I saw in the local magazine ran for
    three months, IBM's and Compaq's are still running!