หลักสูตร Understanding the Software Sales Environment

ITC’s “Software Sales Training” is a practical course designed and delivered by Thai IT sales professionals to show you how to maximize both sales revenue and retained profits from your addressable Software market.

This introductory-level course is designed for:

1. Experienced IT professionals who want to move into a full-time sales career;
2. Sales professionals who want to make a career move into Software Sales through a better understanding of the IT market and of the Solutions Sales skills that bring success in the IT environment;
3. Technical Pre-Sales Support professionals who want to work more closely and more effectively with their Account Management and Business Development colleagues
4. Recent Graduates who are entering the IT/Software industry for the first time, and want a head-start in industry knowledge and sales skills as a firm basis for career development and future sales success

To offer you flexible options to our customers, we have designed this course as two complementary modules. This allows you to select any one, or both, of the modules according to your personal needs and experience.

MODULE ONE: Understanding the Software Sales Environment – focuses on the formal and informal structure of the IT industry and the software sector within the IT industry. It defines in detail the ‘terrain’ in which a software-sales professional must compete; it identifies the key industry standards and the common trends in software purchasing and technology acquisition and spends.

A key feature of this Module is an in-depth analysis of Formal Bid and sales procedures.

- This module is highly recommended for sales professionals who are just entering the IT world;
for recent graduates who are starting a sales or sales support role in the software industry;
for software sales professionals who are making the move from ‘box’ sales to ‘solutions’ sales.

MODULE TWO: Planning and Executing Software Sales Strategies – focuses on the actual rules of engagement for software sales. It defines the best practices for effective planning and execution of sales strategies, specifically for the IT sales. It emphasizes the need to operate professionally within the formal constraints of a sales opportunity, but also demonstrates the requirement to operate ‘outside of the box’ and to initiate informal actions and tactics when the need arises.

A key feature of this module is the emphasis on solid planning and effective execution against plan.

- This module is highly recommended for IT sales professionals who are already comfortable with their current level of industry knowledge, but need to upgrade their ‘doing’ skills.

We highly recommend participation in both modules, as they combine together to give a complete, end-to-end Software Sales Training experience.

This course develops three key skills:

1. Appropriate Sales Action: The IT industry seems to be very complex – but if we understand the underlying technology development, business demand, project lifecycle and investment forces that drive software sales, we can focus our attention on one key area at a time. Then, by focusing on the right area at the right time our work is simpler and our sales results are better.
2. Finding Best Business Opportunity: Most opportunities worth winning are also complex and maybe we cannot win the whole of the available business. But we can still play to our strengths and win a key sub-component of the project. In other cases, we may be ‘leaving money on the table’, when we could actually up-sell or cross-sell added products and services based on the existing project; maybe we are giving valuable services for free as part of pre-sales when we should be selling these services at a premium. Looking for and finding the maximum revenue opportunity in areas where we can convincingly compete is a key sales skill.
3. Protecting Sales & marketing Investments: Winning at all costs is not good business. As an IT sales professional, we need to know the true Cost of Sales that will affect our bottom line. We must also be very careful that the profit made on a deal does not evaporate in post-sales support and maintenance problems. Controlling our initial costs and not ‘giving away the shop’ allows us to sustain profit margins.

These skills will be constantly reinforced during each of our 2-day course, giving you a complete roadmap for Software sales activities, built on The Four Steps to Success:

Module One: (2 days)
Step 1: Setting the Scene - Buying Behavior – Know Your Customer Base. We will start by understanding the overall structure of the IT market, and our own place in that structure

Step 2: Formal Sales Process – The Rules we must Play By. We will now look at the detailed, formal structure of IT sales opportunities. We must first understand the rules before we can break them.

Module Two: (2 days)
Step 3: The Art of IT Sales – Planning your Sale. Now we know the rules, we can plan our strategy and our tactics. These will be different for every opportunity but should always be based on defined quality standards and consistent procedures.

Step 4: The Art of IT Sales – Executing the Sale. A plan is only as good as its execution. We will learn how to best manage our time and our scarce resources, how to complete each step of our plan successfully, how to manage our customer, how to react to competitors’ activities and how to change tactics without losing the plot. A successful sales execution not only means a win today – it sets you up for future business growth and a fresh cycle of success

ITC’s “IT Sales Training”is not just another Sales Basics program. It is the only complete IT Sales Program available in Thailand for industry professionals. Even in this introductory-level course, we will already introduce you to sophisticated tools and techniques that will form an integral part of your growth as an IT sales professional for years to come, and will form the basis of best practices for major account and opportunity management.

What you will learn…
These are just some of the skills and subject matter expertise we will help you to develop:

• Understanding the IT project lifecycle: The IT sales market offers many opportunities for increased business, but many opportunities for failure. Always know where both you and your customer are in the overall project, and match your sales tactics to their current needs. Have comprehensive sales plans for the entire project life-cycle.
• The Technology Adoption Life Cycle: Any IT solution has a finite life span. Understand where your solution offering is in its own life span, and how to match this to the buying behavior of your target customer.
• Requirements Analysis: Structure client interviews, listen to your customer, and identify customer pain. Help your customer to commit to their requirements. Lock them in.
• Qualifying Opportunities: Fully understand all aspects of the account opportunity to estimate its real revenue potential. Perform comprehensive risk analysis. Make informed “bid” or “no bid” decisions
• Account Mapping: understand the decision-making and budget-holding structure of your target account. Have you identified all key players? Does the formal decision-making structure actually match the informal structure? Who is your friend? Who is not your friend?
• 3-tier selling: Manage your sales activities at all layers of the target account. Sell strategic business solutions at the CxO level, operational efficiency at the Project Manager level, and technical superiority at the Technical Evaluator level. Keep all parties involved and informed.
• Team Selling: Choose the right resources for your campaign. Form effective virtual teams that include external resources such as consultants, channel partners and customer allies.
• Business Solutions Sales & Return on Investment: Position the business solutions benefits of your proposal, and demonstrate how the customer will earn back their initial investment. Demonstrate the true total cost of ownership of your and your competitors’ solutions.
• Responding to formal RFPs: Structure and manage effective bid teams. Lock-in RFPs around your own solutions features. Understand the importance of compliance lists. Know when to lead with a non-compliant bid.
• Maintaining Flexibility: Offer your customer a defined choice of technical/commercial solutions. Know when to move on to a new solution.
• Software Sales and Licensing Models: Maximize revenue opportunity within your customers’ budgetary constraints and procurement policies. Create opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.
• Competitive Strategy: Understand your competition. Know when to partner to compensate for a weakness. Know when to partner for strategic alliance. Know how to uncover and exploit competitive weaknesses.
• Selling Value Added Services: Convince your customer of the value of consultancy and support services. Differentiate yourself from ‘box mover’ competitors and establish strategic relationships.
• Risk Analysis: Forward plan your sales, implementation and support activities. Evaluate worst-case scenarios and contingency plans. Estimate competitor strength and likely strategy. Know when to disengage.
• Pilots and Bench-Mark Testing: Planning successful pilots and minimizing the impact of benchmark tests. Expose weaknesses in competitor’s solutions. Deal with commercial benchmarks (the trade press).
• Post-sales and Customer Satisfaction: Maintain engagement with your customer after system delivery. Deal with post-sales issues effectively. Establish escalation procedures. Maintain customer loyalty and look for new sales opportunities