1. Provocation-Based Selling: Loosening the Status-Quo for SalesSuccessIn a recent Harvard Business Review article, one of the most respected names in technology marketing andstrategies, Geoffrey Moore (Crossing the Chasm) discussed how diagnostic and benchmarking salestechniques can be used, particularly during a downturn, to help engage executives, open up newopportunities and unfreeze previously stuck sales processes.Moore describes the bad news facing B2B solution providers: 1. Forced to do-more-with-less, most organizations lack formal budgets for new projects, leaving less than15% in discretionary funds to fund a backlog of projects, likely your proposal. 2. With less money to go around, proposals are subjected to higher levels of review in buyingorganizations, and the managers youve traditionally dealt with are no longer the decision makers.Geoffrey Moore confirms simply that what we have termed Frugalnomics is in full effect.The good news, is that savvy marketers and sales enablement groups have found a way to succeed in thistough environment, using a best practice approach coined Provocation-Based Selling using diagnosticassessments and benchmarks to reach their customers resource owners and motivate them to allocate thenecessary funds, persuading customers that the solutions they bring to the table are not just nice, butessential.Frugalnomics Changes EverythingAs many of us have already realized, two economic firestorms in the past decade have fundamentally changedB2B buyers making them more empowered, skeptical and frugal than ever before. And this is not just atemporary change. As we saw in technology bubble-burst, even when the economy recovered, technologysales and marketing was never the same.There is a cold hard fact: the old selling approaches dont work well in todays environment: Product Selling: Approach todays buyer with a product selling approach, presenting features, functionality, and benefits, and the buyers eyes will glaze over. Product Selling relies on the buyer to connect the dots - understand the application and outcome of the solution that they can receive. Buyers just dont have the time, patience and resources for this you figure it out approach. However, we find that over 30% of vendors and sales professionals still rely on this antique sales approach. Solution Selling: The most common sales approach today with over 60% of sellers, Solution Selling is where vendors sales team seeks out current concerns in a question-and-answer dialogue with customer managers. According to Mr. Moore, solution selling is not dead, as it is still the right approach when the customer understands the challenge to be faced and has the budget in place but believes that point products or services are insufficient to solve the problem. However, this approach does not work well higher up in organizations, as executives want insight and advice, not question and

2. answer sessions. Moreover, most buyers are so overloaded that they often are not even aware of pain you are trying to solve. These overloaded customers want consultative advice and a focus on value / outcomes, not just a salesperson listening for keywords and presenting canned advice.According to Mr. Moore Whereas solution-selling listen for pain points that the customer can clearlyarticulate, provocation works best when it outlines a problem that the customer is experiencing but has notyet put a name to.Fight Frugalnomics with Provocation-Based SellingProvocation-Based Selling works best in the earliest stages of the buying cycle, where it is currently easier forthe buyer to avoid spending precious budget dollars and new project risk. Provocation-Based Selling helps toloosen the status-quo, by making the buyer aware that there is a cost-of-doing-nothing, helping toproactively and holistically:1. Illuminate issues of which they might not have been aware,2. Confirm the symptoms they were aware of, but could not easily put a name on,3. Prioritize which issues require the most ardent pursuit, and quantify the competitive or other value which may be achieved by resolving the issue (creating urgency),4. Consultatively, based on priorities, recommend a solution roadmap to stepwise remedy the issues.How to develop your own Provocation-Based Selling Program?So this approach seems to make a lot of sense, but how do you get started in implementing this methodologyand what is required?We have found that it should be applied for a particular solution set / grouping, and its best to start with oneproduct line in mind. Moore offered several key steps to help develop a Provocation-Based Selling Program:1. Identify a critical problem find the critical issues the buyers / decision making executives may befacing in their industry, company specific challenges, or group / day-to-day challenges, and that arealigned with what your solutions can help resolve.2. Formulate your Provocation - The provocation can be formulated into a diagnostic / assessmentmethodology and tool. We recommend implementing a tool with the following components to helpautomate the provocation process: Survey In order to diagnose key issues, you often have to ask a few questions. These questionsoften probe the customer on their current sentiment, goals / plans, management practices andspending. Benchmark Comparison from these survey data points, the current (as is) of the customer iscompared against a set of known data points representing what others are doing a benchmark.Comparing the customers survey responses to those of peers, and especially leaders, confirmswhere the organization is doing well, and more importantly illuminates where the organization isfalling behind / lagging the competition and/ or best practices. 3. Diagnostic Assessment comparing the survey versus the benchmark, the tool and sales team can assess where the customer needs to improve the most where they are lower performing compared to peers and leaders highlighting specific issues and priorities. Roadmap Advice for each priority, a solution is recommended, forming a stepwise recommendation of potential remedies over the next couple of years. Outcome / Value as organizations are risk averse, there often has to be more than competitive pressure justification to approve a plan. From the customers current improvement opportunities, and the recommended proposed solutions, an estimate is made as to the value of the improvements how they can help the customer do-more-with-less, cut current costs, avoid future capital spending, reduce operating costs, generate more revenue / business, reduce business risks, and become more flexible / agile. Quantifying the benefits is a requirement for todays economic- focused buyers. Next Steps with buyers more overloaded than ever, the first steps towards health are so important. A succinct action plan is essential, covering how to get started on the way to the cure, over the next 30 / 60 / 90 days. 3. Lodge you Provocation - The delivery of the program and presentation of results is an important aspect of the provocative selling method.For marketers, the diagnostics can be used as the centerpiece of engagement campaigns, offering a freeassessment to respondents, and a part of the offer may go like this: Weve worked with companies in yourpeer group and have seen how the leading players are experiencing this painful problem. We think itspossible that your company is at risk in this area as well."For sales professionals, the provocation engagement and presentation are vitally important. The engagementneeds to be a facilitative discovery process and not a confrontation or a sales pitch, helping the customer touncover the issues that might be preventing them from reaching their goals and helping them realize thatchange would do them good. According to Mr. Moore, The goal is to disturb the executives equilibriumand make the status quo untenablewithout putting him or her on the defensive. Presenting specific, well-supported concerns and remedies in a forthright manner keeps the focus on business performance for anexecutive who is accountable for it.Provocation-Based Selling ExamplesSo what do provocation-based assessment programs look like? Having pioneered the development of toolsand methodologies with several major B2B vendors over the past ten years, we present a couple ofrepresentative provocation-based selling campaign examples:Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization AssessmentMicrosoft wanted to find a better way to engage with decision makers for core IT infrastructure, businessproductivity, and application development, but was having trouble moving its enterprise sales group andchannel partners from the traditional product / solution presentations.To address this opportunity, Alinean developed a suite of Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization Assessmenttools, which are used to diagnose customers most pressing issues, and help them advance along a four step 4. capability & maturity model. The suite consists of three assessment tools to engage at a strategic level withcore IT infrastructure, business productivity and application lifecycle development decision makers. The tool isavailable on-line, so customers can assess themselves directly, but is most often used in consultative sales-ledworkshops, promoted by marketing via direct e-mail campaigns, offering a free insightful IT, business orapplication development assessment.With a comprehensive survey of 60 practices questions, the tool analyzes responses against a dynamic andgrowing database of other participants, and a capability & maturity best practices model, helping thecustomer benchmark their performance to confirm where they are performing well, or identify where they arefalling behind best practice leaders and peers and need improvement.The assessment tool automates the benchmark comparisons, scoring and intelligent recommendations,delivering a compelling 20+ page assessment report. In a tough selling environment, the tool has helpedMicrosoft and its channel partners proactively engage customers, collaboratively set customer goals andstrategies, help deliver tangible savings and incremental value to customers, while allocating discretionarybudget to Microsoft proposed projects.The assessment tool has been available since 2008 and has been fueling direct marketing programs byMicrosoft and channel partners. The tool consistently generates more than 600 analyses per month, drivingmore high level customer engagements, significant evolution of Microsofts relationship with clients fromtactical to strategic, and generating substantial multi-million dollar incremental sales opportunities. http://www.microsoft.com/optimization/tools/overview.mspxTrend Micro Risk and Compliance AssessmentTrend Micro wanted to help busy security officers and IT managers quickly and easily understand and assesstheir security and compliance management policy shortfalls and risks. To address this need, Alinean createdthe Trend Micro Risk and Compliance Assessment tool, designed to benchmark a companys current securityrisk and compliance practices versus peers and best practice leaders.From a 20 question survey, the risk and compliance assessment tool collects current management practicesinformation. These responses are compared to prior responses from peers and a best practice framework, toconfirm which practices are already in place, help illuminate which practices are missing or less than adequate,and develop a roadmap to help reduce risks and improve security and compliance management capabilityand maturity. A comprehensive 20+ page assessment report is delivered to the customer to help frame the 5. issues they are facing, create urgency that doing nothing is too risky / costly, and provide a consultative andjustified guide to improvements.Available directly to customers for self-assessment, the on-line tool is the focus of e-mail and on-line / socialmedia campaigns, offering a diagnostic assessment to entice security and compliance officers andstakeholders. The tool has been used to capture hundreds of incremental / high quality leads per month,driving incremental higher level customer engagements and hundreds of additional sales opportunities in atough selling environment.https://roianalyst.alinean.com/ent_02/AutoLogin.do?d=884907716186206292Sage Pacer SurveyWith cost control and justification being a focus for most executives, most organizations are often wary tomake a change unless they know that doing-nothing actually has a cost and justifies the necessary investmentfor change.Leading business management software provider Sage understood that prospects needed some realdiagnostic advice to help them assess and identify current business issues they may not have been aware of,and justify important changes.Alinean worked with Sage to develop the Pacer Survey, an on-line tool that uses a 20 question survey tocollect important information about the current state of the prospects business, and benchmarks theresponses against peers and leaders. From this comparison, the tool helps identify potential improvementsand consultatively recommends / promotes improvements and remedies utilizing Sages solutions and otherbest practices.Using the tool to self-diagnose their issues, or in a sales-led workshop, the tool delivers a 20+ pagepersonalized diagnostic assessment reports. Sage successfully uses the tool to connect and engage higher inprospect organizations, drive more, higher quality leads, realize additional sales opportunities that it wouldnot have otherwise. 6. https://roianalyst.alinean.com/ent_03/AutoLogin.do?d=775097930846856459 The Bottom-Line With buyers more empowered, skeptical and frugal than ever, it is increasingly difficult for B2B sales professionals and marketers to connect, engage and sell using traditional methods. Even as the economy recovers, buyers have fundamentally changed and require a new approach in order to gain sales success. Provocation based selling, the use of diagnostic assessment tools, is one method that can be used to help buyers recognize a heretofore unknown need for your solutions, increase the priority of your proposals, gain a piece of the scarce discretionary funding pie. Example after example has proven that this approach, implemented by early-adopter sales enablement groups and marketers, has led to more strategic / executive engagements, opened up significant new sales opportunities, and driven incremental sales. About Alinean Alinean, the leading provider of dynamic sales and marketing tools, empowers B2B vendors to better sell to todays economic-focused buyer. Alinean-powered interactive white papers, assessments, ROI calculators and TCO comparison tools create more compelling value-based connections, workshops, presentations and proposals delivering customized diagnostics, benchmarks, solution recommendations, benefits, investments, ROI, payback and TCO advantage proof points. Leading B2B firms leveraging Alinean tools include: HP, IBM, Microsoft, EMC, Dell, Intel, IDC/IDG, AT&T, Siemens, Unisys, Thomson Reuters, NetApp, Citrix, Symantec, Novell, Cisco, Oracle, Sybase, and CA. Learn more: at the Fight FrugalnomicsTM Resource Center http://www.fightfrugalnomics.com, by visiting http://www.alinean.com, or calling 407.382.0005. 2010 Alinean is a trademark of Alinean, Inc., in the United States. All other brands, products or service names are or may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of, and used to identify, products or services of their respective owners. For more information, please visit www.alinean.comAlinean, Inc., 111 North Magnolia, Suite 1050, Orlando, FL 32801TEL: 407.382.0005 | FAX: 407.382.0906 | TOLL FREE 866.693.6271 7. Sources:1) Geoffrey Moores Harvard Business Review article In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers can be found at: http://bankblog.optirate.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/In-a-Downturn-Provoke-Your-Customers.pdf2) Another leading sales and marketing luminary, Seth Godin, holds similar points of view, outlined in this blog commentary at: Dont Just Sell theProblem, Quantify It, at: http://blog.alinean.com/2010/08/dont-just-sell-problem-quantify-it.html3) For more examples of successful assessment tool programs, visit: http://www.alinean.com/sales-enablement/assessment_tools.aspx