If IT companies seek to differentiate themselves from the competition, they must turn to consultative selling. Consultative selling is analyzing the needs and challenges of your customers and selling unique services that enable your customers to reduce costs, increase profits, and improve overall business performance. The Art of Consultative Selling in IT provides a practical framework for becoming a successful consultative seller and shows how to use the blue ocean strategy to identify opportunities in areas where there is no competition.
The first section discusses the advantages of consultative selling and explores the concepts of blue oceans. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. Competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be established. The author explains how you can use consultative selling techniques to create your own blue oceans of unknown market space, where opportunities for growth are both rapid and profitable.
In the second section, the author defines the consultative selling framework (CSF). This framework is based on proven processes, best practices, and real-time case studies to make consultative selling a reality. It provides clear guidelines for understanding your customer’s current landscape and challenges, owning its priorities, and helping it to achieve its short-term and long-term goals. The author explains how to use CSF to generate innovative ideas and present them to your customer through profit improvement or efficiency improvement proposals.
The book concludes with examples of several innovative business improvement ideas that you can present to your customers, including Agile project management, master data management (MDM), application portfolio rationalization, and business process management (BPM). The author discusses the benefits of each methodology and lists the trigger points to think about when deciding whether the methodology can add value to a particular customer.
Foreword 1
Foreword 2
Acknowledgments
Introduction
About the Author
The Art of Consultative Selling
Key Points
Linking the Art of IT Consultative Selling to Blue Ocean Strategy
Key Points
Consultative Selling Framework (CSF) Building Blocks
Inside-Out Theme
Outside-In Theme
Ideas Are Generated from a Combination of the Inside-Out Theme and the Outside-In Theme
The Innovation Factory
Key Points
Getting Into the Details of the Inside-Out Theme
Governance of the Inside-Out Theme
Tangible Decisions from the Inside-Out Theme
Scaling Up the Inside-Out Theme
Key Points
Getting Into the Details of the Outside-In Theme
Governance of the Outside-In Theme
Tangible Decisions from the Outside-In Theme
The Final Step
The Empirical Process Model for the Outside-In Theme
Key Points
The Innovation Factory
Innovation Validation
Innovation Selection
Innovation Implementation Phase
Key Points
Bringing All the Pieces Together—Uniting CSF
What Comes First—The Inside-Out Theme or Outside-In Theme?
Engaging Your Customer in Outside-In and Inside-Out Themes
Talent Group Lead Being the SME during Project Implementation
Measuring Success of CSF
Theme Density
Innovation Density
Benefit Realization
Customer Satisfaction
Key Points
Getting into the Details—E-CSF
The Enterprise CSF Methodology
Key Points
The E-CSF Implementation—Getting to the Roots
The Localized Phase
The Sub-Globalized Phase
The Globalized Phase
Identifying Domains for Localized Phase, Sub-Globalized Phase, and Globalized Phase
Business Done by Your Organization vs. Your Competitors
Customer Trust and Intimacy in Each Domain
Customer Satisfaction in Delivery in Each Domain
Your Organization’s Knowledge in a Domain
Bringing the Parameters Together for Analysis
Key Points
Agile Methodology
Definition of Collocated Agile
Definition of Distributed Agile
Applying Agile in CSF
Applying Collocated Agile in CSF
Applying Distributed Agile in CSF
Conclusion
Key Points
The Art of Six Sigma
Applying Six Sigma in CSF
Key Points
Master Data Management
Applying MDM Concept in CSF
The Link between MDM and Big Data—A Short Summary
Key Points
Application Portfolio Rationalization
Applying Application Portfolio Rationalization via CSF
Key Points
Cloud Computing
Cloud Delivery Models
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Cloud Deployment Models
Private Cloud
Public Cloud
Community Cloud
Hybrid Cloud
Applying Cloud Concept in CSF
Key Points
Business Process Management
Applying BPM in CSF
Key Points
References
Resources
Index
