Hi Scott -

We have a 7 stage Sales process defined here at Endeca (pretty standard stuff) -

1 - Prospect Identification
2 - Needs Identification
3 - Value Proposition
4 - Solution Validation
5 - Proposal and Negotiation
6 - Procurement
7 - Closed / Final

Our process requires PS involvement (meeting with the customer, scoping, etc) at Stage 3. PS pretty much runs the Services side of
the sales cycle from that point until stage 7. In our experience the real trick to working closely with our Sales partners is to make sure
we are never seen as slowing down the deal - the PS team needs to be aligned with the Sales team and needs to interact with the customer in
such a way as to accelerate the deal. We all know that once a customer decides that your product features meet his / her needs,
their next thought is “can I trust this organization to deliver on time and on budget?” Our goal is to answer that question very early
on in the sales cycle.

Thanks a bunch for the quick response.  Do you define what PS vs. what sales will be doing in each of these stages?  Also, out of curiosity who owns the customer relationship (primary point of contact) after the license deal is closed and why?

Scott

We have some definition around these activities, but it’s pretty detailed - more than I could respond with here. Basically, the Account
Exec owns the sales process, but lets the Practice Manager handle all aspects of the scoping, pricing, and selling of the Services side of the
solution. This is made somewhat easier by that fact that something like 90% of our product purchasers buy Services in conjunction with their
purchase.

The Sales team has “owned” the customer in most of the organizations I’ve worked in - even when the Services team has daily contact, we rely
on the Sales team to drive customer strategy and further product adoption - this will vary widely, however, on the type of product you
are selling and your Services strategy.

Hi Scott,
The organizations I’ve worked in have varied their account management practices according to the structure and offerings of the company. 

The one that I had the most success with involved engagement in the Sales cycle AFTER lead qualification since the PS organization didn’t have its own sales staff.  Always one of those catch-22’s - if you don’t involve PS in the sales cycle, then handoff needs to be very structured to avoid loss of information; if you involve PS in the sales cycle, you are using billable resources for non-billable work but the handoff isn’t required.

The sales cycle was defined with steps and probability of close - similar to the 7 step list you most likely have and the one listed by kipbowes.  After qualification, the PS organization stepped in to help with proposal development - a very defined process was put in place with bid/no-bid steps along the way.  Structure of this process was based on the Shipley & Associates proposal process.  The Sales rep was always the account manager throughout the process.

When the deal was closed, the Sales rep remained the account manager but, as reality happens, the on-site presence or interaction of your PS team ideally builds a relationship of their own with the customer and you get follow-on work via the PS resources, not necessarily the Sales Rep.  Of course this varies by Sales Rep - how involved are they in the account, etc.  On the books Sales remains the account manager, PS becomes the “person behind the curtain” so to speak building on the relationship.  This is recognized so positions such as ‘engagement manager’ or as already mentioned ‘practice manager’ start forming in your PS organization to handle this type of work - in smaller organizations this may be the Project Manager role by default.  These positions then become your key resources to involve in the Proposal process going forward.

Other organizational structures I’ve been involved with include a sales team or business development team within PS - this has limited success depending on their relationship back to the sales organization and how much they are empowered.  Having separate product and services pipeline causes conflict in client ownership - too many cooks in the customer’s kitchen.  However, if Sales is still identified as the account owner and the business development team are their ‘PS proposal’ arm, then it can work.  It’s a cost investment by PS to do this since most likely the business development folks are not billable.

Thanks,

Jodi C.