Breaking the Barrier to EDM Software Sales

By Victor Dembowski and Nicholas Carroll
March 10, 2004

When Chuck Yeager punched the Bell X-1 through the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, in the cold dawn light far above Edwards Air Force Base, it was not the first time the barrier had been broken. During WWII, a P-47 Thunderbolt diving over the English channel had accomplished the same feat. Unlike the X-1, the plane disintegrated, battered by the phenomenal air resistance.

The same thing is happening all over the U.S., to OE dealers moving into electronic documentation management software sales.

It's not a matter of muscle – the P-47 had a lot more firepower than the X-1. It's a matter of different customer mentality, different selling styles, and not least, the deadly veto power of both IT departments and content managers. ("Content managers" can be and are often the actual decision-makers – not the C-level.)

Some major similarities and differences in MFP and software sales:

1. EDM (Content Management) applications provide functionality over a broad scope and depth. These sales fall into three basic categories from the client perspective:

• Very limited requirements (scan, archive).
• Fully functional within a narrow scope (forms or financials)
• Fully integrated, connecting to almost all sectors of a company (the whole enchilada).

From a sales revenue comparison, these can be categorized as low volume ($200 to $10k), mid-level ($15k to $100k) and high volume ($100k to $800k). These characteristics can blend together to create a multitude of sales strategies.

2. From a sales perspective, EDM sales are much more conceptual. Even on the high side for low-volume sales, if a client already has defined a detailed need (customer pain), addressing this specific need with the rest of the FAB's will produce the shortest sales cycle. Outside of this exact scenario, the knowledge level of the client needs to be dealt with.

Moral: hire the sales engineer before making pitches. EDM engineers go crazy being hired into a deal that is "90% closed" with the C-level. The sales engineers are not at all surprised to learn that the deal is a dead duck with IT and content people – because C-level has been pitched the wrong features, and IT or content management shoot it down.

4. Like segment 5/6 salespeople, it's extremely difficulty to hire a seasoned EDS (electronic documentation specialist) for under a $6000-7000/month base.

This is because anyone experienced in either seg 5/6 or software knows that the selling cycles are longer, and it could take 6 or more months before they are seeing significant compensation. "Hitting the ground running" with EDM is about as productive as hard-selling a county print shop manager seg 6 machines. In the case of the print shop manager, the customer just gets mad. Software is a slow ramp for the opposite reason. Unlike the print shop manager, who knows exactly what they need, the very same company buying software doesn't have a clue what they need – and that includes their IT manager, who is going crazy putting out fires.

So software customers have to be patiently qualified. The traits that make great copier salespeople – a focus on fast cycles and closing – are the traits that don't make great sales engineers. The two groups have a common trait – mental toughness – but the styles are very different.

5. EDM sales engineers know all the margins on software. OE dealers don't. Yes, a good numbers person with a calculator can figure the manufacturer's discounts very quickly. What takes experience is calculating the customer acquisition and overhead costs – and which sales are worth chasing.

At this point the sales engineers' experience comes into play, because they know the full range of numbers from dealer margins to the detailed overhead. They know when to fight for a sale, when to run from a sale – and not least, when to see that the prospect is not a candidate for any full EDM system, sell them $4,000 in workflow licenses plus $700 in professional services for training, cover their week's overhead, and be on down the road to a better prospect. (Covering your overhead as you learn the local marketplace is just plain smart business.)

By contrast, people coming from pure MFP backgrounds plug away at deadend deals for far too long. Often they mistakenly think they've gotten into a bidding war. This is not necessarily the case; cutting margins to beat the competition doesn't work when you've address the wrong need. And the needs in software are far more complex than CPC or monthly leasing cost.

6. Veteran sales engineers can walk into IT – quite often with no appointment – and establish trust in five minutes. Why not? All veteran sales engineers started as programmers or systems administrators. We are colleagues.

Half the time IT has no clue about the C-level's budget or plans. About thirty percent of the time they know the exact score, and spill their guts to the sales engineer. That competitive intelligence, coming from right inside the organization, pays out time after time.

Conclusion

Completely contrary to the general assumption in the OE industry, there is a desperate shortage of skilled EDSs. Not just a shortage: a desperate shortage.

The world's best network engineer can't learn the needed skill sets through a two-week training course. Veteran EDSs have years of experience behind them. A good example is the CDIA+ certification. This is great for beginners, but not very helpful beyond installing a simple scan, archive and retrieval solution. References to BPA and integration techniques are mentioned but not detailed. Understandably, experience or a great amount of study is required. Veteran EDSs have years of experience behind them.

At present OE dealers are winging it. A next step may be to sit down and write out the perfect job ad, listing the perfect candidate. In today's job market this will certainly get 250 resumes, but it probably won't find a seasoned EDS. For that, dealers will have to somehow plug into the network EDM people maintain among themselves, which lies completely below the radar of OE dealer management.

The Authors:

Victor Dembowski has 21 years of experience in software applications and workflow, ranging from development, project management, to lead sales engineer for multi-million dollar projects in both the private and public sectors.

Nicholas Carroll has over 20 years of experience in electronic documentation, interface design, and information retrieval. He still maintains a login account on the world's first electronic documentation system, Stanford Research Institute's oNLineSystem (NLS), invented in 1968, several years before Xerox PARC built the Alto personal computer. He has also been a book production manager and a printing press operator.