Pardon me while I digress from talk about asset tracking to discuss my sales methodology. I wanted to share this with other people getting into technology sales, but also to help potential customers of my software understand how I work.

A long time ago I was a software developer who designed and built business applications, most recently mobile asset tracking applications like the one we sell here at AMI. Since starting AMI, though, I’ve moved out of software development and into software sales, and have learned a thing or two fumbling my way through that transition.

Feature Selling

As a developer, you are primarily concerned with features. What buttons does the application have and what do they do? An overly simplistic description of the developer’s view, I admit, but the point is the developer is all about implementing executable code that does something. The feature list represents the amount of work the developer put into the software, and the successful execution of those features is how a developer measures him or herself. Do all the features work as they are supposed to?

When I made the transition to sales, I was having trouble selling software because I was stuck on selling features to customers. I figured the more features we had the more likely it would be for a customer to buy. But it wasn’t working. I was rattling off feature after feature, but customers just weren’t getting it. They were having problems connecting the features I was showing them to their own work. They might have a vague sense that the software might help, but they couldn’t understand how to justify the expense.

Solution Selling

Eventually an advisor pointed out to me that people are not coming to buy features, especially when it comes to business applications like the ones I am peddling. Customers have pain, and what they are looking for is a painkiller; a solution to a problem.

Now I look at sales as selling solutions. When a customer comes to me asking for information about my products, I first figure out what problem they are trying to solve. It’s pretty easy to do. Just ask, what made you come looking for tracking software? Oh, you are having trouble keeping track of all the stuff that comes into your warehouse? Okay, I have a solution for that.

This conversation naturally leads into me pointing out the features of my product that are relevant to the customer’s problem. The good part is I don’t spend any time telling them about features they don’t care about. Truth is, a customer will buy a solution with one feature if it is the right feature. Think of Microsoft Word. How many of Word’s 5,429¹ features do you actually use?

Find the customer’s problem and stay on that point. Sure, you can mention you have additional stuff included they may be interested in down the road, but first solve their immediate issue. If you succeed in that, the customer will feel they are dealing with a knowledgeable person, and gain trust in you and your product.  And better yet, you won’t be wasting their time or yours talking about stuff you don’t need to.

Sequence of Events

Another tip an advisor taught me was the sequence of events. When selling larger solutions with big sales cycles, very early come to an agreement with your customer as to the sequence of events that will lead to a deal. Figure out the customer’s problem and your proposed solution, and then come to an agreement on what the customer expects the steps to be all the way through the transaction.  If you set this expectation early, you will have a context in which to communicate with the customer all the way through the sales cycle.

An example:

1. Verbal agreement to proceed to a proposal
2. Customer receives proposal, reviews and responds within two weeks
3. Update proposal if necessary within one week, review second draft with one week
4. Upon mutual acceptance, develop formal contracts within two weeks
5. Review and finalize contracts within two weeks
6. Cut purchase order
7. Deliver software and provide training

Obviously the steps and timeframes will vary wildly depending on your type of business, but you get the point. Set some goals and timeframes so you have some time bounds on what is supposed to happen and by when.

This approach helps both parties. The customer will have a roadmap in front of them they can understand and communicate to their business. You’ve helped map out a task list and made their job easier. All they have to do is follow the plan and have their problem solved.

This approach helps the salesperson as well because it gives you a context in which to communicate with the customer. Customers do not like to be hounded. None of us do. But if you have a plan communicated, then you can contact them without wasting their time. You are simply following the plan and helping keep things on track. You have a reason to call them versus simply calling because your CRM told you it’s time to bug them again.

Best of luck to everyone.  Salespeople and customers alike.  Just remember we all have the same goal in mind: to do good business.

¹ SWAG. I’m just making up this number to make a point. I have no idea how many features Microsoft Word has.

Customers often ask what the difference is between Asset Tracking and Asset Management. Our company name is Asset Management International, but our flagship product, AssetTrack, is an Asset Tracking solution. What’s the difference?

Asset Tracking

Asset Tracking is a component of Asset Management, and is a required first step. Asset Tracking means knowing what every asset is, its location, who has it and its status. You can definitely track more information such as lease/warranty end dates, cost, PO information, etc., but bottom line is that Asset Tracking means you have a complete, accurate and current list of everything you own.

Every part of Asset Management described below relies on accurate asset data. Quite simply, you can’t manage what you don’t know you have! Because of this, Asset Tracking is the first step in a maturing IT organization, and since assets tend to move around frequently, keeping track of everything is no small step.

If you haven’t started an Asset Tracking program, don’t feel bad. You’d be surprised how many organizations still have no idea what they have, including some of the largest, most well-known companies in the world.

Asset Management

Asset Management goes beyond tracking. It involves using your asset data to make intelligent business decisions to save you time and money. In addition to asset data, Asset Management solutions store data about your contracts, service level agreements, purchasing history and more and relate this information to your assets records which are kept up-to-date by your Asset Tracking program.

When all this information is maintained accurately, you can use this knowledge to aid in:

• Resource planning – You have access to asset information so that you can plan for new projects and ensure you have the assets you need on hand, without overbuying.
• Vendor negotiations – If you know exactly how many users require a certain piece of software, you can negotiate lower prices that if you were to purchase an enterprise license. You can also understand what assets cost you the most in services and replace that equipment or purchase better service contracts to save you money in the long term. Without Asset Management, you have to trust your vendors to look out for your interests, which is not in their interest.
• Migration/upgrade planning – When you roll out Vista, you better have a good handle on how many systems require a hardware upgrade to support it. Without this knowledge, your Vista migration will be much more expensive and possibly overwhelm your support team.
• Compliance reporting – Internal and external auditing is a major headache for all organizations and compliance with Federal regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA are even more so. With an effective Asset Management program in place, complying with these regulations is far easier, since you have the information at hand.

Conclusion

Asset Tracking is the first step of Asset Management. Asset Tracking is where you start, and once you get that nailed you will mature into Asset Management. Don’t expect to take one giant step for mankind and have it all implemented in six months. I will take you years to get everything in place before your Asset Management program is fully matured. But don’t worry; Asset Tracking will get some serious benefits out of simply knowing what you own. From there you will naturally mature into Asset Management.

With ubiquitous availability of high-speed internet these days, hosted business applications are a viable alternative to locally installed applications.  There are a lot of benefits to using hosted solutions, the primary of which is lower cost to your organization.

In addition to allowing customers to install our software in a local network, AMI is soon to make its AssetTrack application available as a hosted service so customers don’t have to set up and manage a server environment of their own.  This service targets the small to mid-size organizations that need to save cash and don’t have as many integration requirements with complex systems.  I thought this would be a good time to compare and contrast hosted and non-hosted applications to give you an idea of some of the questions to ask when deciding which way to go.

Hosted vs. Non-Hosted Comparison

Here’s a few things to consider when deciding whether or not to use a hosted solution:

When developing asset tracking solutions, the first place to start is to define the various stages assets go through as they are procured, used and eventually disposed by your company.  I call this the “Asset Lifecycle.”   By first defining your asset lifecycle, you can quickly see the places where you need to put in tools and processes in place in order to keep your asset repository up to date.

My experience with asset tracking is primarily with IT equipment, so the asset lifecycle I define below has a few stages which are specific to computer assets such as Staging.  In a generic sense, though, the following asset lifecycle applies to any fixed asset you bring into the company.

Asset Lifecycle Diagram

The following diagram shows the stages of the asset lifecycle as I see it:

An asset starts off as being On Order and moves through these various lifecycle stages until the asset is eventually Disposed.  The color coding shows you which organization has physical possession of the asset at each stage.  The arrows between lifecycle stages show how assets may move from one stage to another.  These arrows are the business processes that you must evaluate to ensure your asset database is properly updated as the status of assets change.

Lifecycle Stages Defined

The following list describes each of the stages as I define them.  As we get further into building asset tracking solutions together, I will be using these definitions to explain how the solutions should work.

Developing an Asset Tracking Solution

The goal of your asset tracking solution is to maintain a current and accurate inventory of your IT assets.  To do this, you must ensure that your asset repository is updated as assets move between the stages in the asset lifecycle.

For example, when assets are received at your receiving dock, you need to update the assets in the repository with the receiving location and update the status of the assets to Received.  The way to accomplish this is to take look at your current receiving process, and figure out an easy way to have your receiving clerks update your asset database.  In this case I always recommend a mobile barcode scanner to quickly capture the serial numbers of the incoming assets, and establish a process for easily updating the asset records with the scanned information.

To complete your asset tracking solution, look at the ways that assets move between lifecycle stages, evaluate your current processes and design ways to make it easy to update your asset database.  If your employees comply with the process as defined, you will be able to maintain an accurate asset database over time.  Enforcing compliance is not easy, so be sure to establish an audit process and reporting tools to identify which employees are not following the defined process.  Once you weed out the bad apples you’ll have a streamlined tracking solution that works smoothly.