BigMachines Blog

            You have nearly finalized a huge sale. The hard work is done, the customer knows what he wants, and the price has been agreed upon. When you get the signature, it’s payday – but the deal can still fall through. You need to lock it down with a killer proposal, but building it out takes a lot of time: writing a cover letter from scratch, copying in all the customer information and pricing data for the quote, branding it with a customer logo, finding the applicable terms and conditions, adding any visual aids and then double checking to make sure everything’s correct. After the exhausting process is complete, you still run a high risk of error and the quality of the final product leaves the customer mildly impressed at best. Fortunately, BigMachines’ Document Engine is the cure for the common proposal.

            With pre-built templates, proposal tools greatly reduce the time and effort required to build the kind of powerful documents that will give a sale the extra push it needs. One of the most attractive qualities of many modern tools is that building out the templates require little to no technical knowledge; it’s all just point and click. For a company at the top of its game, the issues usually associated with proposal generation are problems of the past. With a comprehensive proposal tool, professional, customized, accurate proposals are a mouse-click away. More importantly, your resources will be freed up to add real value rather than gather data and edit documents, and your customers will be impressed with the speed, accuracy and quality of your work. In business, win-win situations are seldom found, and not taking advantage of them can be costly. Why leave anything to chance?

It seems like there is always some new kind of marketing trend each day.  Between tagging, tweeting, commenting, blogging and joining groups, it seems easy for your business to get lost in the jumble of things. As a social media addict, I at times lose hours to my habit/addiction. But social media marketing should not be one of them.  Social media is a great way to get word out about your business and its capabilities.  Whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social media outlet, word spreads around and it is a great way to make connections and network with others in your industry. 

As opposed to traditional marketing strategies like advertisements through different forms of standard media, social media marketing is a new-ish method of marketing your business and it is transforming the ways in which we speak today.  With the growth of Internet users and smart phone owners, it is now easier than ever to find information, discuss news and reach a larger audience, all without your checkbook every being disturbed.  According to Dave Evans and Jake McKee, authors of Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement, “A July 2009 Anderson Analytics study found 60% of the Internet population uses social networks and social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter.”  Over half of users!     

With such a large audience to reach out to, BigMachines has taken the opportunity to use resources like Facebook, Twitter and blogging to inform both prospects and customers about our capabilities, press releases and best practices.  By taking advantage of new social media trends, BigMachines can reach more people than we could have before.  Our clients can not only be up-to-date about news like the annual BigIdeas Conference and new software releases, but they can discuss these topics together as well.  They can also have more access to information about different aspects of our software including Enterprise Resource Planning software, online sales tools and proposal automation. Best of all, our customers can interact with one another and share ideas and best practices. We have found great success with social media not because we are industry geniuses (even though we like to think we are) but because we center all of our offerings on our customers. We let them guide us on topics to even how we shape our product. 

With social media marketing, we can increase sales and provide more information and resources to our customers and prospects.  Social media marketing is the future in building both the knowledge about your business and its success. If you haven’t done so already, join the movement!

Join the Official BigMachines Facebook Page here.

Join one of BigMachines' LinkedIn Forums here.

Join my network of professionals on LinkedIn here.

Tweet with us here.

See what I have to say about the IT and Sales Industry on Twitter here.

2.6 seconds left.  Down by 1.  A spot in the National Championship on the line.  It all comes down to a full-court pass and making an open shot.  We all remember the epic 1992 East Regional Final game when Duke miraculously came back from a deficit and beat Kentucky in the final seconds of the game.  But that last-second, buzzer-beater shot he took was more than just luck.  It was well-planned.  Every play has been thought out and practiced before being executed on the court.  Without good planning, training, practicing and the right tools, each team would be unable to continue on in the bracket.  With the chance of either going home or staying in the tournament, a team and its members ensure that they are prepared for March and its ensuing madness.  For example, a team must know their opponent’s best zone defense, their sweet spots, their best free throw shooters and how to get past their defense.  A team would not be able to do that without the proper information and resources.  They not only need a coach who knows the ins and outs of how to stay in the tournament and beat your opponent, but each player from the center to the guard needs to be on the same page as well.                                      In keeping up with the spirit of March Madness, BigMachines’ sales team functions in much the same way.  Similar to the basketball coach, Sales Managers must coordinate their team of associates and interns in order to find leads and make contacts.  Ultimately, the manager's goal is to call the plays and close the sale, much like that last-second, buzzer-beater shot that ensured Duke a spot in the championship.  The Sales Associates run out the play and use online sales tools like sales and marketing software, proposal development software, and an order management system to help close the case.  Without the proper resources to research, contact and inform the client of BigMachines’ capabilities, the sales team would end up on the losing side of things like Kentucky. 

As an Ecommerce Solution Company, we strive to provide a Business to Business Ecommerce Solution that helps you sell more and sell faster.   With the right solution, Duke ended up winning that year and becoming the 1992 champions.  Without that well-executed full-court pass and final second shot, Duke never would have become the National Title holder that year.  It’s something to consider, does your sales team have the right tools and resources to close the sale and win it all?

                In a perfect world, there is a forum for everything. With the internet, I suppose the world is moving closer to this opinioned perfection. You can find a forum for everything online, from handbags to power tools. And, of course, anything and everything Star Wars is always in demand. If only these forums could be taken from the virtual world, where you could talk to everyone in person and see how they work…

                Wait! That does exist at BigMachines. Our Customer Success Forums provide the chance to talk about your BigMachines product with other BigMachines users and experts from the company. Having trouble with figuring out how to phrase a certain aspect of your selling process? Maybe Joe Gibroni from Phrasing Experts Inc. will have a solution for you (note: Unfortunately, Joe Gibroni will not be able to attend this year).

The great part about being able to interact with everyone face-to-face is the ability to network. Unlike an online forum where you have to do some serious LinkedIn investigating to find out who anyone is, you get the whole package right in front of you.

In addition to the benefits of everything being physical, there is also the chance to participate in BigMachines product roadmap brainstorming. This is our way of letting you give us as much input as you want regarding our product development. Any and all suggestions are more than welcome.

Save your spot for a 90 minute consultation with a BigMachines expert. Experience a mini Breakthrough Opportunity Analysis (BOA)^SM to evaluate your company’s sales configuration processes. The BOA is an onsite workshop conducted by BigMachines experts that helps a company evaluate the need for business changes and identify opportunities to improve and streamline its sales processes. We understand that with time, many factors within a company changes and we want to ensure that your company is utilizing our solution to its fullest potential.

The BigMachines Customer Success Forum is coming to your house this May, that is if you live in Denver or the Bay Area. Check out these dates and places to see if there is a Customer Success Forum by you:

Denver Area – May 3^rd, 2012
Hosted by Spectra Logic

Bay Area – May 10^th, 2012
Hosted by Brocade

 If you don’t live in these areas, no problem! More forums are being scheduled as we speak.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that much has changed since my grandfather’s sales days. Back then, he would travel to customers and prospects with a heavy bag of products so he could demonstrate how the product worked and interacted with its various components. Over the years, sales professionals started to move away from this approach – in part due to the back breaking pain it caused. Instead, some started to carry paper catalogs. While not as heavy to carry, these were (and still are) pricey and much more difficult to use for new and existing customers in terms of visualizing how the product actually worked.

Today, sales professionals have a new sales bag – the iPad. With the third generation iPad in the hands of more than three million people, it is having a huge impact on the way we do business – and the sales department is leading their companies through this transformation toward mobility by using the iPad and other tablets as a sales tool while out in the field. Sales professionals are using the iPad while in front of their customers to have a conversation about their products’ features and options, providing an opportunity for product configuration on the spot.

In fact, here at BigMachines, we recently conducted our Second Annual Benchmark Survey, which takes a look at the state of the sales industry today. The findings show that sales mobility is continuously growing with 66.7% of respondents currently using a tablet or mobile device for selling while on the road.  More so, the survey results indicate that face-to-face contact still provides the greatest success with prospects and customers. Taking both those points into consideration, this next statistic shouldn’t be too shocking: a total of 62.5% said their mobile device is important for completing complex sales.

Here are just a few instances as to why the iPad is enhancing the face-to-face interaction between the sales rep and customers and prospects:

• It provides easy access to critical data on-the-go. The more information a sales rep has about a particular customer or prospect going into a meeting, the greater the chance ofclosing a deal.

• It enables quick and professional price quotes on the spot. With the proper applications, an entire proposal can be generated in front of the customer and terms quickly negotiated.

• It adds an extra degree of transparency to the deal, which customers appreciate. As quotes and proposals are generated in plain sight, they have full visibility into what is being negotiated throughout the process.

• While closing deals faster is an obvious plus for sales reps, it is also advantageous to the client. The faster a customer is delivered the product or service it needs, the better off it will be.

• The iPad can minimize, or even eliminate, the confusion that often accompanies complex orders. It is equipped with adequate software applications for pricing and quoting in real-time, enabling sales rep to walk a customer through an entire order in-person, all while allowing the rep to easily explain and iterate through all of the options available right in front of the customer.

It’s pretty incredible how this new, lightweight sales bag is revolutionizing the way the sales professionals do their jobs better while on the road – ultimately leading to increased productivity and an improved bottom line.

So, tell me, is your organization rolling out the iPad to the sales force? What does your sales bag look like?

Tim Handorf

VP of Product Management

• The improved Migration Management Center allows customers to easily transfer changes between their BigMachines test and production sites. Customers can easily compare changes between two BigMachines instances, filter results, and select specific components to update. The new migration management center allows for greater visibility of changes and speeds up the migration process.

• BigMachines’ new Configuration Layout Editor allows customers to create complex configuration and search layouts with an easy to use drag-and-drop editor for pixel perfect control of the page layout. The results are web pages are easier to design, faster to load, and allow for richer functionality.

• BigMachines updated Commerce Rules Wizard now provides customers with a centralized location to create and edit all commerce rules.  The new functionality adds more flexibility in the BigMachines commerce process and improves the user experience by providing a more scalable, standardized way to create hiding attributes, constraints and validations within BigMachines.

1. Know your user.
   
   What is the profile and demographics of a typical user of your product? What knowledge do they already have when approaching your product? How technical are they? Who are you developing your product for? Can you picture your users? It can be helpful to post photos of actual users in your office or workspace to remind yourself whom you are developing for.



2. Your product decisions should be based around your users needs and the ways they use your product.
   
   This seems obvious, but it is often ignored. Many products are designed around what the product designer/engineer thinks the user should do with the product, rather than on what the user actually wants to accomplish. Most products are developed to help a user solve a problem or accomplish a task. Don’t lose sight of that. To be successful, you need to know your user and help them accomplish their goals in a simple and efficient way.



3. Keep it simple.
   
   Break down your information into manageable pieces. Your product might have a lot to offer, but when you expose it all at once, it can often be confusing and overwhelming.

BigMachines was recently featured in an article by P.J. Jakovljevic of Technology Evaluation Centers. P.J. recently had the opportunity to attended BigIdeas Chicago, the annual BigMachines customer and cloud computing conference.

In part one of his two-part series, P.J. describes his impressions of the conference, summarizes some of the new BigMachines Selling Platform features, and examines company’s future direction. Click Here to Read Part One

In part two of his article, P.J. summarizes key themes explored at BigIdeas during presentations by BigMachines' partners Oracle, salesforce.com, and InsideView and features a Q&A session with BigMachines' President David Bonnette and VP of Marketing Will Wiegler.


Excerpt from part two of P.J. Jakovljevic’s two-part series on BigMachines:

BigMachines’ Leaders Speak Out
 
Towards the end of the event I had the chance to meet with David Bonnette, BigMachines’ newly inaugurated president, and Will Wiegler, VP of Marketing. My provocative questions and their frank answers were as follows:
 
PJ: What is your exit strategy? Is configure price quote (CPQ)/quote to order (Q2O) sustainable as a standalone market in light of recent acquisitions in your space (most recently Webcom by Callidus Software)?
 
DB: Given that I have just started at the company, we are not yet thinking about the end game for BigMachines, and I will rather talk about our growth strategy. The main pillar of our projected stellar growth for next couple of years is to do more in the CPQ market in terms of selling to new customers and new industries. There is still plenty of arable land in this space, and we are the leader: our revenues equal the combined revenues of our competitors. Also, we currently have the following three engines – (direct) sales, channel, and e-commerce – and there are abundant cross-selling opportunities to existing customers as well.
 
Over time, we plan to broaden our functional footprint by enabling customers to further generate and protect their revenue. The latter aspect can be done by contract management, asset-based renewals management, upgrades, etc. Many issues and considerations take place in sales and engineering departments before the configuration and quoting take place. For now, we will develop those adjacent functionalities internally, but you can never know whether, say, in two years time our approach to acquisitions might change.


Click here to read the complete article.

• Customers ideas via the My BigIdea innovation web portal
• Interactions at Regional Customer Success Forums
• Votes on most-requested enhancements during BigIdeas in the United States and Europe
  

• Intuitive drag and drop interface allows for high quality UX layouts of configuration pages.
• New AJAX commerce rules enable dynamic updates without the need to refresh pages, resulting in a rich end-user quoting experience
• One stop migration center administration provides enhanced ability to compare data between local and remote instances as well as seamlessly migrate data
• Enhanced step administration user interface simplifies management of workflow set ups

• Follow best industry practices and processes (as much as possible); this approach allows companies to think small and incremental rather than in a “big bang” manner
• Take ownership – BigMachines should be like buying a car and not a limo with a chauffeur; for some customers that still require some handholding (chauffeuring), BigMachines offers packaged Admin Services, but the idea is for the majority of customers to be self-sufficient.
• Supportability and scalability of the product
• Constant interaction between customers and BigMachines’ project team members

• DIY (Do It Yourself) Admin – We will make it even easier and more intuitive to be a BigMachines administrator.
• Out of the box modules – We will launch new product modules that allow our customers to quickly implement and capture the value of new BigMachines functionality.
• Enterprise Agility – BigMachines will enable our users to work in a fast and flexible manner.

• Terremark as the recipient of the Big Innovation Award for demonstrating innovation in their use of BigMachines within their company;
• Brocade as the recipient of the Big Success Award for demonstrating a significant ROI from using BigMachines;
• Sergey Heyphets with Acme Packet, honored with the Biggest Idea Award for contributing the most innovative idea to enhance BigMachines’ product as voted by other BigMachines customers; and
• Jason Parpart with Schenck AccuRate, honored as Administrator of the Year for his skills and knowledge as well as his exemplary teamwork within his company and with the BigMachines team.