Aventi Group

Telltale Signs of Product Messaging Problems

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Yesterday a high tech VP told me, “I am painfully aware that sales are down this year versus last but I’d really like to pinpoint exactly where the problem lies. Something tells me my product-level messaging is off but I’m not sure if that’s one of the key inhibitors or not.” I told her that we can look for telltale symptoms of a product-level messaging problem. By that I mean, not corporate level branding but rather messaging that is specific to a particular product. See my blog post, The Power of Excellent Messaging, for more on corporate level messaging. Here are some symptoms that point to product-level messaging issues. I use ”product” to mean any offering – product, solution, or service.

Continue reading "Telltale Signs of Product Messaging Problems"

Posted May 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Marketing , Marketing Management

Making Executive Meetings Count

by Sridhar Ramanathan

“Believe it or not, there are some bright spots out there…” said an executive vice president of sales for one of our technology clients, a Fortune 500 company. He went on to say “….but the hard part is getting an audience with our customers’ executives for a top-down view of these bright spots.” Sound familiar? The key to successful sales has always been to get a peek into your customers’ executive level mandates and business challenges. The VP went on to say how surprised he was with how often companies don’t get the most out of the executive level meetings that sales reps work hard to land.

We’ve been blessed in Aventi Group by having the ear of many executives here in Silicon Valley. We’ve found that a few open ended questions with business executives can reveal much about their goals and needs while also creating an opportunity to add value to them. Here are some “high insight” questions that we found helpful:

Continue reading "Making Executive Meetings Count"

Posted March 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Leadership , Marketing , Sales Effectiveness

Handling Conflicts...the Abe Lincoln Way

by Sridhar Ramanathan

We hung up the phone thinking “whew” that call sure got hot. An irate customer? A demanding boss? A frustrated sales rep? Nope. It was an internal planning meeting between sales and marketing for fiscal year 2010. Not all such meetings, of course, are this animated but this one sure was. And that’s not always a bad thing but in this case people left with some hurt feelings and damaged relationships. I’m sure you’ve seen your share of heated conflict in the workplace. Here are some typical hot spots: executive and line management, engineering and QA, tech support and development, manufacturing and operations, and finance and just about everyone. Conflict is healthy but how you handle conflict can be the difference between success and failure in achieving your business objects. Here are just three tips that have worked for Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President. I recently read a biography of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns and cite examples of each point below drawn from Lincoln’s life.

Continue reading "Handling Conflicts...the Abe Lincoln Way"

Posted March 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Posted to Leadership , Marketing , Marketing Management , Sales Effectiveness

Why VP of Sales Must Be In Strategy Sessions

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Why is it that CEOs rarely invite the VP of Sales to strategic planning sessions? The most common reason is the fear that the session would distract them from their primary job, sales. I think this is very shortsighted. I ran a strategy session this week with a CEO and his whole staff including the VP of Sales. At the end of the day the CEO told me how valuable it was to have the VP of Sales bring his experience to the table. Here are reasons why you might have the sales executive join your next strategy meeting:

Continue reading "Why VP of Sales Must Be In Strategy Sessions"

Posted January 23, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Posted to Leadership , Marketing Management , Sales Effectiveness

The Aventi Group Network -- Check It Out!

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Here's an invitation to all of you independent consultants who might consider joining the tight network of executive consultants in the Aventi Group extended team. Please join me and fellow founders, Bill Reed and Jeff Thompson, on a webinar for a discussion on how we leverage our flexible network of experts/executives to add unique value to our clients...and see how you can benefit from this for your own practice. Click here to register for the webinar on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM PST.

Posted December 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Announcements , Channel Management , Leadership , Marketing , Marketing Management

Managing Upward – Tips on Handling a Demanding Boss

by Sridhar Ramanathan

“My boss is driving me nuts” vented Richard, a director at a large software company and client of ours. “He’s constantly changing his mind on what my team’s priorities should be.” I personally heard three such executives in December exasperated that they were being asked to get more done with less while also being asked to handle frequent changes in direction and priority. Here are three recommendations I passed along to them. More are coming in additional parts to this blog entry. I’d love to hear your inputs as well.

Continue reading "Managing Upward – Tips on Handling a Demanding Boss"

Posted December 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Posted to Leadership , Marketing Management

Aventi Group and Huthwaite Form Partnership to Offer SPINops

by Sridhar Ramanathan

We are very pleased to announce Aventi Group's new partnership with Huthwaite, a leading sales performance improvement organization. The best way to explain this to you is to share with you a client quote:

"We're excited about the results that Aventi Group is delivering with SPINops," said Raju Chekuri, CEO of NetEnrich, a leader in remote infrastructure management (RIM) solutions. "We can now forecast revenue with much higher accuracy, track lead values and marketing ROI based on closed opportunities and focus resources on high value prospects. By aligning our sales enablement, marketing collateral and messaging to the SPIN Selling model, as well as our channel and partner programs, we can empower our sales teams to deliver more revenue while lowering our marketing costs."

Check out the press release here and let us know your reaction to this exciting news.

Continue reading "Aventi Group and Huthwaite Form Partnership to Offer SPINops"

Posted November 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Announcements