为市场营销人员制作有效的销售支持工具

为销售人员制作有效和有竞争力的销售工具 Daniel Shefer Director, Product Marketing Interwise There are volumes of information out there on how to collect competitive information. Typically, these books and articles discuss competition from a corporate perspective and how to position yourself to be competitive in a chosen market, but I have yet to encounter a well-written text about how to convey, train and ingrain specific competitive advantages into the field sales force. The process of creating and effectively delivering competitive sales tools is a classic role of Product Marketing. 关于如何收集竞争对手信息的资料真是太多了。这些书籍和文章比较关注 于从整体的角度和如何在一个现存的市场中使自己更有竞争力的角度上讨论竞 争这一话题。但我还没有看到过这样的一篇精彩的文章，它论述的是如何向企 业的销售机构传达，培训和固化详尽的自身产品的竞争优势。制作并且有效的 传达销售工具的全过程是产品市场的一个典型的职能。 In this article, I will discuss how to create winning, competitive sales tools and specifically, how the collected competitive information is best presented to the sales team for digestion and assimilation. There are many facets to competitive research including among others, company financials, marketing positioning, product plans, facilities, and partnerships. Only three of these have an immediate influence on the sales cycle positioning, prospect education and objection handling. Lets look at this in an organized way. 在这篇文章里，我将讲述如何制作成功的销售工具，尤其是如何把收集到 的市场竞争信息以最有效的方式表达出来，以供销售团队消化吸收。市场研究 有很多方面的内容，包括公司财务情况，市场份额，产品计划，设备情况以及 合作伙伴关系。但这里面只有三项因素能直接影响整个销售周期：市场定位， 教育客户，危机处理。让我们以很清晰的角度去考虑这些问题。 Competitive Intelligence Gathering 收集竞争者信息的方法 This subject is covered in such great detail by many well-known experts that only as a prelude to the main topic of this article, I would simply like to point out a few key sources of information for the sales tools I will describe below. 这个话题隐藏在许多著名专家的大量相关论述中，这些专家的论述只是作 为这篇文章主题的前奏。我只是简单地指出下面我要描述的销售工具的一些关 键性的东西。 Competitor product capabilities can be gleaned from: 竞争者的产品性能可以从以下几个方面收集到： Demos at tradeshows, via the web, and demo versions (CD-ROMs). 商业演示，网站，以及演示光盘。 Product documentation. Administrator guides are especially notorious for pointing weak points in the product. 竞争者的产品文件，系统管理员手册特别能折射出他们的产品缺陷之处。 Calling the competitors tech support. This is a personal favorite of mine and can yield exceptional results. 拨打竞争者的技术支持热线，我很喜欢这样做，它可能会产生意料不到的 效果。 Following product and industry message boards. 跟踪产品和产业信息会议。 Speaking to their customers and prospects. These are hard to do but are always great sources of information. This is one place where the “nice guy“ always wins. We are always surprised how much our prospects are willing to talk about our competitors if only because we are polite to them. Yes, I mean the sales people! 与他们的用户和意向用户交谈。做到这点比较困难，但经常能得到大量的 信息。而且非常有效。我们经常惊讶于许多我们的意向客户非常乐于和我们交 谈我们的竞争对手的情况，而做到这些，我们只需要对他们很有礼貌。是的， 我指的是销售人员。 Competitors positioning statements can be found: 竞争对手的自身定位的信息可以从这些方面找到： on their website in their ads, brochures, white papers, etc. 他们的网站，媒体广告，宣传手册以及白皮书等。 Look at the market space they see themselves playing in. What are they claiming? Check for consistency. Any discrepancy in their materials should be explored and can usually be leveraged. 看看他们的目标市场，他们在主张什么？做一致性的检查。任何在他们的 材料中出现的矛盾必须探究，通常能够进行调整。 Statements in SEC filings. 证券交易所反馈的零星信息 Sometimes the product list that they report does not fit their offering on the web. Such a discrepancy is usually worth looking into as the SEC filings are legally binding and MARCOM content is not. 有时，竞争对手在证券交易所正式披露的产品信息和他们在网上提供的信 息不一致。这种差异通常是很值得去探究的，这是由于证券交易所披露的信息 存在法律上的约束，因此信息的真实性比较高，但网站内容却没有这种限制。 Your sales reps. 你的销售代表 Sales reps will be able to tell you what the competition is saying about you. Dont be surprised if a competitors sales rep tells tall tales about your company and product. Some will stop at nothing. Sales people, as we all know, are motivated by one thing only, so getting your own to communicate back to you from the field is a Sisyphean task. My experience shows that only after months of feeding them with useful information will a few return the favorand then usually its because of your rapport with them. Dont take this personally. To get information from sales reps, you will have to call them yourself and establish a mutually beneficial relationship. 销售代表会告诉您竞争对手的情况。不必奇怪一个竞争者的销售人员造谣 您的公司和产品。有些是没有什么作用的。我们知道，销售人员比较容易只因 某一事情所激动，所以，期望他们能反馈您的信息那是徒劳的事。据我所知， 只有连续几个月给销售人员一些有用的信息，才有很少的人员能够给您回馈。 通常这还只是因为您和他们有不错的关系。要从销售人员哪儿获取信息，您应 该亲自拜访他们，建立相互受益的关系。 Other vendors. 其他销售商 Dont ask vendors about their products but instead, ask about a mutual competitor. They are usually happy to discuss mutual competitors and swap war stories. Listen carefully because what they say and especially what they dont say about your mutual competitor may be pertinent. 不能向这些厂商询问他们的产品的情况，相反，应该询问共同的竞争者的 情况。客户一般都会很乐意这样交流他们的一些竞争故事。你要仔细听，因为 他们说的内容尤其是他们不说的内容往往更加相关的。 Suppliers. 供应商 When a company tries to sell you their technology, they will try to prove their knowledge of your market space and needs by promoting the fact that they are supplying your competitors as well. The rest is up to your interrogation skills. 当一个公司试图向您出售他们的产品和技术时，他们会努力去证明他们对 您的市场的了解程度，以及表明您的竞争对手也使用该公司的产品以提高他们 产品的说服力。剩下的问题就是如何发挥您的询问技巧了。 Pointers on Writing Competitive Documents 撰写竞争分析文档的要点： The documents should portray a balanced image of the products and the commentary should be unemotional and devoid of marketing fluff. Hard facts in concise language provide the best picture and strongest ammunition for your sales team. 文档应该对产品进行平实的描述，措辞应该避免带有感情色 彩以及没有市场价值的内容。用精练的语言描述产品的真实情况， 给您的销售团队提供最强大的营销弹药。 Assume that all the documents will be left behind with a prospect sooner or later. To avoid embarrassment or legal complications, make sure the wording is clear and factual, avoiding any vague language so that if the prospect reads the document without guidance from someone on your team, no damage will be done. 不管如何，所有的文档都有可能过时，区别只在于时间的早 晚而已。要避免可能造成困窘或者引起法律问题的语句，确定每 一个语句都表达得很清楚，非常符合实际情况，杜绝含糊的语言， 这样意向客户可以不必经过您的任何一个营销人员的帮助就能读 懂这些文档。这样就万无一失。 Make sure all of your claims can be substantiated. The last thing you need is a Cease and Desist letter form your competitors lawyer. Not to mention the embarrassment of your sales rep when the prospect gleefully points to errors in the document. 确定您宣称的所有内容都是可以证实的。最后您需要做的一 件事就是通知竞争者的律师。不要让潜在客户指出文档中的错误 使您的营销人员感到尴尬的情形出现。 If you use industry specific terms (I advise caution here) and the document might be read by a prospect that is not familiar with the terminology, make sure to explain the terms or add a glossary as an appendix. 如果您使用专业用语（我建议要非常小心），同时这个文档 可能会被对专业术语并不是很熟悉的潜在客户阅读，一定要解释 这些词条或者把术语表作为文档的附件。 Four Document Types 四种类型的文档 For each competitor, I recommend creating 4 documents: 对于每一个竞争者，我推荐制作 4 篇文档： Competitive Matrix 竞争矩阵文档 The Competitive Matrix is an extensive feature-by-feature comparison. It is to be used after a prospect has been introduced to the specific competitor and would like to understand the differences between the product offerings. The matrix is basically a detailed list of features, presenting the two competing products side by side. The document opens with the conceptual differentiators between the two offerings that may revolve around specific features but usually focus on major product strengths. Think of the opening as the “elevator pitch“ of the comparison. It should include the 2 to 4 items that make the most difference and that can be presented in less than a minute. 竞争矩阵文档是内容广泛的产品特性对照表。它被用于这种 情形：当潜在客户已经知道了您的某一具体的竞争对手，想了解 您的产品和竞争对手的产品究竟有什么不同。这个矩阵文档的主 要内容是逐条详细的产品特性对照描述。把两家的产品左右分开 并排在一页纸上。文档以产品概念上的区别作为开始，不过，更 大多数的做法是把重点放在比较关键的产品特性对比上。它应该 包括 2-4 条最关键的区别点，同时能够在一分钟内把它表述出来。 After the conceptual differentiators comes a detailed, feature- by-feature comparison. This list should be sorted by benefit groups (what benefits the features offer) and not by specific features. The matrix also has a “Why is this important?“ column. This is probably the most important column in the document. It should answer the question “so what?“ Why is this feature important enough to me (the prospect)? The benefits of each feature that is mentioned should be tangible. If there isnt one, the feature should be dropped from the matrix. 当产品概念区分结束后，就开始进行细节对比。这个对比表 格应该通过产品的价值进行排列（即该功能提供什么价值），而 不是按照产品特性自身的排列。 这个矩阵文档也有“这项特性为什么重要？”的栏目。这也 许是矩阵文档中最重要的部分。它应该回答“这是什么”的问题。 为什么这个产品特性对我很重要（有意向购买的客户）？每一产 品特性的价值必须是确实的。如果没有价值，那么应该把它从矩 阵文档中划掉。 Example of a “Conceptual Comparison“ of Desktop Publishing applications 桌面印刷应用产品的概念方面对比的例子： Our Product(V3.2) 我们的产品 V3.2 版 本 The competitors product (v2.7)对 手产品 V2.7 Why is this important?为什么这 项很重要？ One product solution for all desktop publishing Yes. The product can produce manuals, No. The product is only good for One corporate-wide solution for all desktop publishing need 为所有桌面印 刷应用提供的一种 产品解决方案 brochures, mailings, print envelopes etc.是的， 我们的产品可以提供 印刷指南，小册子， 邮件，信封等 creating brochures and other “short“ documents.不是 的，该产品只能用 于印刷小册子和其 他短的文档。 needs means lower cost of ownership. Support is easier, training is cheaper. 桌面印刷的全面解决 方案意味者更低的拥 有成本，更轻松的支 持，更廉价的培训。 Example of a “Feature Comparison“ of Desktop Publishing applications 关于桌面印刷应用的产品特性对比的例子： Our Product(V3.2) The competitors product(V2.7) Why is this important? One click formatting 只要一次按键就能 使机器重新就绪。 Yes. 是的 No. Formatting requires at least 3 clicks per item. 不能。 每项任务的重新就 绪至少需要 3 次按 键。 Ease of use means better productivity. Documents are produced quicker. 容易使用意味着效率， 文件能够更快做好。 Differentiator Document 产品差异文档 This document starts with a Competitive “rant“, continues with the 2 -3 most important differentiators (some call this the “elevator pitch“) and then goes into the 15+/- differentiating claims that sales reps can use for any competitive situation. The focus in this document is on benefits that the customer must be able to evaluate from their needs perspective and within their own realm of knowledge. 这篇文档以鼓动性的言辞开始，配以 2-3 项最重要的产品差 异说明（一些人把这个称为“显著差异”），然后进行 15 项以上 的差别说明以供销售人员能够在任何的竞争场合下使用。这篇文 档的关键是描述产品价值，这个价值必须是可以从潜在客户的特 定需求中进行估计的，同时该客户可以凭借自身知识能够理解它。 Example: 例子 The Top Three 三个最关键点： One Platform Solution Single platform for all desktop publishing needs. Scalable The product supports thousands of concurrent projects. Anywhere, anytime Work on your project from home or the office with the same ease. 一个平台的解决方案 所有的桌面印刷需求都在同一个平台中 很有弹性 产品支持上千件同时进行的项目 没有时间和地点的限制 不管在家里还是在公司，您都可以同样轻松完成工作。 The Top 12 12 项产品特性 1. One Platform Solution 一个平台的解决方案 Produce any type of document or material with “Our Product“. 使用我们的产品，可以制作任何一种文件或材料。 The competitors solution does not support creation of long documents such as manuals. To do so, another software package is needed. And so on 竞争对手的产品解决方案不支持制作文字比较多的手册，为了完成制作文字比较多的手册， 必须加装其他公司的软件包。 Example of a “Differentiator“ Document of Desktop Publishing applications 桌面印刷应用的产品特性区分文档的例子： Questions to Ask. 问题文档 Some call this the FUD document (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt). This document details a list of questions that prospects should ask your competitor to have an accurate picture of what your competitors are really offering and, more importantly, where we want to guide them to know about how the competitors product really works Asking these questions will give prospects a better idea of what they are getting into and why your offering is better. If prospects take the issues that are raised in the document seriously (they will if these are the important issues), chances are excellent that you will gain the trust and momentum to close the deal. Dont forget, each question should be accompanied by the appropriate answer. 一些人把这种文档称为“不确定性”的文档（意识是不太确 定，还有疑虑）。这篇文档的详细内容是列举一些问题，这些是 意向客户可能会询问您的竞争对手，了解他们的产品的真实情况 的问题。更重要的是，我们需要引导意向客户知道竞争对手的产 品实际上是如何使用的。问这些问题可以给意向客户更清楚他们 现在所处的状态以及为什么您的产品是更好的选择。如果意向客 户对您在文档中所提的某些问题非常重视（如果这些问题的确很 重要，他们会有这种反应），这就意味着您更容易取得对方的信 任，合作的可能性会大大增加。别忘了，每个问题应该配上适合 的回答。 Ask the competitor to create a 200 page document 询问竞争者制作一个 200 页的文件。 The competitors solution will crash if you try to save anything with more than 150 pages in it. 使用竞争者的产品时，如果您试图保存超过 150 页的文档，它的系统将会崩溃。 And so on Example of a “Question to Ask Document“ of Desktop Publishing applications 关于桌面印刷应用的问题文档的例子： “Facing Off“ With This document addresses competitors claims. It should cover each claim they make with an appropriate response in a simple straightforward manner. This is the place to refute any misrepresentations about your product or company, but you must admit to your faults when relevant and provide a positive perspective whenever possible. Brushing off the competitors claims without addressing them will only damage you. Most customers are aware that they are not buying a panacea. They only want to know how far from one they actually are buying. 这篇文章是为了对付竞争者对您的产品的攻击。较好的做法 是应该以直截了当的方式针对竞争者的任何一项攻击进行反击。 这篇文章是澄清任何对您公司和产品产生误解的地方，但您也必 须承认您的产品的一些相关的缺点，如果有可能，最好提供一个 比较正面的角度去解释。对竞争者的攻击不予理睬只会损害自己。 大多数消费者都知道他们买的不是完美无缺的商品。他们只是想 知道他们买的东西到底是什么样子的。 The Competitor claims that our product does not support multiple text formats in a single paragraph 竞争者声称我们的产品无法支持同一篇文章里有多种字体的排版。 So how did we do this?! 那么我们该如何应对呢？ And so on等等 Example of a “Facing Off“ With Document of Desktop Publishing applications What Else Can You Do?您还能做其他的事吗？ Another topic Ive seen covered in some competitive reviews is “When to Back Off“. The concept is a very good one. Providing concrete guidelines on when to walk away from a deal is a sure sign of a mature and very focused sales organization. If you document this, it must be very clear to the sales reps that this is policy and the VP of Sales clearly stands behind it. You dont want to be at the end of a pointed finger when a sales rep explains why he walked away from a deal to the chagrin of the boss我还看过一篇关 于竞争的文章议题是“何时放弃”，这是一个很好的概念。能够向销售人员提 供关于何时放弃一个合同的具体指导方针，意味着这是一个成熟的和非常专注 的营销组织。如果您要做这一点，必须使销售人员清楚的认识到选择放弃是一 项政策，同时能够得到领导的支持。而不至于出现这种情况：当销售人员向愤 怒的老板解释为什么放弃这项合同时，您成了众矢之的。 What not to Cover in Sales Tools 什么内容不能在销售工具里面出现呢？ In my opinion, competitive sales tools should not cover strategic issues such as the competitors finances (unless you are competing with Enron, Global Crossing and similar financial messes), industry trends, press coverage, etc. The reasoning is simple. None of the above has a direct impact on the sales cycle. For example, while a conceptual differentiator might state that your company has $500 Million in revenues vs. your competitor who has one tenth of that and therefore, you are more stable, the details of how the competitor spends his money are irrelevant to the sales process (does show up in RFPs sometimes?). Following the same logic, ads that the competitor displays are of interest in terms of the positioning statements they make but again, their details have little relevance to the sale. This type of information is typically available from your corporate marketing people and can be used to complement the competitive sales tools at relevant points in the sales cycle. 以我的观点看来，销售工具最好不要涉及战略性问题，比如财务问题（除 非您公司的竞争对手是类似安然等财务混乱的公司），产业发展趋势，商业宣 传等，道理很简单，上述所有的内容和产品的销售没有直接的关系。例如，您 的公司一年收入有 5 亿美圆，您的竞争者一年的收入只有您公司的十分之一， 您的公司只是更加稳定而已，竞争者如何花费资金的细节问题和销售进程没有 直接的关系（有时可能在客户的建议文档里面出现）。同样的逻辑，竞争对手 的商业宣传能说明他们对自己产品的定位问题，但其中的细节对您的销售帮助 并不是很大。这种类型的信息基本上是从您公司的市场人员那儿得到的，可以 在销售的某些相关环节上用来补充销售工具的内容。 Managing the Sales Tools 管理销售工具 By careful planning, you will be able to save yourself a document management nightmare. The most important thing to remember is that you will have to constantly update and re-publish these documents. If you have several versions of each type of document, the updating process will become complex and time-consuming. From a practical perspective each document should compare your company/offering to only one of the competitors. The other option, to have a single all-inclusive document, is not advised. You will very quickly receive requests to remove one of the competitors form the document because they are not being reviewed by the prospect and it will be damaging to bring them into the fray. Also, from a typeset perspective, in most cases, you will not be able to fit more than one competitor in a document. 仔细规划，您会免于陷入文件管理的噩梦之中。最要紧的是您必须记住要 经常更新这些文档。如果每种文档都有几个版本，更新会很复杂很耗费时间。 从实践经验来说，每一篇文档的内容最好只包含一家竞争对手的产品进行比较， 另外，我不推荐建立一份所有内容都包括的文档，否则，您将很快收到这些请 求：从文档中去掉其中一家竞争对手的内容，因为意向客户根本不会去看这个 内容，反而会带来一些冲突。另外，从编辑的角度来说，更多的场合里，在一 篇文档里，您无法同时符合几家竞争对手的实际情况。 Distributing the Sales Tools 发放销售工具 Competitors are moving targets so unlike your product brochures, competitive sales tools must be updated continuously, sometimes on a weekly basis. The question to address then becomes: How do you make sure that the sales reps have the most up to date version in front of them? 竞争对手正在转移目标，所以不象您的产品手册，销售工具必须不断更新， 有时每周更新。现在的问题是：您怎样确定销售人员手中的销售工具是最新的 版本呢？ One way is to set up a central document portal with a tool such as Microsofts SharePoint. At Interwise we use the most basic module and the ROI is beyond our expectations. Make sure the portal application that you use includes the ability for users to subscribe to changes. Even though doing this is trivial, sales reps need to be properly educated to make certain they always have the latest and greatest data. When new sales reps arrive at the company, the first thing that we do in sales training is show them where the tools are located on the Intranet and then get them to subscribe to document updates. Using email to send out sales tools is not scalable and is strongly advised against. 一种方法是使用微软的 SharePoint 软件建立文件门户中心。在 Interwise 公司，我们使用了最基本的模块，但效果却超出我们的期望。确定使用的软件 包括了使用者可以订阅随时变化的内容，即使这样做比较烦琐。销售人员需要 适当的培训保证他们总是能够接触到最新和最好的文档信息。当新销售人员进 入公司时，我们做的销售培训的第一件事是告诉他们销售工具在内部网的哪儿， 帮助他们订阅随时更新的文档。使用 E-MAIL 发送销售工具是不太适合的，应该 强烈反对。 Other solutions include push technologies such as Backweb. The success of such a solution depends a lot on the specific capabilities and implementation of the system, so be sure to investigate these thoroughly before jumping in with both feet. 其他解决方法包括使用网络技术，这种方法的成功应用主要取决于系统本 身的性能和软件操作水平，所以使用这些技术以前，必须进行详细的调查研究。 Measuring Success 可衡量的成果 How does one measure the success of the sales tools? In increased sales? Rising sales are always good but may be influenced by many factors. Also, by the time you obtain thi