Title Details

Ian Gotts founded Nimbus Partners and as CEO has driven its growth over the last 10 years.  His company has won numerous awards: D&T Fast50, D&T European Fast500, REALBusiness Hot 100, and The Sunday Times TechTrack 100. Nimbus is a Microsoft Gold Partner and has been singled out as a high potential partner. Ian is a member of the Microsoft worldwide Software + Services Partner Advisory Council and the UK Partner Advisory Council, and he appears on stage alongside Microsoft regularly. Nimbus was recently featured in Steve Ballmer's (Microsoft CEO's) keynote video to 10,000 partners at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver.  Ian is also a founder, investor and advisor to technology companies.

Dominic Rowsell is a business iconoclast and change management CEO. He is a highly experienced presenter and speaker. His expertise comes from practical experience in behavioural change, service sales, pre/post merger integration, leadership change and strategic thinking. As happy with five people as with five hundred, Dominic is a relaxed yet energetic speaker. His style uses cynical wit with a dry sense of humour and always draws his audiences into active involvement - he loves a heckler!  He is both pragmatist and humanist and these attributes are key when having to point out painful realities to the Boardroom.

Acknowledgments xi

Foreword xiii

Introduction xv

What this book is about xv

Why we wrote this book xvi

A bar in Rotterdam xvii

Who should read this book xix

How to use this book xxiii

1: Some killer products really don’t sell 1

So many products, so few sales 1

Heroic failures 4

So firstly, what is a failure? 8

2: It’s not how you sell, but how customers buy 11

Sales is sales is sales – right? 11

Four buying cultures 14

How does all this relate to Geoffrey Moore’s Chasm? 17

WIIFM – so what exactly does all this mean to me? 19

How do people buy? 22

Momentum = getting the right people on board 26

Managing risk 27

3: If they are buying – are you selling? 29

Choosing the correct buying culture 29

Exploring the buying cultures 31

Different buying cultures, different operational cultures 37

What does a Value Captured company feel like? 40

What does a Value Created company feel like? 43

What does a Value Added company look like? 47

What does a Value Offered company look like? 50

4: The best kept secret – Value Created sales 53

Why Value Created 53

Why do so many companies get it wrong? 55

Vital signs 56

Why is Value Created difficult? 62

A Value Created salesman working in a Value Added company 63

And now some good news 66

5: The magic of a Value Created company 71

The perfect storm 71

The case for change 73

Management 74

R&D 79

Marketing 80

Sales 82

Delivery 94

Support 95

Safety notes 99

6: So what can I do about it? 109

CEO 109

CEO of a start-up 110

Chief Operations Officer 111

Sales Director 112

Head of M&A 113

Head of Marketing 114

Investors or VCs 114

Head of Innovation 116

7: Always change a winning team 119

Can you have too much success? 119

So, are you performing? 120

Transformation – the OCA methodology 123

Using the OCA methodology 133

The Final Word: A summary 137

Appendix 139

Index 167