Who we talk to
Before anyone buys what you sell, they have to understand it.
Nobody buys managed services, cloud, integration or software from a web page. The buyer has to work out how it fits, what it replaces and what could go wrong. That takes a conversation, and how well it goes has a lot to do with who wins the deal.
That conversation has changed. Many buyers now research their options with AI before they speak to a seller, so they arrive knowing a lot. A pitch that could be given to anyone tells them nothing new. They want to talk about their own situation, and that starts with listening.
We listen in two places, with one method, Power Listening™. People do the listening, the thinking and the writing. AI helps with analysis and first drafts.
Market listening
Research
What buyers value, and what makes one provider different from the next.
What it shapes
- Your positioning
- Your message
- How you go to market
Prospect listening
Discovery
Conversations with the people in a deal, and an analysis of each call.
What it shapes
- The next questions to ask
- Content written for that account
- The closing presentation
Power Listening
Machines can hear; only people can listen.
If you deliver other vendors' technology
You have the same vendor logo, badges and case studies as every other partner. The buyer still has to pick one.
This is for managed service providers, Microsoft cloud solution providers, systems integrators, implementation partners and resellers. You share a vendor with every competitor, so the reason to choose you has to come from somewhere else.
01
The vendor's marketing money was spent, and all you got was a list of names.
Vendor funding pays for activity. A campaign built on the vendor's message brings in leads that any other partner could have got.
02
Your team is in discovery calls all week and nobody can say what was learned.
The CRM records the stage and value of each deal. Nobody records what the buyer said or what to do next.
03
The final presentation is last time's deck with the logo changed.
That presentation is where the buyer compares you with the other partner. A generic deck leaves them to work out for themselves why you are the right choice.
What listening changes
Market listening finds the one or two things buyers weigh up when they choose between partners, and where you are different on them. The difference is usually there, but nobody has written it down where a buyer would see it. We turn it into positioning your whole team can use. Prospect listening works deal by deal. We prepare questions for each discovery call, analyse what was said, write content for that account and build a closing presentation on what the buyer told you. We stay with your team until that presentation.
What an engagement usually looks like
We prefer to start with market research into how you should be positioned, what makes you different from other partners and how to get buyers to notice it. Research alone takes about four weeks, and a full Positioning and Messaging Framework about ten. Sometimes it makes sense to start with a live deal instead. Then we prepare the next discovery call with your team and stay with you until the closing presentation. Either way, we listen first, and the content and campaigns follow from what we hear.
How buyers choose
“Buyers compare you with the next option. They choose on the differences.”
Blacfox
Every partner ticks the same boxes. The buyer chooses the one that is different.
If you sell your own software
You know exactly what you built. The buyer is still working out where it fits.
This is for independent software vendors, whether you sell direct, through partners, or both. Your product is the whole business. The gap between what you know about it and what the buyer understands is where deals are lost.
01
Buyers cannot place you in a category, so they compare you with the wrong things.
If a buyer cannot say what you are, they cannot say why they need you. Then the decision goes to price, or to doing nothing.
02
You win when the founder is in the room and struggle when it is anyone else.
Only one or two people know why customers really buy. Everyone else sells from the feature list.
03
Partners sell what they already know. Your product gets added to their list, and that is where it stays.
A partner will not work out your story for you. They need a reason to sell your product, in words they can use with their own customers.
What listening changes
Market listening starts with one question: what do buyers think you are? Everything else depends on the answer, including what buyers value, which alternatives they weigh up (doing nothing is one) and the one or two differences that give them a reason to choose you. Prospect listening treats each deal as its own piece of work. We prepare discovery questions, analyse what the buyer said, and write a document for that account, a deck for the stage you are at and a closing presentation built around their situation. Your partners get material from the same research.
What an engagement usually looks like
We prefer to start with positioning, because it is hard to prepare a good discovery call for a product the market cannot place. Once that is done, we work on a handful of live deals with your sales team, so they learn the method on deals that matter. If your situation calls for it, we can start with a live deal instead.
If you grow through a channel
Your growth depends on people who do not work for you.
This is for vendors and distributors who sell through partners and resellers. Since 2017 we have run partner recruitment, partner training and lead programmes for Crayon, Liquid Telecom and Westcon-Comstor. One lesson has held every time: the partner is a buyer too.
01
You pass leads to partners and the leads go quiet.
A name and a phone number is not a lead a partner can close. If the partner does not know what the customer said, they start from cold.
02
Resellers list your product, then pitch the products they already know.
A reseller keeps selling the products they can explain. Yours has to be easy to explain in their words, to their customers.
03
The partner sits between you and the customer. You never hear what the customer said.
The channel gives you reach. But unless you set up a way to hear customers yourself, you only hear what the partner passes on.
What listening changes
Market listening works in two directions. We listen to end customers to find their reason to buy your product, and to partners to find what makes them choose to sell it. Prospect listening applies to partner recruitment, where the partner is the prospect. It also applies to the deals partners bring you, where we prepare the discovery calls, analyse what was said and write content for the shared account.
What an engagement usually looks like
It is much like the work we have done before, with the listening done first. For Crayon, which was expanding across Sub-Saharan Africa, we ran a 48-week campaign in which we called and qualified every lead and recorded a briefing video for the partner on each one. For Liquid Telecom, we helped choose the partners and ran a national roadshow. For Westcon-Comstor, we created demand among end customers to attract new partners, and ran its first webinar for customers and partners together. Ask us about any of them.
Before you call
Questions we get before the first conversation.
Do you guarantee the deal closes?
No, and we would be wary of anyone who did. The buyer decides whether a deal closes. We work towards a better chance of closing, with a team that goes into every conversation having listened and comes out with a clear next step.
Do you work outside South Africa?
Yes. We are based in Cape Town and have worked with technology companies in English-speaking markets across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States since 2017. Clients and partners have included Microsoft, SAP, Google, Huawei, Crayon, Liquid Telecom, Westcon-Comstor and Adept ICT.
Tell us where a deal is stuck, or where your positioning is not landing.
Maybe you are unsure how to position yourself, how you differ from the next provider or how to get the market to notice your value. We will listen first, then tell you plainly whether we can help.