ianski is right, selling at the "C" level is extremely important, especially when seling anything that brings change management to the lower ranks. If not the CEO the CFO. Does your service have a quantifiable RIO?

You might consider (if you haven't done so) a kickoff party with all users invited as well as the immediate supervisors. There you could train them and show the advantages i.e. time savings, money savings ect...

Design an awards program for the most compliant users. Set a minimum usage number and allow all employees that hit the minimum mark entry into a contest to win a prize. It could be something as simple as a dvd player or an mp3 player or travel awards certificates.

On your next engagement charge an upfront fee for usage for say the first six months or year. Set the number high enough that your customer stands to lose something if they don't roll out your service. Or maybe charge them a monthly service fee in addition to the usage fees. They have to have some skin in the game.

Can you advertise to these employees or your customers with your technology? If so, you might consider as supplemental income selling advertising space on their dashboard. I don't know who sells to the water companies but I'll bet they would be interested in getting their message across to their customer or prospect on a daily basis.

Regards,

dhinkle

ianski and dhinkle, thanks for the responses.

Field operators had direct input into the product design. The tool doesn't save them much time day-to-day, but it does give them advantages. Let me explain how it changes their current practices.

On their routine maintenance visits to 4-8 water utility sites per day, field operators monitor anywhere from six to fifty things like rate of water flow and chlorine sampling; they use a pocket calculator and a paper log (kept onsite on a clipboard) to capture the figures. With BirdNest, they log in on their phone at the beginning of the day; when they arrive at a site, they pick it from a list of sites displayed on the phone, then they pick from the list of data elements, then they input the figures directly into the phone. What they like about this:

- They don't need to perform calculations
- They don't have to futz with the clipboard
- They don't have to drive back to a site to check a figure if someone at the office calls to ask about something

We tried to assess their time savings in the field, as well as for the poor folks back in the office transcribing barely legible records from the paper logs they got every month. All of the beta users consistently said that time savings in data collection weren't nearly as impactful or important as their improved confidence in their data. Also important: eliminating the 30-day delay in delivering performance data.

How does the system help the company? The top dogs have been VERY forthcoming on this. One strategic advantage is better risk management and operations control. For example, when one company discovered that their field operator had not been monitoring the right "chemistries" for a large residential water system, they had to scramble to stop the loss of the service contract. They told us, "If we had been using BirdNest, that $2 million contract would not have been at risk." The CFO and the VP of operations were also crystal clear about the other strategic benefits such as better forecasting of water usage (a direct cost to their business).

We have charged them a set up fee (dhinkle's "engagement fee"), and they do expect to pay a small monthly fee, but usage fees are the bulk of our revenue.

Think about the hierarchy of decision-making like this within our customer organizations, bottom to top:

1. Field operators don't have a choice. We want them to like the tool and we know it needs to be easy to learn, but their employer dictates its usage.

2. Line managers and supervisors must like and want the tools. If they don't see the value, we're hosed. That hasn't been a problem, and they've championed BirdNest within their respective companies.

3. Executives must buy in and approve the expense. They have done this without reservation, and have in fact put it into the corporate overhead budget instead of the line managers' budget so that "cost avoidance" doesn't become an obstacle to implementation.

The delay is at level two, not because the line managers and supervisors don't want to implement BirdNest, but apparently because they're too busy panting along the treadmill of everyday work.

I have confidence that we WILL get deployment underway, I just don't want every new sale to take THIS LONG. Kick-off parties or DVD prizes may be the answers to accelerating the process. Keep those card and letters coming! Thanks.

Maybe the question I should be asking isn't "How do we accelerate the sales and implementation cycle," but "How long should we expect the cycle to take?"

I'm keeping this open for a while. I put a lot of points on it because there are some additional KHE experts I'd like to hear from!!

- Shelley

Tim brings up a good point with the "extra time on their hands". This could be a major issue.

The workers may be concerned they are being replaced by a computer, therfore cutting their hours, and potentially their jobs.

I'm sure the company can benefit from your services. On the other side of the coin, the field ops are thinking: "This makes my job too easy. What about all the overtime I get by running out and checking the logs?" etc.

This, of course, is a big decision for the management: disgruntle their current ops and fight resistance, avoid confrontation and gently slide your services into the picture, or gain enough confidence in your service to decide it is worth giving peole ultimatums and/or re-vamping their whole field op procedures (and staff).

Food for thought....

Yes, patience is what's needed, as Andrew says. And Michele is right that the wheels turn slowly in large companies.

We will ask the executives how we can help their line supervisors get the implementations moving. They may not be aware of the stall, however legitimate the reasons.

My team did spend a considerable amount of time in the field with these customers during the two-month beta period, as Tim describes. With our user base growing from 5 to 150 people, though, it makes sense to continue this practice. Especially early into the bigger implementations.

Blaine (Jett), we've watched for signs of Job Loss Paranoia during the beta phase, and it wasn't apparent. But there were several serious cases of Technology Cynicism at all levels of the company.

Thanks so much for being responsive, everyone. I'm keeping this open for at least one more day...

- Shelley

I think mbarber just posted the best response I have EVER seen in this forum...and I've been around!

BRAVO!

If there is ever a voting contest of the sort, this one has mine (so far...lol).

Excellent!!!

Shelley

I'm currently working on a case study about implementation of change management, project management and automated performance measurement for a large water utility. I think I understand the issues you face.

On the one hand, management knows it must change work practices to improve data quality and cut process times to increase the accuracy and timeliness of knowledge they manage.

On the other hand, the people involved with the day to day processes resist change - albeit in a very subtle way.

I think you need to allow longer for the sales cycle. But I also think you need to understand the customer's journey along with your own. Have you read Hugh MacFarlane's book "The Leaky Funnel"? Hugh is a member and massive contributor here and his book is well, well worth a read to see a brilliant case-study in aligning a manufacturer's sales and marketing journey with the customer's buying journey. If I can summarize it simplistically: You both start some place together and somehow you need to finish at the same place together. By aligning the journey with some common milestones or waypoints, you can ensure both customer and seller maintain their cadence along the way. Synchronicity through an understanding of the customer's buying process. Simple but brilliant. Look it up for more info at www.leakyfunnel.com.

The other observation I have is that your customers may have some reservations about the simplicity of your solution. They may be used to much larger, more complex, heavier hand-held data loggers like those used by meter readers. You're providing a solution which uses their existing (?) cell phone's WAP or GPRS capabilities... so there's no hardware to buy? Have I understood that correctly? It seems almost too good to be true - perhaps the people implementing are slightly resistant because they doubt the capability of the cell phone to perform reliably long-term in the field - an issue the people who make the buying decision obviously aren't too worried about.

Looking at your website, I found myself wanting to know far more about the way the product /service works before making any request for a demo. If you had a case study (which could even be fictionally-based, so long as it's an accurate portrayal) I am sure it would assist people to understand the offer more easily. I would be happy to sign up and give my details if I knew there was a clear and substantive pdf document case study which I could access in return... Do you have something like that?

In summary - what you have sounds fantastic - maybe it sounds just a bit too fantastic - and perhaps it needs some real-world tempering to make the buyers buying process match the rate of your selling process capability - or maybe you need to slow your expectation to enable the buyer to catch up with you before you lose them.

And if you do have a case study - let me have a copy, as I am fairly certain there's a market for it here in Australia, providing the technology would work over our cell phone networks.

Good Luck

ChrisB

Marcus, much gratitude for your time and input! A few notes in response and for clarity...

A while back, I posted a question about pricing because one of our two Really Big Customers had been making noise about preferring a lump-sum license fee instead of an ongoing subscription-based service. The noise ended, however when they saw our pricing structure and discount schedule.

Our service agreement requires immediate payment for setting up administrator account(s), which helps us cover our own support costs. From there, they pay a flat monthly admin fee (very small) regardless of usage. For us the revenue only becomes significant when the administrator configures the tools for his water facilities and the data elements they monitor at each location -- we bill them monthly about $2 per element per facility. This means a small water company might pay BirdNest only $500/month, and a large one might pay $10k/month (more if they manage many water utilities across a broad territory).

Worth mentioning: Customers need to execute a separate agreement with their wireless service provider (i.e., Verizon, Nextel) for "turning on" the Web/data capabilities of their field operators' phones. YES, this could be another delay factor for us, but it's normally accomplished within a couple of days.

On the Homeland Security front, that's a card we have been keeping in our pocket, even with "Dubya" double-parked in our backyard. I really like your idea of using it with the PR angle to nudge the customers forward. Positive publicity for all -- if we can keep the news crew spinning the story clockwise.

ChrisB, I have peeked at the Leaky Funnel website, but I will follow through and get MacFarlane's book. Regarding the simplicity of our solution: You're absolutely right! Our customers ARE accustomed to seeing larger, more complex, heavier (and costly) hand-held solutions, and they HAVEN'T BOUGHT THEM. Nor have they bought PDAs or rugged laptops. Why? Expense, theft, difficulty, you name it. Our tool isn't meant to hang wallpaper or raise your children, just solve a straightforward data collection problem.

I will find our report on the beta results for you, which is a good interim case study. Then you can decide what's too good to be true. ;]

Sure would be nice if BirdNest could migrate to Oz!

- Shelley

Let me explain my "too good to be true" remark...

I certainly never meant it to sound like I doubted how good the solution is. I hope that was not the impression I gave.

What I meant was that a prospect who is working in the field knows how tough that environment is on everything - clothing, body, vehicles and tools. They may doubt the ability of a cell phone to stand up to the rigours of field (ab)use for a reasonable life expectancy (say - two years?)

If they perceive the data collection/transmission device as too fragile, they may be looking to slow down or postpone implementation while that post-sales, trans-implementation objection gets considered and handled by the office honchos who already signed the order.

Hope that's a bit clearer...

Chris, what I failed to mention is that the field operators ALREADY rely on cell phones to communicate with supervisors at the home office. They carry them on their belts and often use the walkie-talkie feature (offered by Nextel) daily. They usually buy the ruggedized models that last 2+ years, and even if they get dropped in the digester at the sewage treatment plant, they're cheap to replace! (The phone, that is, not the field operator.)

- Shelley

Shelley

I think Jim's onto the probable cause... The management is just short of one thing "A Round Tuit". As soon as they get "A Round Tuit" all their problems wil be solved. You can even buy them online... https://www.passco.com/tuit.htm is just one store!

The idea of charging them to do the implementation is brilliant. From personal experience, if you can get senior management imprimatur to get inside the business and make it happen, you'll have them up and running in no time.

And make yourself some consulting fees in the process...

For goodness sake don't offer to do it free - apart from the fact they won't attach a value if you don't attach an invoice - you'll be showing up all of us fee-for-service types!

Good Luck

ChrisB

Holy Toledo! When I printed the entire thread, this question and its responses required seventeen pages. I wonder if it's a KHE record-breaker?

Thanks to all of you for the insights. Although I'm closing this question now, I'll return later with a post to report what tactics we adopted and what results we achieved. If you're interested in following along, I suggest you click the "receive email notification" link below. I will also be grateful for any additional ideas, even though the points will be depleted.

I'm dividing the 2,400 points between the four individuals who provided the most value:

Jim Deveau for suggesting how we can put the implementation projects into our own hands instead of the customer's. And charge 'em a fee, too.

Mbarber (Marcus) for suggesting we go outside of the process and engage the media. If your concept is based on Spiral Dynamics, Marcus, then I gotta get me some of that.

ChrisB for suggesting we align the selling process with the customer's buying process. I gotta get me some Leaky Funnel, too. (Hmm, will that morph into a dynamic leaky spiral funnel?)

Pepper Blue (Tim) for suggesting we keep our bodies in the field with the customer. Tim, I hope you're not too serious about doing it in the summer -- after all, this is Houston, world capital of air conditioning!

Thanks again, everyone!      - Shelley

When I closed this question two months ago, I promised I would return to it and post a comment describing the outcome.

Big Customer #1 formally kicked off the first phase of their implementation this week. Yesterday we trained about 30 field operators to use their cell phones for data collection. That's good! Their project leader, however, said he expects they'll delay phase two until April when they do annual budget reviews. That's not so good. (But we're betting that they'll see the phase one payoff happen so quickly that they'll move phase two ahead as originally planned.)

Big Customer #2 had a little momentum going in July as they configured things, but they still aren't ready to deploy and train their field guys. Summertime, surgeries, and so forth.

I won't try to detail all of our tactics to this point, but trust me, we've taken your suggestions to heart and tried what we can!!

Meanwhile... I've got a new BirdNest question I'll be posting soon. Stay tuned!

¤ Shelley ¤

I know you've already closed this, but take a look at www.uniquevenues.com

It would be a good place to get listed.

Michael