Hi, I’m in the middle of a sales process with a large international customer. Unfortunately, I’m dealing with a competitor who’s trying to convince my prospect that Navision is one of the worst solutions when it comes to consolidations; he even tells my prospect that it is impossible to consolidate within Navision. With this mail I’m requesting the Navision world to give live examples and references of large customers that use the consolidation module. I’m sure that replying massively to this request will show this waco salesman that he has to stop spreading these nonsense. You can reply on this message directly using the forum, or using my e-mail address : wim.van.heesvelde@faqtgroup.be. Thanks for your co operation.
Wim, This salesman is obviously does not know what he is talking about. Unfortunatley I don’t have any customer references I can help you with but I have demonstrated the consolidation functionality in sales situations in the past and it is really easy (even for a non-accountatnt like myself). You can consolidate between companies in the same database or remote databases (using an intermediary data file) and eploy currency conversion rates all in the standard application. The 3.6 financial management manual will talk you through an example. Why not go on the attack yourself and pick up some of the competitor sales information from your NTR. This has some really good info for selling against specific competitor products. Best of luck. Chris.
Hi Wim and Chris, I really must disagree with the attitude you are taking here. I hope that after 13 years with Navision, and being involved in supporting a lot of Navision sales, I am allowed to say this without adding an IMHO [;)] Firstly it never helps to go into ANY sale (Unless you sell real-estate, used cars or long distance calling programs) on the basis of negativity and attacking the competition. Once you do this you create three problems for yourself. 1/ You begin to be as bad as the competitor, and the customer will loose trust in you, once you loose trust you have lost the sale. 2/ You start to give the customer the impression that the product is everything, and then you just get in to a functionality war. 3/ IFF you get the sale, then you are going to have to prove everything you said against the competitor. And almost certainly amongst the list of bad things you said against the competitor, you will have made promises for Navision that were not true. The way to approach this, is to completely get away from the product, and sell your self as a reliable vendor and a competent partner that is in for a long term relationship. Sell the fact that you provide a solution, not a box. If you get the story from the client that the competitor said “XYZ”, and Navision is not able to do the job, do everything you can to just get away from the subject, don’t loose your cool. In the end that competitor will destroy his own reputation, and make it easier for you to sell a professional partnership. And as a closing statement, I must say that if you loose a sale on the basis of a competitor‘s smear campaign, then this is a case of the Client not doing their own due diligence, and no matter what, this is going to be a nightmare implementation, that you don’t want anyway. The only response you need to give the client is “Well that is their opinion, let me show you how our partnership will provide you with a long term solution”. The toughest part of selling is knowing when to say “NO we don’t want this client”. If you are not turning away at least one in three potential clients, then you are trying too hard to fail, and at that you will probably succeed.
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disclaimer: the above comments are those of the author, and resemblence to any persons living or dead is purely unintentional… or something like that[^]
David, I do agree that killing one another during a sales process is not the prefered attitude. But, let me be clear on this one : I’m just going into a defensive position here, because I think it’s unfair to do business in such a manner. If you try to gain a prospects trust, then you don’t do it by spreading lies and trying to create uncertainty at the prospect. I’ve never thrown dirt to my competitors, and I always won my deals by showing my prospect that we have the solution, and that our company is a thrustwurthy party. The purpose of this request is just to show the prospect that not only me and my company are convinced of the possibilities, but that there are thousands of others who have already done this.
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Originally posted by David Singleton
The toughest part of selling is knowing when to say “NO we don’t want this client”. If you are not turning away at least one in three potential clients, then you are trying too hard to fail, and at that you will probably succeed.quote:
disclaimer: the above comments are those of the author, and resemblence to any persons living or dead is purely unintentional… or something like that[^]
Why should one say NO to that specific client ? The client is just giving feedback on his concerns. You should say no, if the functionality he wants, is too far off Navions’ capabilities. You should not say NO to a client when he thinks that consilidation is not a core functionality of Navision (cause it is). You also mention something about “getting away from the subject”, well I think you just proved a major difference between US and European customers (yes I’ve worked for both). Why should you get away from the subject ? A 15 minute demo will show that consolidation is possible in Navision, so there is no reason to run away.
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Originally posted by wimvh
…I think it’s unfair to do business in such a manner.
“Unfair” … “Business” used in the same sentence … Of course its unfair, and so is life, but get over it and rise above it, sell the fact that your company is better than the competition, in that you don’t need to stoop to those level. In the ERP market, Customers that buy products are buying a disaster and are sure to loose, customers that buy long term partnerships are winners. As for consolidation, it is non issue. ALL ERP pacakges that have survived in this market today, must have decent consolidation, or they would not be there. Point this out to the Customer, but please stay above the c@#p that is going on down there. PS Good Luck, I do hope that in the end you are able to sell yourselves to this ccustomer.
Wim, I’m looking straight at a slide from Navision that points out several organizations utilizing Navision that would be quite recognizable by your client. This is a slide that is readily used by the US NTR to provide “high level” references of Navision clients worldwide and is a standard part of the customer overview of Navision. As far as whether or not they are specific consolidation functionality users is irrelevant to the issue. These customers trust their solution to Navision and the prospective NSC. Do you recognize any of these names? Continental Tires McDonald’s Pentax Swatch Shell AC Nielsen Suzuki Steinway and Sons Xerox Motorola Adidas Good luck! Bill Moffett
The references are really good. Is anybody aware where we can find list of References by Industry. Sometimes a few crop up in success stories but many don’t?
Wim, we have a client in The Netherlands consolidating 25 companies in and 6 companies from outside the Navision database. In fact one of the reasons to decide to buy Navision was it’s capability of running consolidations. Feel free to mail me for more answers. Regards, Peter Bout
Indian NTR has also this consolidation document. I have gone thru’ it.
Hi Peter, This is a very interesting company you’re mentioning here. Can you also pass me a name the company or is this confidential? For certain it would help me. Thanks Wim