Author Archive
The Face Of ERP Web Leads
This image from the FindAccountingSoftware’s daily lead report is a pretty accurate representation of 95% of web leads who contact consultants “looking for a quote”.
These are not requests for quotes – they’re requests for free consulting and invitations to undercut an existing provider without the ability to know the background of the customer.
- Already have a quote from a provider
- Looking for a second/third/fourth bid
- No budget for any type of discovery – expect VARS to quote blind despite complexity
- Have a third party – IT manager, outside consultant – playing gatekeeper
- Stringent requirements, unrealistic budget, unrealistic timeframe
- Not interested in an ongoing consulting relationship
Sage Reports “Resilient” 6 Month March 2012 Results
Sage today is reporting 6 month unaudited earnings through March 31, 2012 (aka H1 2012) – adding 129,000 new paying customers H1 2012 vs 131,000 in H1 2011. Overall organic revenue growth is reported as 2% H1 2012 vs 5% in H1 2011.
Reuters is reporting that Sage’s earnings missed forecasts and that as a result share price is down.
Total revenue growth rates in North America appear to be flat with organic subscriptions growing 2% vs 4% in H1 2011. Notably Sage is ramping up for an North America imminent launch of SageOne, their pure SaaS entry level accounting offering.
Some interesting takeaways from the report (which you can download here). Where bolding is added that is my emphasis to what I consider the key takeaways as they relate to Sage performance in North America:
Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Re-Branding Kicks In Starting May 15, 2012
Sage is starting to make notifications to at least one owner of a LinkedIn group with the brand name Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 that starting May 15, 2012 the name must be changed to reflect the new Sage 100 ERP branding.
This is the first time that we’ve noticed a timetable for the Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 products. Previously the timetable had loosely been defined as starting with the next major product release. For Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 that would have been late 2012 when Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 version 5.0 is due to be released Q4 2012.
Sage’s Larry Ritter Joins Joe Bergera at Roper Industries
As we were the first to report on April 17, 2012 – Sage’s former VP and GM of Worldwide CRM Solutions has indeed left Sage and according to his LinkedIn page joins former Sage colleague Joe Bergera at Roper Industries where he will work as VP “ across software business segments and product lines to enhance and develop overall strategic direction. Create synergistic platforms, business transformation and collaboration across mulitple businesses. Actively lead expansion into adjacent and international markets”.
With the exception of Sage’s Dan Wilzoch, it would appear that most of the executive team within Sage’s CRM division has departed within the last year. In October 2011 Sage and four of their top CRM managers parted ways after Joe Bergera had left in March 2011.
Sage’s executive web site has not yet been updated and still is showing Larry Ritter as of early this morning.
Google Alerts Is Not Enough: Thinning of The Reactive Herd
There was a time back right after the invention of electricity but before the widespread use of motorized vehicles that vendors with crappy salespeople didn’t have to worry about customers talking to each other and sharing their poor service experiences.
Heads up – the world’s changed.
Sage Summit 2012: How to Make Money While Friending, Blogging, and Checking in
I just received session time and date information for our Sage Summit 2012 course – “How to Make Money While Friending, Blogging and Checking In”.
This year’s session is a panel where each person has been hand picked to discuss ways consultants (just like you and me) are using social media to make money.
No theory.
No untested concepts.
No 1,500 Powerpoint slide decks that have your eyes rolling back in your head midway through the talk
No assuming you’re a novice and have not figured out how to turn on a computer or use a keyboard.
Each person on the panel is a full time independent Sage consultant engaged in either ERP or CRM consulting. No marketing or social media experts. Just good old fashioned experience.
We will share with you what has worked for our companies – and what has not. Those tips alone could save your hours of time.
What I like best about this panel is that NONE of us have a thing to sell you.
We don’t offer SEO, web hosting, social media consulting.
We are not going to waste your time droning on about how to send a tweet, log into Facebook or create a YouTube video.
This session is for people who are sick and tired of buying leads online, shaking hands, making cold calls, replying to RFPs, waiting in conference rooms and answering free “quick questions”.
So Just What Will You Learn?
- How to brand yourself so business comes to you
- How to eliminate the competition in deals
- How to come up with ideas for social media content
- The one (and only) thing that matters in social media
- How to become more active without hiring
- The one tactic to use above all others
- What absolutely doesn’t work
- Fixed price risk reversed proposals
- Shortcuts to making fixed pricing work
- Resources (sample access agreements, menu pricing, etc)
Sage Summit Is A Busy Place – Here’s Your Opportunity To Get Together With A Room Full Of Experts
Our panel is scheduled for Tuesday 8/14 2pm – 3:15pm. We’ll stick around until all the questions are answered.
Panelists :
Sam Biardo – http://techadv.com/
Apryl Hanson – http://www.blytheco
Peter Wolf – http://www.azamba.com
Robert Wood – http://www.ddfcgi.com
I Recommend Attending This Session…
But Only If you are interested in a proven process for attracting customers where the NEW NORMAL ‘sales’ process goes like this:
“Hello I would like more information on becoming a customer”
>> Great – where did you hear about us?
“I have been reading and following your posts for some time now. As a matter of fact I’ve printed out your access agreement – and our philosophies are the same. When can we get started?”
Sage’s Larry Ritter Joins “Pursuing Opportunity Outside Sage”
Sage’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Sage CRM Solutions Larry Ritter will depart effective Monday April 23, 2012.
Larry joined Sage in 2004 and most recently was senior vice president and general manager with responsibility for Sage’s Contact Management Solutions, most notably Sage ACT!. Previously he led product strategy, product management, product marketing and user experience for the Sage CRM Solutions product family comprised of Sage ACT!, SageCRM, and Sage SalesLogix.
Are Free Demos and Price Quotes Killing ERP?
A story out yesterday describes an Epicor customer who is suing over a $70,000 software purchase.
Although I do not know the circumstances of this particular case – my bet is that most of these types of ERP problems start off with a free demo and free analysis.
Who is ultimately to blame if a customer purchases ERP software and subsequently (as the story infers) refuses professional implementation services.
As professional service providers do we not have a duty to first diagnose before prescribing. To coin Ed Kless’s phrase – “prescription before diagnosis is malpractice”.
In the “I can get this cheaper on the net” world this type of customer is very common and typical.
Here are their common characteristics:
- has already self diagnosed
- wants your best price based on a list they provide youi
- typically the evaluation is led by IT (biggest red flag in my experience)
- 100% your fault when ERP doesn’t run identically to MS Office
I blame whoever sells the software into these situations without requiring an advance paid analysis. Paid analysis, in my experience, is an ideal way to separate the tire kicking problem customer who may not ever be successful with an implementation. My experience says that problem customers never see a need to pay for advice.
Red flag #1, 2, 3. Three strikes you’re out.
New Sage Reseller Of Record Rule: Per Customer Transfer Fee Assessed To Partners Effective 4-1-2012
We’ve learned that Sage North America plans to implement new fees for partners who have customers change to another partner as well as drop their Reseller of Record (ROR) requirement that customers changing consultants provide a reason for the change.
Thankfully there will be a new certification which partners may enroll in to avoid Sage’s upcoming fees for ROR (Reseller of Record) management.
UPDATE: 4-2-2012 – this is an April Fool’s 2012 post.
This new ROR charge (effective 4-1-2012) is to reimburse Sage’s cost of entering ROR forms into the Atlas portal. The charge is the greater of a $500 administrative fee (Due when the ROR is filed) or 100% of first year commissions. The new cost is explained as covering only a very tiny portion of Sage’s internal expense for “figuring out how to enter a ROR form into the new Atlas partner portal”.
The only way a partner can avoid this fee is to enroll in Sage’s brand new Atlas Certified Partner Optimized Originator (aka POO certification).
POO certification is a 7 week off-site, $ 2,000, intensive education which includes one week at the new Sage POO Academy in Irvine, CA. After certifying participants will be able to log into Sage’s Atlas portal and manage their own ROR requests to avoid any Sage fees.
Sage notes they will allow partners to use Co-Op funds for up to the full amount of the certification fee. Partners should however expect a minimum six to twelve month reimbursement delay while “Sage searches for the Atlas option to authorize co-op reimbursement”.
Sage Transformation Journey: More Flexible Change
Sage today sought to calm channel nerves by announcing updates to their self-proclaimed transformation journey which include changes to their subscription pricing sales goal measurements.
Instead of measuring the new subscription pricing sales achievements by the quarter – Sage announced that they will measure them by the half year. Sales goals become more flexible too – changing from one per quarter to two per half year. Rock on.
