For Immediate Release State-of-the-Art Sales and Marketing Tools Emerging as Newest Weapon In The Battle to Sell High-Tech Products and Services Lincroft, New Jersey, April 3, 2000 - This weekend, thousands of people across the United States and elsewhere will stroll into local Wal-Mart stores and purchase toasters, washing machines, home entertainment systems, and other household goods simply because they want to. It is unlikely that they'll demand the Wal-Mart salesperson "justify the price" of the washing machine by presenting a cohesive, logically constructed, quantitative argument that clearly demonstrates the washing machine's value proposition vs. older models, or other methods of washing clothes (i.e. beating them against rocks at a nearby creek). Nor is it likely that the complex operation of the toaster, its subtle advantages, lifecycle costs, or integration with other appliances within the household will require an extended education period before the average couple decides to purchase the toaster. They'll probably just pick the one that matches their countertop. Someday, corporate IT executives may walk into the Wal-Mart equivalent of an IT systems department store, and purchase multi-million-dollar systems off the rack, but we are likely to see the next millennium before that day. No, selling high tech, complex systems and services is a much different ballgame. Communicating value to prospects has always been a challenge for high tech sales organizations, and it's always been a requirement. Given the demands on the typical product marketing team to drive the development of next-generation products, the Field rep is often left to fend for himself, using anecdotes, hastily-prepared spreadsheets, or the occasional success story to show the prospect that a $500,000 investment will - someday - pay for itself. Now, however, the computer revolution is finally delivering some help to the abandoned high tech sales organization. More and more, companies are developing web-based, and desktop-based applications that their sales people are using to generate real-time return-on-investment and cost-benefit analyses to their prospects. The concept is not revolutionary: every product or sales manager drawing a paycheck has taken a Friday afternoon and developed a spreadsheet that's calculated their product's cost savings or increased revenue, but even the most sophisticated spreadsheets are rarely used by the sales organization in the field. Why? They are specifically designed to be financial analyses, not sales tools. Press Theriot, senior product manager for Network Associates' NetTools product line, understands the difference between a spreadsheet and a sales tool. Network Associates has over 150 professional sales people in the Field representing their complete line of network management software products that includes virus protection, asset management, security, network visibility, and help desk. Confronted with the challenge of arming the Network Associates sales force with the ammunition to communicate their value proposition to prospects, Press hired Silent Partner Software, a NJ-based company that specializes in the development of ROI-based sales tools, to build Network Associates a web-based application for its sales force to use. "We learned quickly that the financial analysis - the math - is only part of an effective sales tool, and I think that's where most people focus the bulk of their attention," noted Mr. Theriot. "Today's tools now incorporate an intuitive web interface, a smooth, logical flow, help text that explains assumptions and supports them with research, and generates a slick, 4-color report that can be handed to the prospect." >Joe Picard, Marketing Manager for IBM's Web Hosting Services group, also called on Silent Partner Software to help develop quantitative sales tools. "We had a collection of largely unrelated spreadsheets, data, value proposition ideas, and Silent Partner turned it into an effective tool to communicate our value, " noted Mr. Picard. "What's more, the entire project was turn keyed by a 3rd party, so we didn't have to fight for precious internal engineering resources to get it accomplished." Historically, ROI analyses have erred to both sides of the complexity spectrum. On one end of the scale are the anecdotes, slideshow presentations, or the ROI analyses that ask for 1 piece of data (e.g. number of employees in the prospect's company) and generate a raft of conclusions. On the other end of the spectrum are the financial analyses that are so complex, and that require so many inputs, they become incomprehensible. "It's important to understand that what is needed is an effective sales tool based on an ROI analysis, not an ROI analysis that's used as a sales tool as an afterthought," added Jeff Hill, EVP of Sales and Marketing for Silent Partner Software. "Prospects, by and large, respond to credible assumptions, credible references, and credible conclusions. They don't want a dissertation, but rather need a quantitative story they can take to their decision maker to justify the cost." Hill adds that good sales tools educate the prospect about the benefits of complex systems, facilitate dialogue between the salesperson and the prospects, and greatly increase the credibility of the salesperson, ultimately transforming them from a "sales guy" to a partner, consultant, and someone who can help solve the prospect's problem: "Remember, the goal is to facilitate the sale of a complex, high-priced system, and that takes more than just a bullet-proof financial analysis. About Silent Partner Software Silent Partner Software develops interactive sales and marketing tools that use Return-On-Investment (ROI) analyses to help high tech sales organizations explain their value propositions - and justify their price points - to their prospects. Silent Partner tools allow sales organizations to easily and clearly show their prospects how they can save money, time, and/or increase revenue using their products and services. We pride ourselves in transforming financial analyses into coherent, concise, value propositions and sales stories, and delivering the interactive tools sales organizations need to communicate them. Silent Partner's clients include IBM, HP, Network Associates, Intermec and Informix. For more information, please contact us at (908) 876-8700 or visit us on the web at www.silentp.com.