Posts tagged Sell
Sony Rejects Loeb's Call To Sell Part Of Its Movie And Music Unit
May 14th

Activist shareholder Dan Loeb just called for Sony to sell up to 20% of its entertainment division, and Sony has already rejected the offer in a statement provided to USA Today. Third Point, a New York-based hedge fund managed by Loeb, owns roughly 6.5% of Sony, making it one of the company’s largest shareholders with a stake valued at $1.1 billion.
By selling 15-20% of Sony Entertainment, Loeb claimed Sony could boost the value of its shares, sharpen the company’s overall focus and help revive its consumer electronics business. (Three guesses as to which one of those Loeb cares most about.) Sony’s statement reads:
As President and CEO Kazuo Hirai has said repeatedly, the entertainment businesses are important contributors to Sony’s growth and are not for sale… We look forward to continuing constructive dialogue with our shareholders as we pursue our strategy.
View full post on ReadWrite
SEO Evolution: Sell, Discover, Deliver & Report on Highly Converting Keywords – iMedia Connection (blog)
Apr 16th
![]() Siliconrepublic.com |
SEO Evolution: Sell, Discover, Deliver & Report on Highly Converting Keywords
iMedia Connection (blog) Highly Converting Keywords Over the past few months I have attended industry events in both Europe and the United States. During this time I have had in-depth conversations with many SEO professionals from SEO firms of all sizes about their challenges … Career memes of the week: SEO specialist SEO and SEM: The Google tricks small businesses apparently don't use SEO Analytics Data to Pay Attention To |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Why The Traditional Sales Model Can't Sell Enterprise Software
Apr 15th

Guest author Indus Khaitan is a co-founder of Bitzer Mobile.
Classical sales models are an artifact of the assembly line economy. Manufacturing builds parts; assembles finished goods, ships them to a warehouse and relies on sales and marketing to bring in revenue. This is how cars, medicines, beauty products, books, food and beverages, and many other things have long been built and sold.
Applying the classical model to enterprise software is doomed to failure.
The 3 Components Of Classical Sales
Territories, quotas and commissions are the three components of the classical sales model:
1. Territories were created to increase customer coverage based on how far a sales representative can drive, meet a customer and be back home in the evening.
2. Quotas further divide a territory between multiple individuals or simply create a target number to help assess how much a territory could add to company revenues.
3. Commission plus a fixed monthly retainer constitute the total compensation. If the sales numbers are above the agreed quota, commissions may be higher.
Why It Doesn’t Work For Enterprise Software
The buying process of enterprise software is fundamentally different today, making the classical sales model obsolete:
1. Buyers are informed. Thanks to Internet, people know about the product before they start a conversation with a software vendor. As a result, few buyers are willing to spend time with classical sales professionals. Instead of a sales pitch, they are looking for thought leadership, education and the advice of a trusted partner. The new rule is, “show me how you’ll solve my problem,” not “tell me about your product.”
2. Inbound Marketing is trumping outbound marketing. Prospects discover a product or a company via influencers, search engines and other channels before they start a conversation. Website content, videos, product literature, blog posts and so on enable customers to understand the product before they meet a salesperson. Inbound marketing helps them self-select or eliminate a product.
3. Enterprise software is assembled after buying. Software does not work in isolation; it gets orchestrated with pre-existing pieces. An enterprise solution is a sum of individual parts a company may have bought from multiple vendors. A database, a middleware server, an identity framework, an application builder, a security appliance… the list goes on. Fast-paced innovation is creating companies that are good at one or two things and enterprise customers may be looking for a collection of best-of-breed products.
4. Multi-functional teams work for closing deals. As the complexity of software grows, product management, R&D and sales must work together to create a “solution” before a purchase transaction is made. The days of individually “shrink-wrapped” software is over; even ordinary enterprise apps are produced using a variety of enterprise tools working together, each serving its own purpose.
5. Buyers are distributed across geographies. In today’s connected world, a lead in the sales funnel may originate from New York, but the decision makers are based out of Washington DC while the implementation team is based in India.
In the new normal, enterprise software buyers increasingly seek solution white-boarding sessions – not sales pitches. Traditional sales models simply can’t cope with the changes, but effective replacements have yet to appear. Until a solution is developed, enterprise software vendors – and buyers – will find themselves under increasing pressure.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
View full post on ReadWrite
The Facebook Phone Can’t Change Your Life, And That’s A Hard Sell For HTC
Apr 1st
Smartphone manufacturer HTC is no longer “quietly brilliant.” HTC now wants to be as in your face as possible to attract consumers from the likes of Apple and Samsung. What better way for HTC to make a major splash than by being the manufacturer of the so-called “Facebook Phone” the social network is expected to be announced this week?
That is, of course, if anybody actually wants a Facebook Phone. There is serious doubt if that will actually be the case. If nobody wants to buy a phone with tightly integrated Facebook skin, HTC will have spent a significant amount of time and probably a fair amount of money on a project that will see no tangible returns. That can be bad for HTC, a once-proud company with dwindling sales that only has so many bullets it can fire into the Smartphone Wars before its armory turns up empty.
A History With Facebook
For nearly two years, HTC has been rumored to be working with Facebook in the so-called “Project Buffy.” The project, named after Joss Whedon’s cult TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, is supposed to be a smartphone that runs some type of Facebook-styled mobile operating system on custom hardware. Facebook supposedly was looking for hardware engineers and mobile operating system developers to help turn the dream into reality.
The most likely outcome, as I pointed out in May 2012, was that Facebook would take a kernel from Google’s Android and fork it into its own operating system in the same way that Amazon has done with the Kindle Fire. According to TechCrunch’s Josh Constine, the operating system for the Facebook Phone will be less of a true fork from Android and more of an “application layer” – a skin on Android in the same vein of Samsung’s TouchWiz, HTC Sense and the now-defunct MotoBlur from Motorola.
HTC has worked with Facebook before. The Taiwanese mobile manufacturer released the “HTC Status” (also known as the HTC ChaCha) in 2011 with a “dedicated Facebook button.” That button was essentially a hardware feature that launched the Facebook Android app. HTC also made the “Salsa” with Facebook buttons that it showed off at Mobile World Congress in 2011.
You ever see anybody using a ChaCha/Status? Anywhere? Not bloody likely. And that could be a problem for HTC with this new Facebook Phone.
Identifying Consumers
As ReadWrite editor Brian Proffitt wrote this morning, Facebook is going to have a hell of a time trying to figure out who to sell this device to. Businesses won’t want it. Neither will teenagers.
In the smartphone industry, there is a very delicate line for success when it comes to mobile operating systems. Essentially, you need a value play for your core business to make it work. Apple’s value is the hardware and profit margins it reaps. Google’s value from Android is to learn more about its users so to be able to better sell them advertising. BlackBerry traditionally was aimed at enterprises but had no clear advantage for regular consumers, who switched to Android/iPhone when the value became clear. Similarly, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile CE faded when its value proposition (other than merely existing) was eroded by Android/iOS. Microsoft has not been able to build a consistent following of its new Windows Phone products because of that same lack of a value proposition.
Targeting the value proposition will make it difficult for upstarts to enter the field. For instance, what does Canonical really have to offer to consumers that is also of value to its core business with an Ubuntu mobile operating system? Same goes for Tizen or Firefox OS.
And now, apparently, for Facebook.
Facebook’s play is very similar to Google’s. The more it knows about its users, the better it can serve them advertising. A Facebook Phone would tell the social giant a lot about its users. It could then push users to its contextual Facebook Graph Search and serve them ads through it. Facebook could also integrate its various Android apps (Messenger, Camera etc.) and application store to offer more value and context.
You know what? Google already does that and probably will do it better. It has been imagining Android and its future for a long time and each successive iteration is better, more contextual and slicker looking than the last. Facebook has neither the experience or the time to match Android.
That leaves HTC in Lame Duck Limbo.
ReadWrite writer Brian Hall points out that Facebook might not even need a Facebook Phone. If Facebook lacks an original value proposition, then HTC is going to have a hell of a time trying to sell a Facebook Phone.
Bring In The Noise, Bring In The Funk
Where does that leave HTC in its battle to regain market share and respectability?
Basically, to make a lot of noise.
Expect a heavy series of marketing and advertising from both Facebook and HTC about a Facebook Phone. In autumn 2012, HTC said that one of the reasons it had fallen behind was the lack of effective marketing. At the time, we pointed out that HTC’s problems went way beyond marketing. That will likely be the case here as well. It doesn’t matter how much noise a company makes if it is selling a product that nobody wants.
Top image: Facebook “favorites” from Facebook Mobile.
View full post on ReadWrite
Lack Of Value Proposition Makes Facebook Phone Hard Sell For HTC
Apr 1st
Smartphone manufacturer HTC is no longer “quietly brilliant.” HTC now wants to be as in your face as possible to attract consumers from the likes of Apple and Samsung. What better way for HTC to make a major splash than by being the manufacturer of the so-called “Facebook Phone” that is expected to be announced this week?
That is, of course, if anybody actually wants a Facebook Phone. There is serious doubt if that will actually be the case. If nobody wants to buy a phone with tightly integrated Facebook skin, HTC will have spent a significant amount of time and probably a fair amount of money on a project that will see no tangible returns. That can be bad for HTC, a once-proud company with dwindling sales that only has so many bullets it can fire into the Smartphone Wars before its armory turns up empty.
A History With Facebook
For nearly two years, HTC has been rumored to be working with Facebook in the so-called “Project Buffy.” The project, named after Joss Whedon’s cult TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, is supposed to be a smartphone that runs some type of Facebook-styled mobile operating system on custom hardware. Facebook supposedly was looking for hardware engineers and mobile operating system developers to help turn the dream into reality.
The most likely outcome, as I pointed out in May 2012, was that Facebook would take a kernel from Google’s Android and fork it into its own operating system in the same way that Amazon has done with the Kindle Fire. According to TechCrunch’s Josh Constine, the operating system for the Facebook Phone will be less of a true fork from Android and more of an “application layer” – a skin on Android in the same vein of Samsung’s TouchWiz, HTC Sense and the now-defunct MotoBlur from Motorola.
HTC has worked with Facebook before. The Taiwanese mobile manufacturer released the “HTC Status” (also known as the HTC ChaCha) in 2011 with a “dedicated Facebook button.” That button was essentially a hardware feature that launched the Facebook Android app. HTC also made the “Salsa” with Facebook buttons that it showed off at Mobile World Congress in 2011.
You ever see anybody using a ChaCha/Status? Anywhere? Not bloody likely. And that could be a problem for HTC with this new Facebook Phone.
Identifying Consumers
As ReadWrite editor Brian Proffitt wrote this morning, Facebook is going to have a hell of a time trying to figure out who to sell this device to. Businesses won’t want it. Neither will teenagers.
In the smartphone industry, there is a very delicate line for success when it comes to mobile operating systems. Essentially, you need a value play for your core business to make it work. Apple’s value is the hardware and profit margins it reaps. Google’s value from Android is to learn more about its users so to be able to better sell them advertising. BlackBerry traditionally was aimed at enterprises but had no clear advantage for regular consumers, who switched to Android/iPhone when the value became clear. Similarly, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile CE faded when its value proposition (other than merely existing) was eroded by Android/iOS. Microsoft has not been able to build a consistent following of its new Windows Phone products because of that same lack of a value proposition.
Targeting the value proposition will make it difficult for upstarts to enter the field. For instance, what does Canonical really have to offer to consumers that is also of value to its core business with an Ubuntu mobile operating system? Same goes for Tizen or Firefox OS.
And now, apparently, for Facebook.
Facebook’s play is very similar to Google’s. The more it knows about its users, the better it can serve them advertising. A Facebook Phone would tell the social giant a lot about its users. It could then push users to its contextual Facebook Graph Search and serve them ads through it. Facebook could also integrate its various Android apps (Messenger, Camera etc.) and application store to offer more value and context.
You know what? Google already does that and probably will do it better. It has been imagining Android and its future for a long time and each successive iteration is better, more contextual and slicker looking than the last. Facebook has neither the experience or the time to match Android.
That leaves HTC in Lame Duck Limbo.
ReadWrite writer Brian Hall points out that Facebook might not even need a Facebook Phone. If Facebook lacks an original value proposition, then HTC is going to have a hell of a time trying to sell a Facebook Phone.
Bring In The Noise, Bring In The Funk
Where does that leave HTC in its battle to regain market share and respectability?
Basically, to make a lot of noise.
Expect a heavy series of marketing and advertising from both Facebook and HTC about a Facebook Phone. In autumn 2012, HTC said that one of the reasons it had fallen behind was the lack of effective marketing. At the time, we pointed out that HTC’s problems went way beyond marketing. That will likely be the case here as well. It doesn’t matter how much noise a company makes if it is selling a product that nobody wants.
Top image: Facebook “favorites” from Facebook Mobile.
View full post on ReadWrite
Sell More with a Quality Ecommerce Website
Mar 22nd
eCommerce websites are designed to sell – it’s their main goal, but, sadly in reality, we often see online retailers using the copy of the product manufacturer to describe to the potential customer its characteristics and value; often repeating inadequate copy on every service or product they sell on their website and failing to [...]
Author information
The post Sell More with a Quality Ecommerce Website appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Sell More with Quality Ecommerce Website
Mar 22nd
eCommerce websites are designed to sell – it’s their main goal, but, sadly in reality, we often see online retailers using the copy of the product manufacturer to describe to the potential customer its characteristics and value; often repeating inadequate copy on every service or product they sell on their website and failing to [...]
Author information
The post Sell More with Quality Ecommerce Website appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
View full post on Search Engine Journal











