Selling Drupal Services (DrupalCon DC 2009 notes)

Selling You and Your (Drupal) Services
Neil Giarratana

True genius is pulling threads out of the ether, and giving them reality. "Oh wow, nobody's ever said that?"

If you do the right thing, winning takes care of itself.

What you're selling is invisible.

The true product of a business is the business itself.

We talk about Drupal at the tail end of a meeting with a customer. Talk instead, about our business, our process, our team... You're really selling yourself. Create a "love mark" for your brand -- Apple, Starbucks. Don't create satisfied customers, create raving fans!

Your customer's view is the only one that matters. Customer is not too stupid to understand -- rather, you're too stupid to put it into words they can understand.

The way you deliver is at least as important as what you deliver. Even if you delivered a solution to spec, if you don't sell comfort, you haven't delivered.

Here is Lucidus' sales pitch for Drupal. First, they don't talk about Drupal. They don't use the word, Drupal. "For every site we build, we use a content management system..."

• It's easy to install
• It's easy to use
• -- end customers shouldn't get Drupal (core) -- it's your job as a consultant to package it in such a way that it's easy for the client.
• It has lots of features: point out a few key ones... 4,400 modules, (good reason they need you)
• It's free
  • Using FOSS, we are well positioned to take advantage of the financial situation. Longevity of project.

"No, really... why do you use Drupal?"

• Configuration vs. Customization
  • Drupal provides configuration rather than code for site building: New content types: Views + CCK solves so many problems without code.
• What's a content type? Web pages, photos, books, blogs,...
• Comments on anything
• File attachments
• Keyword tagging -- tying things together (related items...)
• Subscriptions: users "ask" to be notified any time a produc of a certain type is added
• Restricted access to anything... groups
• Syndication (B2B)
• Drupal was built for this -- for connecting things together.

Sales Process

• Do you know how you get your leads?
• Who are the targets? Define well.
• Set up a campaign for those targets
• Find partners: team up with someone who fills in your gaps
  • Get in with a good marketing business: they'll send you business
• Targets -> Campaigns -> Leads -> Opportunities -> Quotes -> Contracts

Lessons Learned

• Lucidus has charged in 5 different ways, but now have two ways:
  • build standard Drupal sites w stuff they've done before at a fixed price
    • The better they get, the more money they make
    • Charging hourly, the opposite happens
    • Customer gets pissed if scope expands, but if it takes less time, you don't make up the difference
  • do blocks of hours, pre-paid in advance
    • here's our expectation, but this is all going to depend on what left turns you take... don't you want the possibility to take left turns?

Getting the Gig

• No hocus pocus or slicky-boy sales guy: Here I am, here you are, let's talk about what we can do.
• Listen! Listen! Listen!
  • You're not allowed to tell anything about yourself for the first 20 minutes
  • "Can we hear about you?"
    • "if you'd please indulge me, I'd like to know more about you so I can tell you the right things."
  • People want you to feel you sympathize with them.
  • Most important thing you can do is find Joy in their story.
  • "I've got the greatest job in the world -- I get to help build all these businesses."
• Find their pain (at a high level)
• Explain your USP - Unique Sellling Propisition
• Let them set the next step
  • "What would you like to do now?"

Qualifier Questions

• We do projects between $1 and $1000 range... Would you be in the $1-$100, $100-$200, $200-$500, or $500-$1000 ? (if it's not in your range, refer.)
• What's your time frame to make a decision?
• What is your launch date?

Closing Questions

• On a scale of 0-10, (0 being not interested at all, 10 being ready to move forward,) where are you?
• ...How can I get you to 10?
• How would you like me to proceed?

Contracts...

• Set expectations for payment increments
• Get a signature on everything you do
• Get a blanket agreement

Q&A

• "We're not going to respond to an RFP -- we find that the relationships we like to build are not built well based on RFPs, which tend to be $ focused, and not really tailored to building a solution that suits you. Very best of luck to you, I'm happy to have coffee sometime, and talk (no charge...)"
• When do you make the commit?
  • We do a one hour meeting, and they're going to start charging them after the first hour.
  • Why don't we go through the spec process... If, at the end of it, you don't want us to do this, you can walk away with the spec and bring it to someone else...
• Every site they build, they package in a support contract -- regardless.
• You (client) want me to make a profit -- you want me to stay in business!

Great Books

• The E Myth Revisited
• Raving Fans
• Selling the Invisible