Thursday, February 23, 2012

Case Analysis:
Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale(A)
Group 5

ROHIT NATH | GAURAV PATANGE | MANGESH PATIL

MAHTAAB KAJLA | SACHIN KUMAR
Introduction

 Company Introduction
 Founded by Tom Siebel in 1993
 World leader in CRM software with 50% market share in sales management,
marketing automation, customer service & support (2001)
 Core values of company emphasize on customer satisfaction, professionalism,
professional courtesy & bias for action
 Product Line & Distribution
 Portfolio of more than 200 products
 Customized product according to customer requirements
 Go-to-market strategy with direct sales force
 Followed a multichannel approach
 Alliances
 Integration Alliance Partners include Accenture, Cap Gemini, Deloitte
Consulting, IBM, PWC etc
 Key hardware & software partners include Alcatel, AT&T Wireless, Avaya,
Cisco, Compaq, Microsoft etc
 Competitors
 Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Clarify, E*piphany

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Assignment Question

Question:
How should Carman respond to the invitation to tell the Quick and Reilly
executives what he thought of Oracle? What features of this particular
interaction influence your opinion? Would your opinion of the right response
change if the circumstances were different?

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Possible response to Cathy’s query

 Corresponding to Siebel’s Core Values, Carman should treat customers

with deference and professional fashion as representatives from Quick
and Reilly could be our prospects
 He should avoid providing incomplete information; also whatever
information is demanded from customer should be provided without
any reluctance
 It’s a perfect opportunity to flaunt the strengths and fleet of partners
 Share some of Siebel’s success stories
 In order to provide details of competitive landscape in CRM market
Carman can share Gartner Research Report which shows Siebel
systems as a complete solution provider and market leader
 Since Cathy belongs to Client service and marketing Department;
Carman shouldn’t explain too much of technical details of product
instead he must focus on how a Siebel product can cater to their
organizational requirements.

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Features responsible for influencing opinions

Since meeting was not prior scheduled,

Carman is not sure if Cathy Ridley is
lack of understanding about clients’ needs,
Influencer or Decider and degree of power
budget and requirements could restrain
that she holds in organization
the prospective deal

Carman himself is not comfortable in

Conversation is more of casual one which
comparing Siebel to its competitors until
might not lead to conversion of deal
he knew the clients’ requirements

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Possible responses if circumstances were different

 If the meeting was prior arranged the agenda could have been
framed beforehand
 Sales Department would be able to collect information about
clients’ needs, budget and requirements thus increasing the
prospects for conversion of deal
 Technical details would be shared with CIO or respective person
thus explaining even minute details about product and how it
can benefit Quick and Reilly
 Classification of Influencers, deciders, purchasers etc can be
arranged prior to meeting hence targeting specific personnel
 Knowing your product  customizing it according to needs of
customer and giving demonstration could provide an edge

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Assignment Question

Question:
How should Carman qualify the prospect? Should he ask, “What’s your
budget?” Should he suppress his curiosity and leave it to the prospect to
bring up the information about the size and timing of the opportunity? If he
asks for information, how will he use it?

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Steps to qualify the prospect

Identifying the need of Priority assigned by Making top level Providing information
product by client strategic level of managers aware about that how the product can
organization for the benefits of product satisfy needs of
need of that organization
product

Asking specific questions to Cathy would help Carman in assessing their requirements and needs in
specific fashion. Therefore, he should definitely ask questions regarding the money that the
company can pump in for this project, number of end-users involved which would provide a rough
estimate regarding the pressure that the system should be able to sustain, delivery time, scope of
project in organization.

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Carmen should not suppress his curiosity and should ask directly about their requirements, as
knowing the needs and requirements of customers in better way would help him in explaining the
product accordingly, thus increasing the chances of cracking the deal

The information could be used to explain:

Siebel’s superiority Right product Justification of

over Competitors’ specification for expenses done on
products customer and product
suggestions about
customization

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Assignment Question

Question:
Evaluate Carman’s interactions with the customer upto this point? Is he doing
a good job? How effective is the Siebel Systems approach?

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Evaluation of Carman’s interactions with Cathy

 Carman initially focused on building a rapport with Cathy & tried

to gain her confidence to share more information
 Throughout the conversation, Carman was friendly & showed
complete interest in knowing Q&R’s requirements
 He did a good job by giving a demo of the product to Cathy. Only
if he had better knowledge about the client’s requirement he
could have been better in explaining a specific product that suits
her needs.
 He also tried to gauge the clients budget by asking the possible
number of users in the organization
 So overall Carman did a fair job

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TAS Process

Assess the Opportunity

Define the competitive Strategy

Develop the Relationship Strategy

Turn Ideas into Action

Test and Improve the Plan

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Assess the Opportunity

 Is there an opportunity?
 Yes. An opportunity worth 2 Million to
sell to Q&R
 Can we compete?
 Yes. We are the only company that offers
end to end CRM solutions
 Can we win?
 Yes. We have more than 200 products to
offer & we can also customize them as
per clients needs. We also have superior
customer service
 Is it worth winning?
 Yes. Considering the potential of the deal
it is worth winning

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Define the Competitive Strategy

Sales pitch also depends on

competitors products & sales
strategy

Developing a sales
pitch by
understanding
customer
requirements
It is one of the major
steps since it acts as a
foundation for
developing an action
plan for sales team

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Develop the Relationship Strategy

Other stakeholders & their

corresponding roles &
Cathy Ridley & Other senior Relationship strategy must
power are not yet
executives can act as focus on building long term
identified. So for now Cathy
influencers in this deal relationship with Q&R
remains the important
point of contact

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Turn Ideas into Action

 Siebel is already a market leader in

CRM industry
 Gathers pre-approach information
of the prospective client
 It is the only provider of complete
CRM solution
 Minimizes weakness by
understanding customer needs &
thereby modifying its sales pitch
 Siebel projects its core value of
customer satisfaction by providing
customized solution

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Test and Improve the Plan

Understand the Plan Test the Plan Improve the Plan

Siebel follows the above steps to

It also helps in building good
ensure customer expectations
account relationships
are met & thus reinforces
customer confidence.

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Evaluation of TAS Process

The TAS process is effective because:

Delivers end to end solutions which is not provided by any

competitor

Detailed information collection about client to ensure

persuasive sales pitch

Competitor strategy analysis to frame counter

strategy

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Assignment Question

Question:
Put yourself in Zitner’s position as he picks up the phone. How should he
handle the conversation? What is his objective in this call?

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Objectives of Conversation

 Zitner must keep in mind that this is an introductory conversation with

a potential client. So focus must be on building rapport & gaining
confidence before making a pitch
 After achieving the initial rapport, he must try to gauge the
requirements of Q&R
 After understanding the client’s needs, he must talk about what
Bradley systems can offer to solve their problem
 He must then try to convince Cathy to send a detailed RFP for further
discussion
 The following are the objectives that Zitner must focus on
 Primary
 Understanding customer needs
 Explaining the suitable solutions to the buyer
 Assure the client that they can provide excellent product & service that can
solve his/her problem
 Optimistic
 Convince her to meet in person for further discussion
 Try to get a detailed RFP from Q&R

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Questions?

Thank You

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