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7 FACTORS DETERMINE GOING FORWARD by Paul Boucherle Convergence Channel Paul Boucherle, Certified Protection Professional (CPP) and Certified Sherpa Coach (CSC), is principal of Canfield, Ohio-based Matterhorn Consulting (matterhornconsulting.com). He has more than 30 years of diverse security and safety industry experience and can be followed on Twitter at swissherpa@twitter.com. paul@matterhornconsulting.com Any project a systems integrator takes on should present a win-win situation for both their business and that of their client's. Only through growing the integrator's expertise, profts and additional market opportunities, and enhancing the safety and security as well as operational effciencies of the customer, are these ends achieved. Many elements must be considered. L ast month I shared some thoughts about how systems integrators traditionally made decisions to pursue a project opportunity (go / no-go), and also some interesting new challenges pursuing network-centric projects today. A company's sales efciency factor (SEF) is often measured by what projects they choose to pursue and which ones they run away from. Tis is not an easy decision to make when you are in the sales trenches with quotas to carry and income to earn. Te decision can be even more challenging for owners or sales management who must commit company resources to pursue an opportunity. From my perspective and feld experience, having been in both positions, there are some critical opportunity questions that come to mind. Here are seven areas to consider that have delivered strong SEF for me and my clients who sell IP video solutions. 1 Why does your company want to pursue this networkcentric project opportunity? Getting your foot in the door with a large customer with great growth potential is a frequent answer. Once we get past the traditional answers you should consider digging a bit deeper. Your next question should be, "What do we really know about their buying and supplier evaluation process?" Unless you understand this better, taking a shot at a project in the hope of getting more business is like playing poker with a pair of fves in your hand. Gutsy, but not a very high percentage bet. Dig deeper to better understand how this prospect mea- 40 / SECURITYSALES.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013 sures the performance of their tier 1 or tier 2 strategic suppliers. Does your company ft that prof le? If not this relationship may be based on a "best priced" buying relationship going forward. 2 Understanding the real business value you can deliver begins by asking yourself the right questions about the key project stakeholders. Te good news is you can fnd a competitive advantage with diferent project stakeholders who include end users, general contractors and electrical contractors. Te bad news is a traditional selling approach may only focus on the bid price, which can blind you to other selling strategies. I often hear from clients that both general and electrical contractors only focus on the low bid. Au contraire mon ami. While price is certainly important, knowing how contractors make and lose money on projects is really important to help you diferentiate your bid. If you understand their risks and can mitigate them through your implementation process, you must communicate that advantage. An example would be programming, testing and burning-in system components before they are delivered to your contractor. Tis saves them time in the feld and can get them paid faster on progress billing. 3 How do the feature sets and technical specifcations translate into actual operational business results? Many projects assume technology will deliver more than actually possible once a project is installed and technically PHOTOS: ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM