IDC | Alinean ExpertROI™ - Business Value Selling Solutions

Leveraging the Power of ROI for Competitive Advantage

Enterprise buyers are required to financially validate their technology acquisition decisions as never before. To help IT solution providers meet this need, IDC and Alinean have developed an ROI Selling Program to help accelerate sales cycles, improve selling effectiveness and deliver the comprehensive financial business cases required to close deals.

Selling of information technology (IT) solutions has dramatically changed over the past several years. The promise of innovation has been replaced with the demand for bottom line financial impact - what's the cost, what's the return, how soon and how can you prove it? Buyers of technology are increasingly looking to vendors to provide credible ROI analysis. Most IT vendors and their sales staff are not prepared to meet the tightened scrutiny of the economic buyer. In fact, there are three fundamental opportunities for vendors to encourage purchasing decisions, shorten sales cycles and increase adoption rates of certain technology solutions.

1. Financial Justification - Financial justification is important, BUT companies do not have the skills to do it on their own.

2. Content and Trust - Buyers expect IT solution providers to provide financial justification, BUT are not satisfied with the quality of analysis and are concerned with vendor objectivity.

3. Communication Mechanism - IT solution providers are using traditional marketing programs in order to communicate their financial proposition, BUT buyers would like to see more customized tools and materials.
   Only those solutions that clearly demonstrate a Return on Investment (ROI) are being considered.

IT vendors are being put to task to demonstrate how their solution will deliver cost savings or improve business. They must find the means to more effectively sell their solutions - and provide ROI justification to Enterprise executives and economic buyers

To fill that need, IDC - the leading independent authority on ROI - and Alinean - the leading ROI methodology and software provider - have joined forces to offer the IDC-Alinean ROI Selling Program.

The Business Value Selling Program

Available to IT solution providers, the Business Value Selling Program offers a complete financial selling toolkit enabling vendors to:

• Communicate to the buying centers in compelling economic and financial terms

• Quantify the value of IT solutions effectively and credibly

• Reduce sales cycles by 30-40%

• Increase selling effectiveness and competitive advantage

• Address all aspects of the ROI selling process from target to attract through close.

The Business Value Selling Program Components

ROI Research

IDC will independently assess what value current clients are deriving from solutions through in depth surveys and interviews. From this information, IDC analysts develop financial models and methodologies to help predict and assess the impact on new clients. The ROI Research is customized, specific, thorough and independent, forming a solid foundation for the rest of the ROI Selling Program.

ROI White Paper

Available for online and hard copy distribution, the ROI White Paper can be used for awareness programs, to help educate the prospect on realizable value, and on the credibility of metrics, model and methodology. The white paper encapsulates the results of the research and includes case studies documenting quantified value achievements from current customers.

ROI Sales Enablement

(ValueExpert™ Certification training course)
Instructor led training sessions by leading IDC analysts are conducted for sales professional online, or on-site, to help the sales force understand key financial selling terms and methodologies, integrate ROI selling into their sales process, and utilize the research, white papers and tools effectively to help reduce sales cycles and improve selling effectiveness. These sessions can be recorded for future use by the sales teams, and refresher sessions.

ROI Go-To-Market

Getting the word out about ROI and Value advantages is critical to many go-to market strategies, and a successful ROI Selling Program. Through IDC, several online, event, and multimedia audience development campaigns will drive awareness, and generate and capture qualified leads. For instance, working with world-class media and web syndication partners, IDC will cost-effectively drive the right buyers to a customer's web site for retrieval of the IDC White Paper or to access the IDC-Alinean software tool. For a consultative approach, IDC analysts will be available for customer webinars and seminars, to present research findings and metrics, and to drive qualified candidates into the sales process. IDC's events team will provide full event planning and execution if needed. Additionally, through IDG's vast resources and IT media leadership, we can further strengthen the audience development and lead generation initiatives on a highly targeted and global scale. The purpose of the Go-to-Market component is to provide a broad spectrum of lead generation options -- to go "from anonymity to face-to-face."

ROI Selling Tools

From the IDC ROI Research, and using the Alinean ROI Dashboard Methodology, Alinean develops one or more sales tools to help automate the ROI selling process. These tools help to stream-line the value selling process, increase credibility and drive competitive effectiveness of sales professionals in developing ROI business cases, and engaging IT and business executives in the process. For various users and stages in the selling process, one or more customized selling solutions can be commissioned:

ROI Calculator™
Installed on your corporate website, this customized tool provides a personalized quantified overview of the benefits of the solutions - typically, in 5 minutes or less, helping to educate prospects on the value of your solutions, and capture qualified leads.

ROI Analyst™
This completely customized ROI sales tool generates a detailed 50+ page report outlining the business case including costs, tangible benefits, TCO, ROI, NPV, IRR, payback and risk. Used in preview mode, overview presentations can be developed in 10 minutes or less, while detailed CFO ready business cases typically take one hour.