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Consultative Sell: Factiva SalesWorks
Hooks into Work Solutions via Channel Partners |
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17 July 2006 |
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Another day, another content integration product for
enterprises that need subscription content in valuable work
contexts. But as products such as Factiva's SalesWorks(TM)
rely increasingly on technology-oriented channel partners
to penetrate their markets the shift into consultative
selling becomes more problematic. It's great to have your
content in highly valuable contexts, but if your bread and
butter is knowing your clients' needs then you need to
tread carefully with tech-oriented channel partners who can
wind up learning a lot more than you about your markets. |
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Mark off yet another
chapter in Factiva's broadening strategy to integrate its
business content into enterprise operations. Its recently
announced deal with Microsoft to integrate its
SalesWorks(TM) collection of company, industry and
executive news and information into
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Version 3.0 is just one in a string
of industry announcements from Factiva and other vendors
heralding content integration deals for industry verticals and
functional verticals. And that's the point. Content integration
into workflow applications is fast becoming the norm in the B2B
content industry, a powerful channel for both content sales and
customized "hooks" that makes it hard for a customer to walk
away from an investment in content services.
Although integrated content services have been long
established in knowledge-intensive industries such as finance
and legal, tools such as Factiva's SalesWorks that target sales
organizations are taking the concept of workflow integration
and applying it to a far broader range of enterprises. In the
process of doing so, the emphasis on services from Factiva and
other providers is shifting into a more consultative role - a
role that is shared oftentimes with their technology partners.
This positioning is made clear by both Factiva and their
partners. Visit Factiva's corporate
site and you'll find the
section on their
consulting services fourth in the list of main navigation
links - just past "products." On the other hand, there's this
tidbit from the
press release announcing the Microsoft Dynamics deal:
"Factiva SalesWorks for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 will extend
the consultative role of Microsoft Certified Partners, while
increasing their selling opportunities and extending their
market reach." It's all about getting subscription content into
the hands of solutions sellers, whoever they may be, to get it
to become a part of an enterprise's infrastructure as
efficiently as possible.
In the process of moving towards consultative selling using
workflow integration tools, subscription database vendors
are becoming experts in user habits as much as they are experts
in content licensing and library sciences. This parallels in
some ways the efforts of information professionals in corporate
libraries moving into consultative roles within their
enterprises to support the proliferation of content sources
integrated into enterprise portals and platforms. But instead
of relying on information professionals to be the guides to
promote integration content vendors are moving with their own
expertise and knowledge of what works for specific groups of
users in concert with technology consultants - and in some ways
superseding the information professional's expert role for
specific groups of users.
The proliferation of products such as SalesWorks via direct
and channel-based consultative selling offers subscription
database vendors an opportunity to develop relationships with
their clients that can grow through enhanced integration
services far faster and cost-effectively than through building
a database through content licensing deals. But as important
and as effective as these channels can be, they're not without
some dangers. Here are a few quick thoughts on where to steer
your own consultative content selling efforts:
- Keep your eye on the value that you're providing to
publishers. With more business-oriented publishers trying
to fashion their own value-add strategies subscription
database providers need to think carefully about how they are
going to deliver enhanced content from those publishers. The
decades-old tradition of stripping out all but the bare text
of a publisher's article for database distribution places the
content in an extremely weak light in comparison to what most
publishers can provide via their own Web sites. Consultative
integration is great, but if you're supplying bland content
you're limiting the overall value of content integration to
both your audiences and publishers.
- Remember your information professionals. While
information professionals are a breed in rapid transition,
their expertise on content collections should not go
unnoticed in developing consultative content integration
strategies. This may be obvious to the database supplier
themselves, but as the consultative role gets pushed
increasingly into the hands of technology partners it will
become less obvious in the sales process. Information
professionals may no longer be the final gateway to many
content services sales but if your channel partner hasn't
done your homework on the inforpro's role in managing content
collections you could come up on their wrong side at a very
awkward time in the consultative sales process. Don't assume
that an I.T.-oriented partner is going to make the right
noises at the right time to a corporate librarian: train them
well and train them as to when they should be reaching for
help back you the database supplier.
- Where does this leave search? Factiva has invested
oodles in an enhanced general search interface that has
received many glowing reviews. But increasingly the question
becomes one of who will be there to pay attention to it. If
the corporate librarian is focusing more on both the Web and
their company's own intranet and users are settling into
workflow applications, why is it necessary to focus so much
on a general search interface to a relatively limited content
collection? It's great that Factiva has made the investment
but the track record for content aggregators growing their
markets with such generic interfaces is not very strong at
this point. Do what you must to keep your installed base
happy, but recognize when others are doing a better job of
search integration and focus on providing deeper contextual
value to publishers within enterprises.
While consultative selling of subscription databases is
becoming the norm, it's a method that may not always lead to
the most desirable results. Making sure that you're staying on
top of your audience's needs via channel partners is crucial in
any situation - and no less so via consultative selling
arrangements that distribute knowledge of user needs fairly
widely. Integration of content in and of itself is not the
solution. The real sales solution is whatever gives you the
ability to anticipate user needs and to deliver on them more
effectively than your competitors. To the degree that
consultative sales channels can accelerate that goal for the
broadest markets possible, bravo. To the degree that you create
more competitors for your own operations that will limit your
knowledge of choice markets - tread carefully.
-
John Blossom
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