Taking 5 With GDE

In the final episode of this multipart series about qualifying questions we should be using with customers, Jeff Miller, Director of Sales for Strategic Integrators (IBM), discusses the topic of Workloads.  What percentage of the enterprise workload is on-prem, in-cloud, or hybrid?  Understanding the workload distribution for a customer can help you guide them to adopt strategies that provide consistency in their data protection strategies regardless of how their workload is currently distributed and where it is going.

In this multipart series about qualifying questions we should be using with customers, Jeff Miller, Director of Sales for Strategic Integrators (IBM), discusses the matter of Compliance and the importance of talking about their compliance posture with customers.  This helps the seller understand the customer-perspective what regulations, benchmarks, or frameworks they consider important and how they feel they are meeting (or not meeting) those compliance regulations.

In this multipart series about qualifying questions we should be using with customers, Jeff Miller, Director of Sales for Strategic Integrators (IBM), talks about raising the topic Data Protection and Security Strategies with customers and how it is tied to their brand.  Furthermore, Jeff highlights the importance of discussing the maturity of their strategies, the negative impact of not meeting data sovereignty regulations, and funding.  These kinds of questions offer insight into the drivers (or lack thereof) for data protection, regulatory compliance, funding and more.

In this multipart series about qualifying questions we should be using with customers, Jeff Miller, Director of Sales for Strategic Integrators (IBM), advocators for raising the topic of expanding the use of encryption within a customer environment, and the reasons behind their decisions.  These kinds of questions offer insight into the drivers (or lack thereof) for data protection, regulatory compliance, and more.

Dean Evans - IBM Portfolio Specialist on Guardium Data Encryption - shares with us the importance of being part of any SAP modernization project.  He talks about the ease of attaching GCKM (GDE’s cloud key management feature) to a SAP modernization project and the benefits it provides to customers.  Join us!

Demos are great sales tools – if they are given correctly.  As with any sales technique, there are ways that you can use it poorly and, as a result, can put the opportunity at risk.  What do you prepare for?  What happens if you are asked a question you cannot answer?  Rob Pugh, IBM Security Technical Sales Specialist, shares his views on the best way to prepare and give a demo and how to remain professional in the face of questions you may not be able to answer right there and then.

Giving great demos is not just a skill for GDE sellers, but it is a necessary skill that needs constant practice.  Books, such as “Great Demo!: How To Create And Execute Stunning Software Demonstrations” by Peter Cohan, remind all sellers of the insights we should never forget (and skills we should always practice) when we are given that one opportunity to make a great first impression about our product, our knowledge, and our skill.

If there was ONE question you should ask a customer to determine if GDE can provide value?   Jeff Miller, Director of Sales for Strategic Integrators (IBM), talks about opening the customer with a question that can lead to a conversation that will unveil one to many concerns that the customer is facing and just does not know where to start.  What is that question?  Join us and find out.

How are you preparing for battle?

Dean Evans, IBM Portfolio Specialist on Guardium Data Encryption, and Rick Robinson, Host of Taking 5 with GDE, discuss the concept of Preparing the Battlefield when it comes to discussing data protection with customers.  We talk about preparing for objections – acknowledging customer existing capabilities (such as full-disk encryption) right away – disarming the objection.    Join us.

POCs are a powerful selling tool.  However, without proper organization up front, POCs can turn into a never-ending research project without any clear, measurable goal or objective.  In this episode of Taking 5 with GDE, Rob Pugh, IBM Security Technical Sales Specialist, tells us how he engages with customers who want to see a POC of the product and how it does it in a way that manages expectations and keeps the POCs on track.

At some point sellers need to be prepared to discuss pricing and getting the proper funding at the customer to cover the cost of GDE.  In this episode of Taking 5 with GDE, we talk with Enrique Gutiérrez about the challenges of getting a GDE sale funded, how to sell through funding objections, become part of a larger or pre-existing project, and ultimately describe the benefit and value that customers receive when they secure their data with GDE.  Join us!