Alinean Research Reveals Best Practices to Fight Frugalnomics

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Alinean, the leading creator of value-based interactive sales and marketing tools for B2B vendors, today unveiled tips to effectively fight Frugalnomics, improve sales success and reduce sales cycles. These best practices are being presented today by Alinean in the workshop Fighting Frugalnomics – Engaging and Selling to Economic-Focused Buyers being led by CEO Jefre Futch and Alinean customer, ShoreTel's Mark Arman, Vice President of Business Development, at Forrester's Technology Sales Enablement Forum 2011.

With two recessions over the past 10 years, B2B buyers have become focused on quantifiable bottom-line proof points. And this trend is expected to continue even as the recovery takes hold. The reign of the economic-buyer is called Frugalnomics, where buyers require significant ROI, fast payback and superior value from each purchase.

In the face of frugal buyer sentiment, a majority of B2B vendors are now requiring more leads to generate the same amount of sales and are reporting a substantial increase in buying cycle time. The inability for sales to engage buyers with value messaging has currently been cited as the number one reason for sales not making quotas.

Alinean's research revealed that new sales enablement strategies and investments are required to fight Frugalnomics. Here are a few tips:

1) Engage Earlier – Empowered by the Internet, IT buyers are doing more research online, often having set a strategy, allocated budget and selected potential solutions before sales has been invited to the first meeting. For sales to be relevant and successful, sales teams need to engage earlier in the buying cycle and higher in the organization to help executives proactively set priorities for formal budget allocations, and be in front of strategic decisions with new ideas to capture discretionary spending allocations.

2) Make the Case for Change - Buyers are inclined to not make significant investments or changes in a time of austerity, and as a result, sales needs to be armed with the tools to "make the case for change" and prove that there is a "cost of doing nothing." Further, there are more decision makers involved in the purchase process, especially more involvement from CFOs and financial executives. To be successful, sales teams have to engage multiple stakeholders including executives, finance, business leaders, purchasing, operations and technologists, with a compelling value message personalized to each stakeholder.

3) Differentiate Value - The focus on value from each investment has never been higher, and sales teams must quantify the advantages of their solution versus the competition, or stand being knocked-out in later critical buying decisions cycles. Proving total cost of ownership (TCO) savings and superior value is vital to competitive wins.

"Value-based sales enablement initiatives and tools are the key to arm sales professionals with the consultative insight needed to connect with stakeholders earlier in the sales cycle, prove bottom-line impact and quantify superior competitive value," says Tom Pisello, Chairman and Founder of Alinean. "These initiatives and tools have been proven to drive earlier engagements, reduce sales cycles, increase deal size, reduce discounting and drive competitive win rates."

About Alinean

Alinean, the leading provider of dynamic sales and marketing tools, empowers B2B vendors to better sell to today's economic-focused buyer. Alinean-powered interactive white papers, assessments, ROI calculators and TCO comparison tools create more compelling value-based connections, workshops, presentations and proposals - delivering customized diagnostics, benchmarks, solution recommendations, benefits, investments, ROI, payback and TCO advantage proof points.

Leading B2B firms leveraging Alinean tools include: HP, IBM, Microsoft, EMC, Dell, Intel, IDC/IDG, AT&T, Siemens, Unisys, Thomson Reuters, NetApp, Citrix, Symantec, Novell, Cisco, Oracle, Sybase, and CA.

Learn more at the Fight Frugalnomics™ Resource Center http://www.fightfrugalnomics.com, or by visiting http://www.alinean.com, or calling 407.382.0005.

Alinean, XcelLive and the Alinean logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Alinean, Inc. Other Alinean product or service names or logos herein are trademarks of Alinean, Inc. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Alinean