Trust the power of Plone and build the trust in customers, colleagues and friends. Plone is, for many aspects, such a good product that it fails sometimes in presenting itself right. We can do a better job, of course. The talk will present common communication/sales problems and practices to try to solve some of these problems; through examples and case studies it will try to give arguments and ideas to those willing to spread the Plone word.

1. Get Plone to Business!
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2. A few words before
About me About this talk
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Requires some
–
knowledge of Plone...
... not for developers
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Business “biased”
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About sales
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Tries to help solving a
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common problem
Needs your feedback
–
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3. Summary
Very short introduction to
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Marketing
–
Communication
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Sales
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Getting Plone to Business (Sales process)
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What's next
●
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4. Marketing
Marketing
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Communication
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Sales
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Plone marketing is
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Poorly documented
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Something we shall improve
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But great resources (plone.org, plone.net, forums,
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mailing lists, “web 2.0 style pr”, love.)
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5. Plone is ?
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6. Plone is
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7. Plone is a product
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8. Getting Plone to Business
plone(ISellable).getToBusiness()
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9. Sales: what could sales be
Telling “stories”
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Building trust
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Pretending Plone is something it is not
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Knowledge transfer
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Consulting
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...
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10. Two main ingredients
The Champion The compelling event
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11. Main steps
1.Prospecting
2.Demo
3.Proposal work
4.Value proposition and final discussion
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12. Prospecting
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13. Be ready, calm and prepared
Elevator speech
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Know who you're talking to
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Next appointment
●
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14. Elevator speech is not easy (1)
“Reflab: you don't know what they do,
but they do it pretty well.”
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15. Elevator speech is not easy (2)
“Why don't you get a real job”
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16. Elevator speech is not easy (3)
(puzzled face)
“... ahhhh, I see. You're a web agency, right?”
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17. Some hints
lot on who you're talking to
Depends a
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CM is very “intangible” matter, try to make it more
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physical
We're not all “building sites”
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Comparison with other softwares is ok, if “under
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control”
Give a reference.
●
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18. Some Keywords
Web web 2.0 Innovation
content management Sites
Intranet Collaborative
framework Zope3 adaptor
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19. Who you're talking to (1)
Pragmatist Innovator
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Will not trust you Will support
– –
Will ask for a Will invest
– –
smaller (then smaller) Will listen
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(then even smaller) project
Plone is quite innovative!
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20. Who you're talking to (2)
Consultant/technical CTO profile
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Interested in knowing Variable profiles
– –
more
Focuses more on the
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Focuses more on the product
–
framework
Wants to go deeper in
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Wants to go deeper in
–
testing You
testing the software
Plone is a very good product
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21. ... cool I created some interest
Next appointment
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22. Demo
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23. Demo... is all about preparation
a)General software presentation
b)Live demonstration
c)Indepth: Q&A
d)Larger group demonstration
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24. General presentation - Overview
Overview
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General description
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Base functionnalities
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Zope
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Python
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Other nice things that you love (at your own
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risk)
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25. General presentation - MoreInfo
Licence
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Roadmap
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Community
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... something that the person you're
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talking to will love
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26. Common pitfalls
ZODB (historically most famous pitfall)
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Versions mayhem (Zope2, Zope3, Five, CMF, ...)
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Hosting
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(add yours here)
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27. Live demonstration
Prepare, prepare, prepare
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Use scenarios if possible (if provided)
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Pre-populate with contents and users
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Take your time, don't rush, stay in the UI
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Starts with the basics
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28. Plone live demonstration tips
Leverage the importance of the extra-cool
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super-usable Plone UI
Show the “how”, not only the “what”
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Focus on the default not on possible
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customizations
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29. Q&A time
Even more difficult phase
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Very important for trust-building
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Praparation again is important but more difficult
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In depth of strenghts and weaknesses
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Some questions could be (already) about
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market, competitors, references...
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30. Q&A on Plone tips
Do not avoid telling everything about Zope
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Python, if well presented, can be a plus.
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Market and competitors
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Where do Plone rocks?
– (not, not on everything, sorry)
Which are its main competitors?
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References, numbers... (in your head)
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Attend all sessions you can during this conference!
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31. Proposal work
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32. Proposal work - Do not do it alone!
... write, rewrite, sweat, improve (with
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your staff and the champion)
Listen
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Train
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Improve
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Listen
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Improve
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...
–
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33. Competitive strategy
Requires defined and clear evaluation criteria
Frontal Flanking
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34. Plone Strategy Tips
Default, simple
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Leverage Plone power and flexibility here
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Single solution, not a collection
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Avoid the “all included/not included” trap
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35. Value Proposition
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36. Value proposition
The bigger the project the more formal
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Aimed to the economic buyer
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Focus on
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Metrics
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References
–
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37. Metrics examples
Time to publish
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SEO
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...
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38. Building a value proposition for Plone
Scarce formal material, yet
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Plone.net helps
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Mostly based on own data and experience
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References are also provider-depended
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39. Then... repeat
Final discussion
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Formal purchase order
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Implementation
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... and repeat.
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40. Thanks!
francesco@reflab.com
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41. What's next?
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42. 42 slide
nd
See more in evangelism ML
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Friendly competition in marketing/sales?
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Support for Marketing
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Q&A
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