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A special consulting report. .

Selling & Marketing Telecom Analytics Solutions


The Founder of a Telecom Analytics ISV Shares
his Trade Secrets & War Stories



Price: $990 USD
Published: March 2014
Pages: 57
Principal Authors:David Leshem and Dan Baker

 
Chapters
Page count
A.David Leshem, Founder & former co-CEO of Compwise 20
B.Eric Priezkalns, Industry Analyst, talkRA Blog Site...... 12
C.Nick Gregory, CEO of Market Accelerator.................. 5
D.Howard Shenson, Marketing Expert & Author.............. 20



Dear Colleague:

As an editor and research analyst covering telecoms software for almost 20 years, I can tell you that CEOs and leaders don’t share trade secrets or really level with you about the biggest challenges of the business.

That’s not a criticism, just a fact.  When Lou Gerstner, the ex-CEO of IBM, retired he published a book with the catchy title: “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance”.  Now while that book is no doubt well-written and interesting, I’m sure it falls short on delivering the strategic insight that a competitor CEO – like Larry Ellison at Oracle -- would find particularly useful, except for casual reading on his yacht.

So a truly honest and deep down discussion of a business leader’s strategies and trade secrets cannot be found in books obtained in your local library or Amazon.com.

And yet, the need for candid perspective from brilliant achievers who have been in the executive hot seat and enjoyed some success is probably never more critical.

Introducing David Leshem

Well, you guessed it, I found an ex-telecom analytics software leader who agreed to deliver that deeper insight on the business in this special report.  His name is David Leshem and he’s the founder and former co-CEO of Compwise, an analytics company based in Israel who specialized in telecom pricing and offer analytics. Today, David is a financial analyst at the Israel Postal Bank and contributes analysis to TRI on a part-time basis.

Founded in the late 90s during the dotcom boom, David's firm, Compwise, did a lot of pricing analytics for North American clients in the last 90’s, but the profits were lackluster till the day in 2000 when the CEO of Vodacom South Africa asked if the software could be delivered with a slightly different twist.  On the heels of gaining that major client, Compwise executed some major contracts of its own and even bigger deals with partners such as PwC, IBM, and Amdocs who took Compwise on engagements across Europe and Asia.

In the 2006 and 2007 timeframe, Compwise received 4 major M&A offers but the investors held out for a higher price.  Then the recession of 2008 arrived and Compwise was sold at a bargain price of $2 million to telecom fraud vendor Ectel who was later acquired by cVidya.  Today, at cVidya, the former Compwise product is one of the most active product lines being invested in and promoted.

What’s in this Strategic Report

As co-CEO, David was the creative and chief business generator at Compwise.  The other CEO was based in New York and managed more of the operations side.

And it’s the business generating ideas David discusses in the report that are the most valuable.   Some of key questions he answers in this report:

  1. What were the key success factors in generating business?
  2. How did you gain meetings with top buyers to sell your analytics software?
  3. What sales and marketing approaches are different with analytics as opposed to other telecom software?
  4. How to gain and work with distribution partners?
  5. In meeting with potential customers, how did you hit the customer’s hot buttons and communicate value to the potential customer?

David and I fleshed out the answers to these questions in a few telephone discussions and follow up emails.  And there are a many insights and unique ideas here that could prove fruitful to CEOs, marketers, and salespeople at telecom analytics firms.

David is certainly one of the best storytellers I’ve run across in my 20 years as a telecom analyst.  In this report, he tells a few war stories that are simply unforgettable – yet his anecdotes and personal stories are also effective at driving home strategic points.

For a flavor of David Leshem’s genius at explaining the business, I point you to a 2012 interview I did with him on Black Swan Telecom Journal entitled, Analytics Pioneer: Price Jockeying is an Old Tactic; Fresh Service Ideas Key to Telco Value Creation.

Added Commentary by Industry Experts

To supplement David's advice, we also compiled contributions from two telecom industry experts who cover a range of key marketing and selling topics comprising about 38 pages.  Here are the experts:

* * * * *

Please scan the table of contents below for this special report below and the order form.  An added bonus for buyers of the report is that David Leshem and Dan Baker are available for a follow up discussion by phone.

Sincerely,

Signature 

Dan Baker
Research Director, TRI and co-Author

P.S. As with any report you buy from TRI, your satisfaction is fully guaranteed. If this special report does not deliver the quality of material you expect, within 15 days you can return it and receive a full refund on its purchase.



Table of Contents

       
A. David Leshem, Founder & former co-CEO of Compwise
   1. Research Preparation for Selling 
a. Discovering Customer Motivators
   2. Door Openers & Getting the Meeting 
a. Addressing the Customer's Challenges
b. Three Excellent Sources for Gaining High Level Meetings at Telcos
   3. Marketing 
a. The Value and a Unique Strategy of Presenting a Memorable Speech or PowerPoint at a Telecom Conference
   4. Product Management 
a. Platform vs. a Solution
b. Delivering better than Excel Analytics Value
c. Product Management by Customer Tiling
d. Offering Flexible or Simple Product Options
   5. Pricing 
a. Where Does the Value Lie in Analytics Software?
b. Thoughts on Revenue Sharing with the Customer
   6. Channel Partners 
a. Working with Partners
b. Cultivating Partners
   7. Communicating Value to the Client 
a. Who is the Customer of Analytics?
b. What Distinguishes Analytics Software from a BI Dashboard?
c. Sales Arguments: Positioning the Analytics Solution
d. Selling Under Pressure
e. The Challenge of Finding & Training People for Analytics Sales
   8. The Killers of Sales 
a. Three Killers of Sales
B. Eric Priezkalns, Industry Analyst, talkRA Blog Site
   1. Understanding Your Own Requirements as a Customer 
   2. The Use of Templates and Guides 
   3. Designed for Expert or Casual User 
   4. The Pincer’s Movement 
   5. Gaining R&D Product Knowledge from Intelligent Users 
   6. Listening to Customer Product and Marketing Suggestions 
   7. The Power of Managed Services 
C. Nick Gregory, CEO of Market Accelerator
   1. The Right Marketing Mix for Telecom Software Vendor 
   2. From Print to Digital 
   3. What’s Unique about the Telecoms Industry 
   4. Leveraging Social Media 
   5. Selecting the Right Conferences and Events 
   6. How a Small Firm Should Market Itself: David vs. Goliath 
   7. Telecom’s Constant Change and Need for Innovation 
   8. The Telecom Analytics Opportunity 
   9. What it Means to be a Marketeer Today 
   10. Measuring Success as a Telecom Software Marketeer 
D. Howard Shenson, Marketing Expert, Shenson Consulting
   1. Get clients to seek you out: Build your professional image & reputation 
   2. First meeting with the client: How to control the outcome 
   3. Avoid giving away your services for free 
   4. Get referrals & recommends: Working the contact market 
   5. Advertise your services: Where, When, How 
   6. Promotional brochure: How to write, design, & distribute for max results.