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 |
| 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:
- What were the key success factors in generating business?
- How did you gain meetings with top buyers to sell your analytics software?
- What sales and marketing approaches are different with analytics as opposed to other telecom software?
- How to gain and work with distribution partners?
- 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:
- Eric Priezkalns is one of the editors and founders of talkRA, the revenue assurance blogging site. He is the lead author of the book ‘Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers’. Eric has specialized in the field of risk and assurance for communications firms since he qualified as a chartered accountant in 1999. During that time, he has served as Director of Risk Management at Qatar Telecom, Head of Controls for Cable Wireless Group, Best Practice Manager for Revenue Assurance, Billing and Carrier Services for T-Mobile UK and Billing Integrity Manager for Worldcom UK.
- Nick Gregory is Director and Co-founder of Market Accelerator in the UK. Nick has ben an executive at the sharp end of the IT industry for the past 20 years with some of the most successful and innovative IT companies in the world including Digital, Oracle, Silicon Graphics and MediaSurface. Today his firm represents telecom ISVs such as: Tribold, Aito Technologies, and Martin Dawes Systems.
- Howard Shenson is one of the most successful marketing consultants ever, and the author of dozens of books and seminars. We have transcribed, compressed and compiled the best commentary from Howard L. Shenson’s lecture series: Marketing Your Professional Services whose audio is licensed under the Creative Commons. The resulting 20 pages of edited and updated text provides timeless marketing advice for professional consultants of all types.
* * * * *
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,
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.