FPX Blog

by Jennifer Bell, Account Manager

March 8, 2013

When I left you a few weeks ago, I left you with a homework assignment full of process discovery.

Do you know what you are trying to change?
Do you have a clear understanding of current processes and measures?
Do you know who is involved in each step of the process, what tools are used and who is the end customer?

If your answer is a resounding “Yes” then I applaud your effort and you are 10 steps ahead of most! If you are still working to get these answers, I suggest leaning on your key stakeholders to provide some of the information you need and to provide access to the people who can provide the rest of the answers.

This is the perfect opportunity to begin engagement workshops with the people who are involved in current processes and know them well – your end users!

When people hear about change, it can be seen as a threat. They often worry about their job security or how they could be negatively impacted by the change:

“If we implement a configuration system, a monkey could do my job. Why will they need me?”
“I’ve been doing it this way for 30 years, why change?”
“They’ve tried to change things before and it never works…”

You should expect to hear all of these and many, many more excuses as to why it makes more sense not to implement change. This is where your baseline measurements (described next in section 3, Planning for Change) will work like kryptonite. Data will take you beyond perception of what works and what doesn’t and it will drive awareness of why change is needed.

By engaging early with end-users, you will have an opportunity to expose them to the idea of change and to get them involved with development of the...

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Change Management Essentials - Part 1

by Jennifer Bell, Account Manager

February 13, 2013

As I work with clients on a daily basis, I empathize with the challenges they face when confronting organizational resistance to change.

We are human (most of us) and we are creatures of habit. We wake at relatively the same time every day; pardon the occasional Monday when the snooze button is all too convenient. We typically drive the same route or take the same train to work each day. We drink our coffee black or with loads of cream and sugar. We like it when things are the same. Staying the same is easy. Change is difficult.

What is Change Management and why is it important to me?

According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:

"Change” is to make different in some particular; to replace with another; to undergo transformation, transition or substitution

“Management” is to handle or direct with a degree of skill or address; to treat with care; to exercise executive, administrative and supervisory direction of

Whether you’re in the vendor evaluation stage or a tenured client going through a business process change, the value of successful change management cannot be underestimated. Managing change and alleviating organizational resistance is one of the top success factors for any implementation.

We all know your sales team loves to comply with business processes and will bend over backward to learn how to use a new system correctly.

If you believe this, I also have some fresh air for sale.

In reality, your sales team is busy. It’s not that they don’t want to follow the process or learn a new system – they have prospects to meet with and deals to close!

So, how do you effect change without disrupting productivity?

How do you ensure the organization will be receptive to and embrace this change? How do you measure your success?

Over the course...

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Think CPQ and Beyond

by Glenn Seaberg, Marketing DirectorJanuary 31, 2013

A month into 2013, and we’re all already in the groove. The holidays seem a distant memory. And rather than planning for family gatherings, you may be planning initiatives to make your organization better equipped to take on the challenges and objectives of the new year. I know that’s what I’m doing…

If you are too, a good place to start is with the ways your sales teams and channel partners engage and respond to their prospects and customers and ask yourself some questions:

How fast can your sales reps respond to a customer request for a budgetary quote?
How many people and departments are involved in accurately assembling and pricing that quote?
How accurate are the quotes your sales teams present to potential customers?
Are your sales teams focused on selling the specific products and services that advance the strategic objectives of your organization?
Do the ways your sales teams sell align with the preferences of their prospects and customers?
Does your current sales process disrupt other areas of your organization?

At FPX, we have the experience, products, and services to improve the efficiency with which your sales team can configure, price and quote sales orders. But our focus doesn’t end with CPQ and the sales division. Our focus is on designing strateigc sales processes and solutions that improve efficiencies across our customers’ entire organizations, including engineering, legal, operations, finance, and IT.

That’s why, at FPX, we don’t just think CPQ, we think CPQ and beyond.

by Glenn Seaberg, Marketing DirectorJanuary 3, 2012

Happy New Year! It’s that time of year when we all sit down and contemplate the changes we can each make that will improve our respective lives as a new year dawns. And then there are those who make predictions. This is a gutsy endeavor in my book. Making predictions is fraught with peril as time so often laughs at those who dare. So before I make mine, let me share a few from history that made me cringe (as documented by Cynthia Crossen in the Wall Street Journal).

In 1911, Richard Lucas of the Royal College of Surgeons in England predicted that some day human beings of the future would become one-toed. "The small toes are being used less and less as time goes on, while the great toe is developing in an astonishing manner."
In 1914, Sir Henry Blake, a British government official, predicted the rise of the noiseless city, where rubber would replace brick, stone and asphalt as street paving.
In 1925, Harvey W. Corbett of the American Institute of Architects said, "Fifty years hence automobile traffic will have entirely disappeared from the surface thoroughfares of New York City, and people will be shot through tubes like merchandise."
In 1929, a New York City haberdasher, John David, predicted that "the well-dressed man of 2020 will wear shorts for every occasion except formal events."
In 1942, the associate editor of Better Homes and Gardens predicted that the housewife of the future would know how to repair radios, irons, lamps, washing machines and cars.
In 1943, the research director of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp. predicted that hybrid auto-airplanes "will fly through the air and then fold their wings like a housefly and run along the road."

So at the risk of being proven wrong in the months that come, here are three predictions for 2013 related to the configure-price-quote and sales...

by Glenn Seaberg, Marketing Director December 11, 2012

Anyone who has ever faced a challenge in a team setting has heard or used the phrase, “We need to pull together.” Personally, this is one of my favorite expressions. Like the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo, this phrase has two powerful meanings to me.

As the holidays approach, the phrase “pull together” is of particular importance to my family as we recall the loss of a family member almost exactly a year ago. I found myself using this phrase as we dealt with our grief together. As a family, we needed to pull together.

That’s when the double meaning hit me. And that’s when the phrase became one of my favorites in all aspects of my life, personal and professional.

The first meaning of “pull together” that strikes me is the need to come together as a team. Everyone has his or her own unique strengths and talents that are crucial, and without them the team would not be complete. The first meaning of “pull together” means bringing in all the needed resources to make a complete team.

But once you pull the team together, you can’t achieve your objective unless the team is fully committed to working cooperatively to achieve it. The famous Budweiser Clydesdales seen in so many commercials around the holidays can only move that magnificent coach by pulling in the same direction at the same time. They have to pull...

by Glenn Seaberg, Marketing Director October 4, 2012

Dreamforce is now a couple of weeks behind us, but I am still energized by the people I met, the conversations we shared, and the excitement that surrounds the cloud-computing event of the year.

Many curious visitors to the FPX booth asked about our messaging (We Sell Time!). It’s an easy question to answer: FPX designs and delivers solutions that streamline the sales process so that sales teams have more time to sell. As I spoke with visitors, I found myself using hand gestures to illustrate how inefficient sales processes take meandering paths during order configuration and workflow approval processes. We all know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but for many organizations this is not what their customers experience when trying to get a quote or make a purchase.

It was a great show but by its end, I was exhausted. As I took my window seat in Row 7 on the 6 pm flight home on Friday, I replayed many of the conversations I had over the course of the week. Shortly after takeoff, as I peered down on the gorgeous scenery below, it occurred to me. From my seat on that 737, I saw river after river twisting right and left, the result of years of erosion altering what were once mostly straight paths.

The sales process at many organizations is very much like these rivers. What may have started as an efficient process became complicated over time. Just like a river, seemingly small changes in the organization gradually added up until the process no longer could flow in a straight line.

In nature, eventually hydrodynamics wins, and these straight paths are restored as the river seeks the most efficient path. This creates the horseshoe-shaped lakes near rivers that you can see from any window...

by Nicole Johnson, Technical Support Engineer August 27, 2012

My family and I recently bought a new house and moved about an hour away. Along with packing and trying to make sure we don’t misplace anything, like a box spring (yes, we have lost one of these while moving in the past), we also have to update all of our addresses on any accounts we have and pay the final bill. While paying bills today I called our previous cable company to update our address and get a final billing total. I had been given a statement when we turned in the equipment but I wanted to make sure the total was correct since that was a month ago. So, my calling experience went like this.

My first call in I had to enter in my ten digit phone number and the account number to an automated voice. Once I got to the representative and we were verifying the exact same information I had previously entered in, the phone went dead. We were cut off for some reason. I thought, “Sure, that happens”, and politely called in again.

On my second call, I entered my phone number in the automated system and followed the prompts to billing and was given a total for my final bill by the automated system. I was excited because this number was less than what I had been originally quoted. Reluctantly, I decided to call in one more time.

The third call I followed the prompts and managed to get to a representative who when verifying my information explained to me that the phone number I had entered in the automated system was incorrect. Gaw! How did the system give me a bill total last time? Anyway, after updating my address I was given the “real” final total which was different from the first two quotes I was given! Wow, that was exhausting and I am not confident that I will receive another bill owing something different! This got me thinking, what would the best possible, rainbows and butterflies scenario of customer service look like?

According to...

by Glenn Seaberg, Marketing Director August 6, 2012

I recently rediscovered a short video segment on my camera that I shot a few years ago. It reminded me of a very simple saying, but one that is extraordinarily transformative:

“Plan your work, work your plan.”

This advice is so simple that it has become a cliché. Nontheless, I believe it to be sage advice, no matter the task one is facing.

Just a couple weeks ago, I took the plunge and ordered a fitness program as a result of an infomercial (and too many late night cheeseburgers). What I like about it is that it offers a clear plan that I can work to achieve my health and fitness goals. It claims that if I follow their plan, I will see the results I’m seeking. It’s been only two weeks, and the workouts are hard, but I’m already glad that I chose a program that provides a clear plan. It is working. If you’re interested in learning more, shoot me a message and I’ll fill you in…

Personally, one of the clearest examples of the success that comes from designing a plan and then committing to it comes from an unlikely source in my life; my nephews. Morgan is 15,his brother Brian is 9. Beginning at very young ages, both expressed interest in karate. Learning karate means embarking on a very clear path. Students mark their progress on this path by wearing belts of various colors, each color indicating they’ve mastered the skills required to earn it. In their case, there are 11 belts in all.

At first I thought their involvement in karate was cute. Today I have a different perspective. Morgan has achieved the level of 3rd degree black belt (and, for legal reasons, cannot even advance again until he turns 18) and Brian has earned his 2nd degree black belt.

Both of these kids set their...

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Tools and Talent to the Rescue

By Glenn Seaberg, Marketing Director July 9, 2012

Last Tuesday, I received an urgent email from my father who was celebrating Independence Day at our cabin in northern Minnesota. In brief, he pleaded for me to load my truck with chainsaws, gloves, work boots and a heart for hard labor. A storm had blown through and knocked out the phones and dropped a few trees he explained. But I was not prepared for what met me as I pulled into our driveway 206 miles later.

The storm had snapped and uprooted trees that I’m sure had stood for hundreds of years. A huge poplar crushed the roof of our garage. A 70-foot pine had snapped like a toothpick and smashed through our deck. At least a dozen other trees, with roots exposed or trunks snapped, leaned at bizarre angles threatening even more damage should another storm pass through – and that’s common in the north woods when the July weather is hot (100 degrees) and unstable.

Wasting little time, I fired up my 16” Craftsman chainsaw and went to work. There was only so much I could do on my own. I started in by clearing a path so that as help arrived the next morning, we would have space to accommodate my brothers’ trucks. Two hours and two gallons of drinking water later, I seemingly hadn’t even made a dent in cleaning up the destruction.

That’s when I met Dan.

As Dan walked up the driveway, I shut off my saw and wiped the sweat and saw dust from my face. “Hi,” he said, “I’m Dan. Do you have some trees down?”

Dan knew the answer to that ridiculous question before he asked, but how else does one break the ice in this situation? “I’m with Vince’s Tree Service, and we’re looking for folks we can help.”

“Well, we’re those folks,” I replied. After a quick tour he gave us an estimate and we hired his crew on the spot. They started immediately.

Their saws blazed like light sabers, obviously sharper than mine and commercial in quality. And...

by Tom Uehling, Senior Technical WriterJune 25, 2012

Over the years I've had the opportunity to be involved, at a number of companies, with the evaluation of software, hardware and services vendors. I've always gone into these evaluations with a commitment to be unbiased and a responsibility to make a decision based on value rather than simply accepting the lowest bid. To facilitate this, I typically prepare a scorecard to allow a side-by-side comparison of each vendor's offering. This approach works well and allows me to quickly eliminate the vendors that obviously cannot meet our requirements. The analysis then becomes more complicated as prospective vendors who survived the cut begin to differentiate themselves with features I had not considered.

This second phase of the evaluation process, I've observed, is where prospective vendors not only differentiate themselves in their offerings, but also in demonstrating how eager they are to win the business. While "eagerness" is not necessarily a reason to award a contract, the ways salespeople can demonstrate "eagerness" translates into other positive messages to the customer. To demonstrate eagerness, a salesperson will:

Respond quickly and comprehensively to customer questions. If I need to wait a few days to find out if the vendor provides a widget to convert my current files into the vendor's new format, I start to get suspicious.
Provide pricing in an easy to understand format denoting various optional items for consideration. PDF format is especially useful because it allows me to route it to others who need to approve the purchase.
Rapidly obtain approval on any special...

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