Crossing the Chasm
How to Get Focused on the Right Niche
Documentum's Success and Conference Call with CEO Jeff Miller
Other Supporting Case Studies Showing "How to Get Focused on the Right Things"
Following is the best information we have on these topics:
1. Read the Tom Ingram Associates Documentum Case Study:
http://www.tiainc.net/Public/No25DocumentumSuccessStory.pdf
2. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU ORDER THIS BOOK (Amazon.com - $7) TO HELP LEARN THE THEORY BEHIND DOCUMENTUM'S SUCCESS:
CROSSING THE CHASM, by Geoffrey A. Moore
Chapter 4, page 89 is the most critical. It describes how to pick the niches you will focus on.
THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE JEFF MILLER, CEO OF DOCUMENTUM, READ THE BOOK AND EXECUTED THE THEORY (ALMOST PERFECTLY)
THE OTHER SUCCESS STORIES IN ITEM 3 BELOW ALSO EXECUTED THE SAME THEORY.
3. HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL CASE STUDY ON DOCUMENTUM (WITH INGRAM HIGHLIGHTING - ask for details):
4. Click to listen to the conference call with Jeff Miller, CEO of Documentum, regarding “focus” initiative:
https://tiainc.net/DocumentumJeffMillerConfCall111904all.mp3
Key Items: (Following are the times in the conference call where key items are discussed.)
- Initial success – enter new market and closing 30+ new accounts in first year
o 0:00
- Why other companies haven’t been able to replicate:
o 13:30
o 27:00
- Narrowed from 75 niche candidates to 4 to 1 final niche
o 15:30
o 56:00 – narrowed down in two days!
- Focus issue and the rule on taking business outside your top nice
o 16:30
o 20:00
o 28:30
- Don’t make yourself crazy trying to get the perfect pitch. Take your PowerPoint presentation, go see as many customers as you can, and modify the pitch (and the product) based on what you learn
o 20:00
- Reshape your offering to get to a single, line of business decision maker
o 23:30
- You do not need to pick the perfect niche – the key is the benefit of focusing the entire company on a single niche
o 36:00 -
- Growing into other niches through referrals from the first niche – why an unfocused approach defeats the referral process
o 30:30
- Value of defining a niche small enough that you can dominate it
o 35:00
- Value of just getting after the single niche – make calls – improve the offering rapidly
o 48:00
- Shortening sales cycles
o 50:00
- Getting to a culture that thinks in terms of customer problems – not “what we do”
o 55:00
- Saw that strategy was working within 60 days
o 58:00
4.5 Marcie Tuttle Additional Key Observations, 6/27/07
Need for "urgent, compelling problem that we solve" to be clearly understood through entire sales organization
Medium sales person executing a focus strategy is superior to a very senior person with a big rolodex
Give a Sales Person a List of Who to Call on and What to Listen For and What to Sell
TRAP: Not doing the homework to give salespeople an effective prospect list and compelling, urgent solution a problem
TRAP: Failing to ruthlessly qualify
TRAP: Failing to simplify message to three things: "Here are the three things we do that solve the compelling business problem"
Walking away from big deals that pull you off your focus - Harvard Case Study
Discuss resistance expected
5. When you get time, review other supporting case studies that show successes due to GETTING FOCUSED ON THE RIGHT NICHE:
No23SwrFirmStartedwith1000.pdf
No24SwrCoCloses6LargeSalesin8mos.pdf
No26StrugglingFirmSells12NewAcctsin16Mos.pdf