Gracias Barcelona

Week 4 in my new SAP life, so it must be Barcelona then.

I firstly should thank Steve Basil for the invite, and Steffen Burger for the permission to attend the Global Business ByDesign Pre-Sales workshop.

It was great to meet up with some old colleagues (Andy, Christian and Adam) as well as meet some great new people I will be working along side in the future (Former Member and Helen).

Pre-Sales has changed a lot I think from when I was involved, the focus is squarely aimed at delivering Business Value, sounds simple doesn’t it?

Creating business value means leaving the mouse and keyboard alone, and listening to the reasons the customer has to change. Understanding these key business drivers and translating them into memorable messages the client remembers is a lot tougher than a click through demo of a standard business process.

I heard two phrases that will stick with me (thanks Richard!)

1. No Disco, No Demo
   1. Unless the pre-sales team can talk with the client and hear those key drivers, have the chance to challenge those issues and qualify the opportunity properly, then the don’t get a demo!
2. Leverage the Limbic
   1. Do you know what the Limbic mind is? No I didn’t really but now I have investigated it I can understand why its so important. Check out this website

We also had some training on Videolicious, a whole new world to me, I would never have dreamt of videoing myself and sending a personal message to prospects, clients and co-workers. It is a great way of making your presentations memorable. A great way to introduce yourself before a webinar, a great way to say thanks after a presentation and what better gift could a co-worker have than a personal message from you saying “well done”?

Available for Partners too, so tell everyone!

It was a great week, a fab opportunity to network, re-acquaint myself with people, and I learnt some new skills, ideas for presentations and made some great friends.

So week 6 is coming, and guess what? its Brussels (of course!)