Gathering and Leveraging Competitor Intelligence Effectively with Steve Gielda

“Are we better than the competition, equal to the competition, or not as good as the competition? Do we know? Sales teams can help us answer these questions.”

• Steve Gielda, President and co-founder of Ignite Selling

In this episode of Product Chats, we are joined by Steve Gielda, President and co-founder of Ignite Selling, a global sales training, simulation and consulting organization dedicated to helping customers build world class sales teams.   Steve opens the discussion by addressing the inherent tension between product marketing and sales groups, emphasizing their critical interdependence despite contrasting personalities. He highlights a staggering insight: the vast majority of new products fail to meet their first-year revenue targets, often due to misguided assumptions (detailed in the Whitepaper “5 Assumptions that Cause New Products to Fail”).   Steve identifies three common assumptions that lead to these failures: sales teams knowing which accounts to target, identifying the correct contacts within these organizations, and understanding the unique value of the product to these buyers. He argues that it's the responsibility of product teams to equip sales with the knowledge and tools to overcome these challenges, thereby not just shortening time to market but ensuring a quicker path to significant market share.   For targeting the right accounts, Steve suggests providing sales teams with both quantitative and qualitative criteria to identify the most promising leads. He stresses understanding the value of unique product capabilities and how that varies depending on the audience. To address this, he recommends interactive learning map sessions that involve both sales and marketing teams. These sessions explore the implications of not having the product, the consequences thereof, and how the product's unique capabilities offer solutions. Key Takeaways:   1. Understand Your Sales Team's Needs: Both product managers and marketers need to comprehend that their sales team requires more than just product information. They need to know how to target the right accounts, engage the right individuals within those accounts, and articulate the unique value the product offers to each stakeholder.   2. Value Communication Is Crucial: Value is positional based on the individual to whom it's being communicated. Product teams need to train sales teams on how to translate product features into unique, stakeholder-specific value propositions. This will ignite their selling abilities.   3. Perform a Product Launch Review: It's important to review the first 90 days post-product launch. This review should assess whether sales representatives have been able to engage targeted accounts, and if they can articulate the unique selling propositions of the product. This will help the product team to understand if they're arming the sales team effectively.   4. Organize Collateral Intelligently: Product marketers often provide sales teams with a lot of collateral. However, they need to guide sales teams on when and how to use each piece of collateral at different stages of the sales process. This guidance can increase the effectiveness of the sales team and ensure that the collateral is utilized optimally. ABOUT OUR GUEST: Steve Gielda is the president and co-founder of Ignite Selling, a global sales training, simulation, and consulting organization dedicated to helping customers build world-class sales teams.   With his extensive background in value-based selling, Steve brings a wealth of expertise to the field of sales and customer support, with a focus on accelerating revenue growth. He is passionate about helping organizations find new ways to boost sales.   Steve, along with his business partner Kevin Jones, recently released his latest book, "Ignite Your Sales Strategy," a comprehensive guide aimed at helping sales teams think and act more strategically, quantify, and unlock the true value of the solutions they deliver. His insights and innovative approaches make him a valuable contributor to sales strategy conversations.   ABOUT PRAGMATIC INSTITUTE: Since 1993, we’ve provided training and professional development for product, design, and data professionals to accelerate innovation, increase customer satisfaction, and bolster revenue. Through our comprehensive methods and propriety Pragmatic Framework, we train professionals with the skills needed to accelerate their product management and product marketing careers, increase team efficiency, and boost revenue.   Our online, in-person, and on-demand courses are taught by industry experts with decades of experience at top