Course Overview
Sell Smarter, Close Faster—Turn Opportunities into Wins with Splunk!
Enable customer-facing teams with the knowledge and skills to effectively position, qualify, and sell Splunk solutions to customers.
Who should attend
- Cisco and Splunk Account Managers and Sales Representatives
- Cisco and Splunk Partner AMs
- Solution Consultants or Engineers
- Customer Success and Account Executives
Prerequisites
- Familiarity with IT concepts such as data analytics, security, infrastructure monitoring, and IT operations.
- Understanding of common data sources (like logs, metrics, and event data) can also be beneficial.
- A solid understanding of a typical sales lifecycle, from prospecting and qualification to closing and post-sale support.
- General knowledge about competitors and alternatives in the data analytics and SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) market would allow attendees to better position Splunk.
- To bring to the session examples of real-life referenceable use-cases to discuss & share.
Course Objectives
- Develop an outcome-based approach that focuses on aligning Splunk’s capabilities with customer challenges and business objectives.
- Implicitly apply structured sales methodologies (e.g. MEDDPICC) to identify key decision-makers, qualify opportunities, and close deals more efficiently.
- Positioning Splunk as a solution that helps drive improving IT operations, security, and data-driven decision-making for their customers.
Outline: Splunk Sales Expert: Driving Business Outcomes with Data (SSE)
Provide a high-level overview of Splunk’s relevance to today’s market:
- Brief overview of Splunk's data analytics and visualization capabilities.
- Introduction to how Splunk addresses common IT and business challenges such as security, operational visibility, and compliance.
- The importance of maximizing sales opportunities by aligning Splunk’s strengths with customer needs.
Analyse the current trends and demand drivers for Splunk solutions within your customer base.
- Market Trends: Discuss the growing importance of cybersecurity, IT operations management, and the need for real-time data analytics.
- Identifying Customer Challenges: Explore how customers are dealing with data overload, security breaches, and operational inefficiencies.
- How we can identify and target opportunities where Splunk’s solutions can provide value.
To map and engage with decision-makers & stakeholders within customer accounts.
- Stakeholder Mapping: Understand who influences buying decisions (e.g., IT managers, security officers, compliance teams).
- Primary contact: profiling the CISO.
- Building Relationships: How to identify and build relationships with key decisionmakers who are focused on outcomes (implicitly covering Metrics and Economic Buyer identification).
- Supporting Business Drivers: Align Splunk’s capabilities with the specific business outcomes desired by customers.
How to position Splunk based on measurable business outcomes and the Splunk Unified Value Model (Discovery – Definition – Realisation)
- Creating a Value Proposition: Focus on how Splunk’s solutions address critical pain points, such as enhancing operational visibility, improving cybersecurity, and driving data-based decision-making.
- ROI and Value Demonstration: how to showcase the value of Splunk solutions through real-world benefits, focusing on reducing downtime, improving security posture, and achieving compliance.
- Customizing Solutions: Help tailor Splunk solutions to align with specific customer goals across different industries (implicitly addressing Decision Criteria and PainPoints).
Use Cases and Benefits:
- Present real-world use cases demonstrating the benefits of integrating Splunk, such as:
- Network performance monitoring and troubleshooting.
- Security incident detection and response.
- Operational intelligence and optimization.
- Compliance and risk management.
Understand the customer buying process and how to navigate it effectively.
- Qualifying Opportunities: Implicitly address qualification techniques by asking the right questions and understand the customer’s procurement process.
- Understanding the Buying Journey: How to help customers progress from initial awareness to final decision-making stages (implicitly covering the Decision Process and Paper Process).
- Competitive Positioning: Provide strategies to position Splunk’s solutions against other market alternatives, emphasizing unique strengths and benefits.
Using role-playing to help equip participants with strategies to overcome common customer objections and build buy-in.
- Handling Common Objections: Address concerns about cost, complexity, and integration and compatibility with existing systems
- Reducing Perceived Risks: Provide approaches to mitigate risks, such as addressing the fear of complex implementations or concerns about ROI timelines.
- Building Consensus: How to create internal champions within the customer’s organization who will advocate for Splunk’s adoption (implicitly covering Champion development and handling competition).
Learn to close deals effectively by understanding the sales process.
- Finalising Deals: Use Splunk’s value propositions to justify pricing and terms, ensuring the customer sees long-term benefits.
- Supporting Post-Sale Success: Provide strategies for ensuring success in post-sale support, such as fostering ongoing customer engagement and ensuring solution adoption (implicitly covering Paper Process and Champion development).
Q&A and Wrap-Up:
- Open the floor for questions and discussion.
- Discuss actionable next steps, focusing on applying these strategies to anyupcoming sales opportunities.