xselliot.com helps your company to close deals in more markets because it solves the two problems causing the failure of +90% of international sales plans

+35 years of experience selling mission-critical solutions in LATAM, including:
IoT, IIoT, SCADA, GRC/IGA for top ERP systems... and more

No matter the business sector a company on this planet belongs to, it belongs to one of these types: «Leader», «Challenger» and «Struggler».

  • Leader: a company with a market share (measured in sales volume for a specific period, usually a calendar year) much higher than all other companies competing in the same business field and market. In any market, there can be only one Leader (monopolistic market) or very few (oligopolistic market).
  • Challenger: a company with a significant market share – but noticeably lower than the Leader’s – whose sales are growing to a level that may threaten the Leader’s market position. There may be several Challengers in the Leader market, although not as many as the third type of competitors, described next.
  • Struggler: a company with a much lower market share than those of Leaders and Challengers Usually, we see a lot of Strugglers in any given market, and they rarely represent a serious threat to Leaders and Challengers. As always, some exceptions confirm the rule. For instance, Netflix killed Blockbuster, Apple’s iPhone put Nokia and Blackberry out of the mobile communications business… and even before the iPhone, Nokia and other manufacturers of mobile phones equipped with built-in cameras ended the Kodak empire.

To better understand the interrelation between Leaders, Challengers, and Strugglers, and why it is so relevant to appreciate the benefit of xselliot.com sales method for your company (i.e., more closed sales in markets where your company brand and products are unknown or barely known), let me introduce the so-called Long Tail Curve, which looks like this graphic:

The curve is called «Long Tail» because of its «L-shape» (hyperbolic pattern), showing a huge number of occurrences accumulating on a very narrow portion on the leftist part of the horizontal axis, thus reaching a big height on the vertical axis, and then the number of occurrences declines more or less sharply during a slightly less narrow portion on the horizontal axis, to approach the vertical axis zero value, to keep declining less sharply along the remaining part of the horizontal axis. This pattern resembles the «L» character.

By following the definitions of Leaders, Challengers, and Strugglers and placing them in the Long Tail Curve, we get the following graph:

The interesting thing about the Long Tail Curve applied to the market share of competitors in any given market is that it consistently shows a similar «L-shape» pattern, regardless of the market or business sector being analyzed.

Moreover, the Long Tail Curve appears in «hi-tech» and «low-tech» business sectors alike… see below:

Now, let’s link these considerations to my value proposition to your company: closed (and collected) deals from my core markets – LATAM countries – in the short term (~6 to 9 months from my sales program starting date).

To explain my value proposition to your company, I assume the following:

  1. Your company would like to increase sales revenues from highly potential markets (for your products);
  2. Your company would like to sell in highly potential markets… however, these markets are unknown for you; 
  3. Your company is a Struggler, at least in these highly potential markets (LATAM countries, in this case).
Based on these three assumptions, your company has two traditional ways to generate sales in these markets:
  1. To sell directly in these markets… i.e., to try to reach with your own resources prospects in these markets and sell your products to them; or
  2. To sell indirectly in these markets through local channels, you should partner with them to have them promote and sell your products in their countries.
Both end up in frustrating failure in (nearly) all cases, with lots of valuable resources wasted after unsuccessful sales efforts… why?

The first way (selling directly) fails because of what I call it the «Know Who Barrier»: insofar as your company doesn’t know who’s who (prospects truly qualifying for your products instead of «false positives») in a market where your company and products are also unknown or barely known by prospects, then a «know who» barrier is built between your company and the targeted market.
This problem worsens due to your company’s limited resources to stay in these markets until it overcomes the Know Who Barrier, which usually takes a long time and ongoing investment of any company’s most valuable resources: firstly, people, and secondly, money. Most often, companies trying this option give up sooner rather than later.

The second way (selling indirectly) also fails because of what I call the «Doer/Loudmouth Paradox». I’ll next explain this barrier.
There are only two groups of local channels on this planet with which you can partner to sell your products through their sales efforts: those who tell you that they will sell your products, and those who sell your products at the end of the day.
I call the first group of partners the «Loudmouth» group, and I call «Doer» the second group.
The Doer/Loudmouth Paradox occurs because a Doer doesn’t need your company and your products to stay and thrive in business, as they’re selling well what they’re selling before you offer them to sell you products, which for these partners are «question marks»… i.e., they don’t know yet if your products will sell well in their market, don’t know about your company’s pre and post-sales support quality in their market, and so forth (they have no historical records on these issues because they haven’t sold yet your products).
Because of their success at selling their current products (not yours) the Doer has three things where they place their priorities in assigning their valuable, limited resources (people, time, money) in their daily agenda: (a) to keep selling their current products to new prospects by leveraging of good references from existing customers, (b) to upsell to existing customers by offering to them product add-ons or new modules or applications, and (c) to solve ongoing post-sale customers issues and/or to give them technical post-sale support.
Even if the Doer is enthusiastic about your company and products and genuinely wants to promote and sell them in their market, they have no time to push forward your products, at least, not at the rhythm and continuity your company needs to penetrate their market.
The other face of this Doer/Loudmouth Paradox – the Loudmouth – is simple: a Loudmouth is a channel that says they will sell, whereas they sell nothing (or almost nothing).
A Loudmouth needs your company and products (after all, they have nothing to lose by giving a try to sell them)… but you had better avoid such a type of local channel, for if you partner with them and dedicate your valuable, scarce resources (your people, time, and money) only to find after long months that this local channel didn’t sell at all, or sold so few copies of your products that don’t even cover your expenses, your company will have wasted these resources and will get frustrated.
And, worse yet, if you partner with a Loudmouth that loses several deals to competitors while trying to sell your products, your company’s brand and products’ reputation in that market will suffer.


The rationale of xselliot, my sales approach

xselliot works because it solves both the Know Who Barrier and the Doer/Loudmouth Paradox. With xselliot, I have «one foot» inside your company (supply side) and «the other foot» inside the target markets (demand side). Let me further explain this concept.

Any deal gets closed when a product from a vendor meets a prospect’s needs and does so better than the competition.
We can represent this in a Cartesian axis chart, where the vertical axis is the «Supply» side from which the vendor’s product is offered to the «Demand» side (prospects) on the horizontal axis.
On the «Supply» axis, there are other products offered by the vendor’s competitors, and on the «Demand» axis, there are other prospects in addition to the one that buys the vendor’s product.
This is shown next:

If you choose to sell directly in a market to prospects you don’t know, who don’t know you either, you’ll most probably fail because of the Know Who Barrier. This is graphically shown below:

Likewise, if your company tries to sell through local channels, chances are that you will fail, in this case because of the Doer/Loudmouth Paradox. Graphically, this is shown below:

In the chart above we see that either if your local channel is a Doer or a Loudmouth, they will fail to promote and sell your product effectively, and – in the example above – Prospect «A» bought from Competitor «A», Prospect «B» from Competitor «B», Prospects «C» and «D» chose to remain in a status-quo position (i.e., they don’t buy anything), and Prospect «E» bought from Competitor «C». In this scenario, because of the «Doer/Loudmouth Paradox», your company will fail to sell to any of these prospects.

With xselliot, I get trained on your products to run presentations and demos in the same mother tongue, which is spoken in the target markets (no language barrier).

And because of my hybrid (technical and commercial) professional background, I’ll be able to address technical («how-type») and commercial («what-type») questions from prospects, which gives prospects more confidence in your solutions by being more responsive to solve their eventual objections and doubts.

During the first stages of my sales program, from Day One, I will continuously prospect the market (and henceforth too), addressing prospects that I know first-hand (no Know Who Barrier) and will devote all the needed time to do this (no Doer/Loudmouth Paradox).  I will ensure that your (yet) unknown products are perceived by qualified prospects as a solid choice and will show them the advantages and benefits of your products.

As a result, I’ll bring closed deals to your company.

This is graphically represented below:

I achieve the goal of bringing to your company closed deals in the short term by executing six activities, each with clear milestones to be reached throughout the deployment of my sales plan.

Next, I’ll explain these six activities and their milestones.

Stage 1 · Sales Program Kick-Off
Activities: (a) a work collaboration agreement is signed between your company and me; (b) I get trained on your company’s products to become able to run Spanish-based presentations and demos to LATAM prospects and customers.
Milestones: the work collaboration agreement should be signed within the next seven (7) days from my sales program’s kick-off date (hereinafter referred to as «Day One»).

Stage 2 · Partners’ Activation and Collateral Sales Materials Building
Activities: (a) I train my partners on Your company products to make them able to run Spanish-based presentations and demos to LATAM prospects and customers; (b) I make Spanish-written collateral sales materials about Your company products and distribute them among my local partners and previously qualified prospects.
Milestones: (a) partners’ commercial training is completed within the next 4-6 weeks from Day One; (b) Spanish-based collateral sales materials are ready and delivered to partners within 4-6 weeks, measured from Day One.

Stage 3 · Sales Pipeline Building
Activities: (a) I perform continuous market prospection in ~5 LATAM countries, in addition to the market prospection tasks of my partners in these countries; (b) Prospects’ qualification tools are used (i.e., an updated version of the classic BANT sales method originally developed by IBM in the 1950s) to bring to the sales pipeline truly potential customers rather than «false positives» (supposedly prospects that are not true prospects).
Milestones: ~15 to 30 qualified prospects in the sales pipeline within the next 12 weeks, measured from Day One.

Stage 4 · Selling to Qualified Prospects
Activities: my partners and I perform sales presentations and demo sessions of your company products to qualified prospects to move them to a PoC (proof of concept) of them or a similar step in the presales cycle conducting to final deal’s negotiation and closing stages; (b) I make customized technical and budgetary proposals of your company products to end customers or partners while selling directly to end customers or through a local partner, respectively. Such proposals include everything a customer needs to decide to buy your company products, rather than buying from a competitive alternative; (c) no PoC is performed without previously agreeing with the prospect on the product’s acceptance criteria (success points) to be achieved during the PoC. If such success points are met during the PoC, the customer will buy the corresponding your company product; (d) aspects mentioned in (c) will be included in a written document (hereinafter referred to as «SOW», short for Statement Of Work) to be signed between the prospect and your company and/or me and/or the local partner, and will serve as a prior commitment by the prospect to buy the your company product(s) to be tested during the PoC.
Milestones: ~5 to 10 qualified prospects ready to start the negotiations and closing stages within the next 20 weeks, measured from Day One.

Stage 5 · Negotiation and Closing Steps
Activities: (a) my partners and I negotiate the final deal terms with qualified prospects after they ran a PoC with successful results; (b) negotiated terms will be previously agreed upon with Your company and its written approval will be a mandatory prerequisite to consider a deal as formally accepted by Visuality Systems; (c) once negotiation steps are completed, paperwork steps with the respective prospect are conducted by my partner and/or by me to speed up as much as possible the completion of the closing stage.
Milestones: ~2 to 5 prospects converted to customers within the next 28 weeks, measured from Day One.

Stage 6 · Market Penetration and New Markets Development
Activities: (a) my partners and I leverage from the first prospects converted to customers of Your company products in the five target markets mentioned above as our «advocates» to sell them to more prospects in the same target markets; (b) based on the first success cases in these five target markets, I will deploy this sales program on additional target markets (i.e., more LATAM countries) where I will repeat stage 2 through stage 5.
Milestones: ~2 to 4 new target markets within the next 32 weeks, measured from Day One.

Notes about the figure above:

  1. This figure shows the deployment timeline of stages 1 through 6. The milestones mentioned above are approximate estimations.
  2. If your company decides to launch my sales program, I’ll know more details about your company, your products, your pricing strategy, and so forth, thus being able to adjust these milestones and their completion dates if needed. Still, timelines and milestones will keep a similar proportion as the one shown in the figure above. 
  3. The brief time from the sales plan kick-off date (Day One) and negotiation and closing steps (activity #5) will remain the same after I get trained on your products and other aspects that are relevant to my sales program’s execution. The proportionality between activities’ timelines will also be as shown above.
  4. The above-mentioned notes are true because with the xselliot sales approach, I will not face the Know Who Barrier, nor will I face the Doer/Loudmouth Paradox.

Wrapping up:

My continuous target markets prospection is key to identifying true sales opportunities, instead of «false positives». This task is time-consuming, and few local channels are willing to devote their resources (people, time, money) to new products whose sales performance in their territories they don’t know yet. 

As effective partners are not ready to do intensive, continuous market prospection, I assume this time-consuming task, but execute it in a careful, informed way: I have hundreds (actually, thousands) of companies in LATAM that could be your highly qualified prospects. Moreover, I have direct reach to C-level and higher management persons working inside these companies, who are part of the decision process to buy solutions like yours.

Best of all, I already spent years building mutual trust and business relations with many of these companies and their relevant decision makers, which will shorten the presales cycles.

MY RETRIBUTION MODEL: 
I do not work on a «success fee only» basis for companies that hire my sales services.
Why?
Because I am not one of the hiring company’s partners. Neither am I a «key finder» (i.e., someone who puts the hiring company in contact with prospects, partners, or other third parties that may – or may not – bring them closed deals).
My sales roles for the hiring company are the same of an international business development manager’s, with a key cost advantage for the company: I work as their external sales resource (i.e., I am not a company’s employee), and as such, I do not get paid Social Security Insurance, paid vacation, paid sick leave, and other labor costs typically applied to employees work contracts.
My compensation for sales work activities #1 through #6 mentioned above is not based only on future sales commissions, which I get paid once I bring you a closed deal, after your company collects the customer’s money… these sales commissions are my reward (i.e., not compensation) for a sales job well done.
In sum: compensation ≠ rewards.
The compensation part of my retribution model is a fixed monthly fee («FMF») extremely low, as low as € 3,300.00/month (three thousand three hundred euros per month) … less than half of the average salary a 5-year experienced business development manager earns in countries like the US, the UK, and most Western European countries.
The reward part of my retribution model is a sales commission percentage if the hiring company has a standard price list, a pricing policy, and a sales compensation plan. Alternatively, suppose the hiring company has no standard price list, pricing policy, or sales compensation plan, and instead it quotes each sales case on a per-project basis. In that case, my reward is a markup margin I add to the money amount the hiring company expects to earn from the deal.
The good news for a company that hires my sales services is that my FMF disappears as soon as the first deal (or the first two) gets closed and collected. 

How?

Simple: if my reward from a closed and collected deal is equal to (or higher than) € 3,300.00, I will not charge the hiring company my FMF for the same month, and I will receive my reward for that deal. Logically, the first customer (or the first two) will help us pursue additional prospects and have our first customer (or the first two) «advocating» in favor of the hiring company’s solutions. We all know that the best «salesperson» is not a salesperson but a satisfied customer telling prospects in their own words about their user experience. Therefore, the first closed deals will bring additional business… and still more rewards for me, thus eliminating the need to charge said FMF.

Notwithstanding the mechanism mentioned above, in specific technology fields (SCADA systems, Water and/or Waste Treatment, EV (electric vehicle) Recharging, and LPWAN networks), I will limit the maximum number of months during which I will be invoicing my  FMF to your company to 6 (six) months, even if the first closed deal occurs beyond the first 6 (six) months from Day One.
The reason is that I already have the proper reach and have built mutual trust relationships with key decision-makers who have budget allocations to acquire and implement solutions under the categories mentioned above in the very short term (perhaps, before the end of 2025). 
Still, if the first closed deal occurs within the next – say – 4 (four) months from Day One, I will stop invoicing my FMF as soon as I receive my reward for that deal, which will surely happen before the end of the first & (six) months of the sales program schedule.

 

Experience: fields where I’m an expert at selling solutions (non-exhaustive list):

  • Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
  • Mobile applications
  • Agriculture and aquiculture-related applications
  • Surveillance and homeland applications
  • Smart Grid solutions
  • ERP and multi-platform information security solutions (GRC, SoD, SSO, MFA, IAM, etc)
  • Healthcare and education applications
  • Smart City applications
  • Legacy-related systems (COBOL/CICS, DB2, NetView, Natural/Adabas, Mantis/Supra, IDMS, Gener/OL, etc), to current, cutting-edge technologies, like wireless LPWAN data communication solutions, IA-based SCADA systems and IT/OT monitoring solutions, etc. legacy-related systems (COBOL/CICS, DB2, NetView, Natural/Adabas, Mantis/Supra, IDMS, Gener/OL, etc), to current, innovative technologies, like wireless LPWAN data communication solutions, IA-based SCADA systems and IT/OT monitoring solutions, etc
  • Ethical hacking services on mission-critical systems
  • People count and smart parking systems

To get in contact with me for more details:

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