MBM - Case Analysis Note: Siebel System-Anatomy of a Sale

Somesh Gobbur PGP/21/358

How should Carman Respond to the invitation to tell the Quick & Reilly executives what
he thought of Oracle? What features of this interaction influence your opinion? Would
your opinion of the right response change if the circumstances were different?
As per the TAS approach, which was always used by Siebel, the initial conversation should revolve
around assessing the opportunity, i.e. the need and capability of the consumer then defining the
competitive strategy as to the approach towards the customer. The third step revolves around
establishing a rapport with the consumer and developing a relationship strategy thereafter comes
the execution stage of turning the ideas into action and then testing and improving the plan. Carmen
should initiate a probing activity as this is the exploratory stage of KAM. Howsoever Carmen cannot
straightforwardly negate the query and therefore a mixed approach should be established. Looking
at the response given by him, he could have also added a few FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt)
questions to know more about the consumer.

Under a different scenario like a sales lead, the approach would have to be strictly as per the TAS
mechanism, it is solely because of the setting of the scenario, i.e. a trade show where the
prospective leads come with all sorts of queries to test the grounds a mixed approach can be used
but still with the TAS steps in tandem.

How should Carmen qualify the prospect? Should he ask “What’s your budget?” Should he
suppress his curiosity and leave it to the prospect to bring up information about the size
and timing of the opportunity? If he asks for information, how will he use it?
In order to qualify the prospect, Carmen should probe more and Assess the Opportunity. He needs
to assess the customers need i.e. of lost leads or lead tracking in this case, then understanding the
customer’s business profile and financial condition without directly asking the question about
budget in the first go, which might require some research at the back end and cannot be done
directly at the trade show, howsoever if under a scenario that he was aware of the attendees of
the trade shows he could have done this research beforehand. Secondly he should do a self-
assessment if they can do justice to the client requirement and have a proper solution fit which in
this case is available with Siebel. As the client has already referred to a competitor, he should also
ask questions and utilise the information obtained to put forth the value proposition of Seibel in
later on stage to win the customer.

Another approach that he should employee is enquiring or assessing the losses due to the
unavailability of this technology, as then he can do a cost benefit analysis for the client and come
to a flooring figure of the budget by himself.

Evaluate Carmen’s interaction with the customer up to this point. Is he doing a good job?
How effective is Siebel Systems’ approach?
As per my understanding, Carmen’s approach has been not been the proper approach as of now.
The reasons for this view are:

• He did not remember or take note of the number of customers which is in quite contrast to
Siebel core values which emphasize particularly “We approach the opportunity we have been
granted with great humility” and “we remain absolutely committed to our customers’
success and work hard each day to listen to their needs”. Furthermore, this information is of
utmost importance for him to build a business case later on.
• The utmost important thing which carmen is missing out here is enquiring from the
customer and understanding his need. He could have asked questions like challenges with
the current system, alternatives etc. Also, had he asked these question he could have altered
the demo to emphasize on the specific requirements Seibel were looking for.

The defined Siebel approach system is very effective as it takes a customer centric approach and is
very systematic in understanding the requirement of the consumer and there in turn proposing the
right value proposition.

Put yourself in Zitzner’s position as he picks up the phone. How should he handle the
conversation? What is his objective in this call?
In case of Zitzner, as he is a senior person in the hierarchy, should exchange greetings and make the
customer feel important. The directives shared by him are right but at the same time a small brief
about the offering, post understanding the customer requirement, can also be given. The major
objective of this call is to trap the lead and assess its worth for Bradley systems. Even under a
scenario that the assessment cannot be done immediately he should engage the customer and
establish a rapport of sincerity and schedule a future meeting for the key account manager or pass
the buck to a sales rep/KAM.