World-class PSO: Daily Thought

Day 2 of the TSIA Technology Services World Conference has wrapped up, and it was another day of idea sharing and generation. Some sessions were, of course, more valuable that others. Here are my top five "key take-aways" from today's session:

1. Professional Services within a product team (and probably any PSO) should be in the business of "Value Creation."
2. PS should drive overall business results. $1 of PS revenue should have a multiplier effect on the business through additional product and PS revenue.
3. PS needs to be part of the overall brand of the company - No Second Class Citizens
4. PS and Sales managers need to develop "Deal Attributes" that indicate when/if PS should be included in a deal. The two teams should work together to review major accounts and key deals to ensure the sales team is included when it should be.
5. AVOID true Packaged offerings. Sales is responsible for finding and qualifying PS leads, PS is responsible for educating those leads and proposing solutions, Sales is responsible for closing the deal, and PS is responsible for delivering. At the end of the day, Product Sales will struggle with matching the right PS offering and sizing it correctly leaving PS to clean up a potential mess. Additionally, for publicly traded companies, Package Offerings create VSOE challenges that must be considered.

I look forward to sharing more tomorrow.