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Frequently Asked Questions
Fee structure
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How do I
know who is working on my business? |
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Athlone
doesn't sell on a time and materials basis and no
engagement will be related to number of calls, number of
hours or number of days.
The Athlone team is a mix of experienced industry
professionals and at the outset of the project Athlone
will establish who has what to contribute to the
campaign. An activity plan is then drawn up and the team
will execute against that. There will be a combination
of direct access to personal networks, indirect
engagements developed through the Athlone network and
new business development.
In reality, the combination of effort from across the
team will produce more productive hours in any week than
hiring a sales guy who will spend a disproportionate
amount of time in meetings, team building, reporting and
cold calling……it's a very expensive way to cold call!
By the time the campaign begins you will have met the
owners and everyone who will have a role to play in your
engagement
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Can I have
a trial period first? |
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Athlone does
not run trial activities. The core proposition is based
around human capital and domain credibility and, unlike
a software trial, there is a cost associated with every
sales cycle we burn and every network relationship we
call on. In addition, most business objectives which
justify a free agency approach will take a number of
months to complete and a canned trial period will
demonstrate nothing of value.
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How are the
fees structured? |
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Each
engagement is tailored to the needs of the client
business and so the fee structure is rarely the same on
two different projects. Many engagements draw
contributions from different parts of the group, such as
search, sales acceleration and channel development, and
the different aspects of those contributions will
combine to achieve the objectives of the engagement.
Most commonly there is a fixed fee element and a
variable, success based element with a strong emphasis
on a result orientated approach.
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I'm looking
for a commission only engagement, can you help? |
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There are many
factors to consider and Athlone will discuss all the
options which are possible. Typically, clients want the
best resource to engage on their project and that will
not happen in any commission only engagement, with any
company. Athlone's preference is to discuss the client's
business objectives and define the best way to address
them with the client.
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Engagement
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Are the
projects all based on venture capital and investment? |
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Venture
Capital is one of a number of core competencies within
the Athlone Group. The most common engagements are built
around:
- Sales consulting
- Pipeline development
- Sales fulfilment
- Channel development
- Interim sales management
- Search
Most Athlone clients engage across these offerings
depending on where they are against their own business
objectives and venture capital may be one element of the
engagement.
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How many
times can you take propositions to the same contact
without straining the relationship? |
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The reality is
that no matter the strength of the relationship with the
network they will only agree to see vendors whose
proposition meets their current perceived needs. Where
there is no need Athlone will not make a meeting
although the relationship can be used to gather feedback
to assist with the campaign. Athlone does not set out to
make propositions with unqualified decision makers.
The point about the primary network isn't solely the
ability to set meetings but, sometimes more importantly,
the ability to understand the exact current status in a
target account. Sometimes that will result in a meeting
and other times it means quickly establishing what the
objections are. Both are of great value to clients.
Athlone works very hard to develop its' network and will
not abuse it for perceived short term gain.
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I can't do
anything until I get funding. What do we do now? |
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You should be
talking to Athlone. Venture Capital has been at the core
of Athlone's activity with a number of clients and this
may be a great opportunity for both parties. Also, we
should consider running a workshop to plan for what
would constitute a worthwhile engagement once funding is
in place. The workshop can be run independently of an
engagement to give both parties an opportunity to
discuss ideas in a free form environment with a fresh
pair of eyes and an open agenda. The client has the
advantage of access to many years of experience and
Athlone is then best able to assess how it might support
the client in the future.
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How big is
the Athlone team? |
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There are
around 22 core members of the Athlone team with a further
140 associates. There are currently 12 partners who engage
with Athlone on a regular basis and a further list of
partners who are ready to engage when an engagement
requires their skill set.
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Background
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What
experience do we have of selling technology? |
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The partners
and associates can point to a great depth of success in
delivering sales plans and making sales numbers in
senior sales and management roles at companies such as
TIBCO, Micromuse, Banyan, Baan, HP, T-Mobile, Blue
Martini, Microsoft, Oracle and RedM. In addition, the team has broad
experience in developing strategic and tactical plans
for businesses and projects in both operational and
consulting environments.
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What type
of customers do we have? |
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Typically
Athlone Business Services works with smaller software
houses that are looking to control sales costs, reduce
sales risk or accelerate sales opportunity. All the wins
to date have come from 6 market sectors where Athlone
has identified a strong fit because of domain knowledge
and current market conditions. These are:
- CRM
- Security
- Mobile
- Business intelligence
- Infrastructure
- Web services
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How is the
Athlone network maintained? |
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There are
three distinct elements to the Athlone network; the
primary network, the referential network and new
business. The primary network has been built over many
years working with technology, media, telecoms and
consulting organizations and the contacts are former
colleagues, associates, partners and customers.
Relationships are continually developed with these
people so that access and trust are maintained and
propositions can be discussed when it makes business
sense. The referential network is fertile but complex
territory where Athlone is introduced to an extended
network and is therefore carrying its own credibility as
well as that of the referee and the client. In such an
engagement Athlone uses many years of accrued business
acumen to establish and then maintain a working
relationship.
New business activity is straight forward but perhaps
the least productive of the options available. As part
of an overall engagement plan Athlone will deploy new
business sales heads to deliver against key milestones
and, more often than not, the activity will extend the
network for Athlone and the client.
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Alternatives
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Wouldn't it
be cheaper and easier to hire another sales head? |
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Anyone who is
accountable for the entire cost of doing business will
know that this is not the case. Viewed purely from a
cost point of view you have to account for exit costs of
the previous head, search fees, salaries and benefits,
expenses, utility costs and commissions. In all
probability there will also be an impact on the
technical and administrative resource required to
support the new hire and that will add to the ongoing
cost and risk. Finally, it is easy to overlook the
impact a new head has on management resource as everyone
attempts to successfully navigate through the ramp up
period. All these costs are mitigated or, at least,
significantly reduced in an engagement with Athlone.
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How can you
learn a proposition so quickly? |
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The Athlone
team has a depth of experience with a range of
technologies and the client will decide if he is
confident the resource available can deliver on an
engagement. The client will also be instrumental in
deciding the level of contribution from Athlone and the
hand off point during any campaign. The Athlone focus is
on accelerating agreed milestones and deliverables and
clients typically don't want us to be experts preferring
to control the deliverables themselves.
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My sales
team is working just fine, how can Athlone help? |
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Athlone has
yet to meet a manager who sees an upper limit on what
can be achieved! Many Athlone engagements are based on
'point' requirements such as filling a vacancy or making
qualified introductions but it is the unpredictable
nature of the markets which drives most value from an
Athlone engagement. Unplanned or planned personnel
change, new product launches, decline in performance or
even intensified competitive pressures introduce
challenges faster than infrastructure can be changed to
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I know I
need help but I don't know what. How can Athlone help? |
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Very few of
the challenges faced by Athlone clients are straight
forward. Most involve a level of strategic and tactical
planning and so every engagement starts with a workshop
to address all the key topics which will underpin a
successful project with or without Athlone's
involvement. The workshop can be run independently of
an engagement to give both parties an opportunity to
discuss ideas in a free form environment with a fresh
pair of eyes. The client has the advantage of access to
many years of experience and Athlone is then best able
to assess how it might support the client in the future.
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