Engage Black Hat Early Within the Sales Process to Ensure Success

March 1, 2013 - PRLog -- At a high level, a Black Hat review is a competitive assessment to address who the competition is and their strengths and weaknesses. The best Black Hat reviews score a company and its competition against the customer’s anticipated evaluation criteria. This review can help a company’s sales process to formally position itself against the competition instead of just guessing, the way most people (including the competitors) do.

During an executive insight session on May 7 at the SCIP International Conference and Exhibition, John Boyle, vice president of strategic positioning in the Chief Technology Office at Unisys Corporation, will provide an overview of how to successfully develop the Black Hat Workshop approach to unify a company’s sales team around a creative, action-oriented competitive strategy in the sales process. He will show how successful workshops identify the “winning competitive elements” – marketing, investments, teaming, resources, solution pricing, and past performance.

Individuals attending this session will leave with an action framework to adapt a similar approach within their companies. Following this template and conducting their own Black Hat Competitive Workshops will enable sales professionals to effectively position their company against their competition and substantially increase their win probability.

“Today many companies look the same, no matter what industry they are in, said Mr. Boyle.  “In a world of companies with similar functions you must find where you have discriminating factors.  This uniqueness -- whether it be a discriminator for your company as a whole, or a discriminator against the companies you are competing against – is why your customers buy from you,” he continued. “They want what others don’t have and a means for making their lives (or their customers) lives more efficient and effective.  That is why it is extremely important to have a Competitive Intelligence function within your organization.  Black Hat refers to a best practices methodology that lines up your company against who you are competing against.  You’re the good guy against the bad guys’ scenario.  It is very effective methodology, and if started early enough in the Sales Cycle, increases your win probability tenfold.”  

In addition to sharing his experiences with others, Mr. Boyle has gained personal value from participating in SCIP conferences. “As a Veteran in Corporate Competitive Intelligence, I am very thankful for SCIP.  SCIP provides the ideal venue for me to meet with my colleagues, to share ideas, and create the future road map for success for Competitive Intelligence Professionals and the companies we work for.”    

The 2013 SCIP International Conference and Exhibition will be held on May 6 through 9 at the Caribe Royal in Orlando, Florida. SCIP 2013 has a powerful and dynamic agenda with over 55 executive insight and interactive presentations from leading competitive intelligence professionals and competitive strategy executives. All this, combined with endless opportunities to network, make new contacts, share experiences, understand best practices and lessons learned, makes SCIP 2013 the premier conference for sharpening your competitive edge. It is truly “Where the world’s intelligence leaders meet.” For further information please go to the scip.org website.

About Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)

With members in over 70 countries, SCIP is the only global non-profit membership organization for everyone involved in creating and managing strategic and competitive intelligence. Education and training have been a critical component of SCIP’s member services since the group’s founding in 1986, and SCIP provides its global membership access to the world’s most admired certification program. SCIP provides networking opportunities at its annual conferences in the US, Europe, Brazil and Singapore, and through chapter meetings and webinars. The Society supports everyone involved in creating and managing strategic and competitive intelligence.