The Trend Micro story

The challenge

Trend Micro develops, delivers and supports the most flexible and customisable internet security solutions to address the ever-changing threats from emails and on the Web. The company provides innovative security solutions for small, medium and large enterprises, governmental organisations and home users.

Trend Micro has a revolutionary approach to security: its products use “the cloud” to reinforce the protection provided by client-hosted security software. To exploit this technological advantage, the company needed to raise the level of its selling so that C-level executives who see the financial impacts of poor security could understand the benefits offered by this unique approach. As Chris Hayward, Head of EMEA Product Marketing, put it: “We need our salespeople to sell at the business level, where the important decisions are made.”

Action

Chris saw that the Strategic Sales Program met his need to raise selling to the business level. The first product addressed was Deep Security, a solution acquired when Trend Micro bought Canadian security vendor Third Brigade. Trend Micro faced the classic acquisition challenges of positioning the new solution within an existing portfolio and capturing sales best practice from the acquired company, so that it could be rolled out across the Trend Micro salesforce.

“Deep Security is a very technical solution that delivers strategic value to our customers,” said Laura Maio, Global Product Marketing Manager. “After the acquisition, as we brought this product to the larger sales team, we needed to help our salespeople grasp and internalise the business value Deep Security brings to their
customers. The EMEA team’s decision to implement the Strategic Sales Program was instrumental in educating them and facilitating their success.”

Results

Following the success of the Deep Security Strategic Sales Program, Trend Micro applied the same approach across its entire Enterprise portfolio. For each strategic solution, Solutions for Sales led Trend Micro staff through a process to develop the right sales strategies, tactics, messages and proof points. This information was then delivered to salespeople through Sales Guides for direct sellers, Partner Sales Guides for channel partners, and web-based tutorials. Versions in French, German, Spanish and Italian ensured that salespeople and channel partners across Europe gained the benefit.

Speaking of the Solutions for Sales process, Chris Hayward commented: “People got a lot out of the workshop. It took the differing viewpoints and knowledge of the participants and produced a result that was greater than the sum of the parts.” Of the resulting Sales Guides, Chris added: “If our salespeople talk about technology they get sent to meet the technicians. These Sales Guides equip them to sustain a conversation at the business level, so now they can influence the business decision makers.” The result is that Trend Micro is selling more and extracting the full benefit from its investments in acquisitions and innovative developments.