In the past 5 years, I moved across 3 countries and 2 continents. It was not a short tourist travel or vacation, but a full immigrant experience with 1+ year experience minimum. I had to adapt to new cultures, new languages, new people, new food, new weather, new everything. One of the pains was to adopt new online services and information sources.
The problems I have faced were not obvious and interesting at the same time. I tried to analyze what was missing and required to make life easier.
Lose Your Sale) How to lose an IT project sale.
My name is Paul Karol and I work as a director in a Russian IT company that mostly sells their products into the American Market. What we will discuss today was so costly for that company that I want to share this knowledge so that it doesn't happen to other Russian IT companies.
Case Study
Today I want to tell you about a sale that almost was. I was Consulting for this one company and they were involved in selling software to the United States. This one particular client was in contact with the sales manager for 2 months.
Now this sales manager was very good at their job and they had a lot of charisma on the phone and in the text messages. However they specifically did not know something that cost them a large contract.
1. In Russia it's respectful not to talk about your personal life because you feel that you're wasting someone's time if you do not know them well.
2. In the United States once you have been talking with somebody for a couple of months you would start to consider them sort of a friend.
The Russian IT sales manager had not been in contact with this client for about a week and this was unusual.
They were worried.
Then the text message came that said this.
"I'm sorry Marina that I have not been in contact with you for some time. I took my family and kids to the Lakeside and we enjoyed some time by the beach."
The Russian IT sales manager did not know how to think about this and they asked this question.
" So, do you want to buy our product?"
UX writing is an essential part of UX design, which plays a huge role in providing qualitative user experience. The job of a UX writer is to compose texts for a digital product, which can be of two types: microcopy (labels, buttons, notifications and other small notes) and macrocopy (larger texts like written content on pages, instructions, information sheets). UX writing helps users easily navigate through the product, perform various tasks and get all the necessary information.
This is one of the most important articles I’ve written.
In this article, I’m going to dive deep into one of the largest differences between Russia and America pertaining to sales and marketing.
1. You must use your name.
2. You must have a personal approach.
3. You must show that you are involved.
4. You must show that you care about the needs and desires of the client.
Recently, I was faced with an interesting problem. I was asked to call clients without making it personal.
So let’s go back to when I was in America, living and working as a sales person. The company I work for, was very large, and had multiple branches around the Washington DC area. They had offices in three states.
They put me through a sales training course.
The biggest “take away” from the course…..
You’re not selling the product/
you’re selling yourself.
It's important to use your charisma and your genuine caring for the customer to win them over. Once they understand that you're actually trying to help them, then they will seriously consider the item you are telling them about.
I also want to say, very clearly, that it's not a prideful approach. It should be a professional approach. You're responsible to tell the customer/ the client all the benefits of the item and how this item will help their business.
Everything above pertains to sales in America. So if you are approaching America as a sales manager this is how you should craft your approach.
Now I've spoken to my colleague,
Kristina Pashnina and we have agreed upon some stark differences to the Russian sales climate. Here she will begin to tell you how the Russians see sales.
My last article stirred up some definite comments and even questions about different things in business. I’m going to keep giving you as much information as I can so that you can continue to do business as IT professionals outside of Russia with other countries.
How do you design a website that will be viewed in the west and appreciated by the people there?
What are the most important elements
for, America and other western markets?
Information shared below is exactly how I work with my IT professionals who are going to be participating in pre-sales to America. I tell them exactly this, and it helps prepare them to successfully sell the the United States companies.
As developers and IT companies, we must sell our software.
What can give you an edge in this very competitive market place?
Please, if you would allow me to let me explain why this is important and how this can make your company more successful. There’s a certain type of thinking that is conducive to working as a software developer. This is a very practical mindset, but it goes beyond that. If you have the mindset of direct thinking.
Here are examples:
I see the target a target and I don’t see obstacles
Вижу цель, не вижу препятствий
This is an example of the practical mindset, how is approaches the problem of development. It makes people who have this mindset, the best developers in the world.
Example of mindset:
Problem……………… find a solution………… No problem.
Notice how this looks exactly like a line of code?
This is well-known around the world in places where you would like to sell your software, the United States, Germany, Belgium, and the Middle East.
Countries where people have this mindset have the best developers.
now let’s talk about your competition:
Americans: during the center process, “find a solution” Americans are overly concerned about responsibility. This slows them down in the decision making process.
i’m writing this series articles to spearhead the new marketing campaign for into the American market. I will be covering a wide range of topics that will allow us to position the company in the proper way so that is excepted as a provider of High-quality software in America.
The key to converting an American CEO or CFO is the trigger point for the American business culture. The trigger point for America is responsibility. This means in business you must be responsible. You also look for business partners that are responsible.
But let’s take this into the newest more powerful view that we need to have now.
The scene from the point of you of the CFO sitting at the head of the financial controls of a large hospital conglomerate. Put yourself in the mind of the CFO. What are they concerned about?
As an American CFO they will be very concerned about whether they are being responsible in their job and responsible to the hospital, staff, shareholders, patients and the management above them.
And this is how we get our foot in the door in this American niche market. If we present ourselves as offering something that “May” give an answer to specific problems that they know that they have, they must give us a chance to present a Presale. The reason is because they are responsible, and if there is a solution as an American Director you must explore that solution.
It would be irresponsible to not explore a potential solution.
Then it’s a simple case to actually give value in the presale meeting and convince them that we can deliver some thing that will benefit their business and profits.
No matter how many degrees you have or how high your experience level is, your recruiters need to evaluate your knowledge of UX design as a whole. But keep in mind that a job interview is not an exam, so here you are expected not to recite the textbook definitions learned by heart, but rather share your personal understanding of UX and your role as a designer in general. Consider talking about how you define UX, what creates value in the design, what are the necessary parts of a UX design process, what are the current trends in UX. You might also be asked to explain the difference between UI and UX to see how you understand the role of each in the development process.
In our last article we covered the anatomy of a presale meeting gone wrong. In that article we posed some questions for everyone to think about. What exactly does an American company wanting to hire a Russian custom software development company, feel about this Russian company? What are they afraid of? What are their concerns?
In the end we came up with five concerns.
1. Is the company a fly by night company, is the company a one-day company?
2. Will they be professional in supporting or developing the software that they've sold to us?
3. Will they have proper data security?
And now the two new ones that are because of the mess the world is in now...
4. Will they be able to complete the project on time? This includes proper internet access an infrastructure to support IT.
5. Where is your team located? Are you still located in Russia?
Now we're going to look at the last 2, number four and five.
However let's look at number 5 first.
Many IT companies today if they want to work with the United States or even Europe they must not have their developers located inside of Russia. Matter of fact it goes so far that if a developer is located in Russia and they're using a VPN and somehow the VPN is breached the credentials are canceled for that developer to work on the project.
It's for this reason that Russian IT companies are opening offices around the world. Let's look at Armenia as an example.
Wait a minute I have to go back for a second...... We must discuss how countries look to America Canada and Western Europe. I basically give them a score based on questions that are brought up in the mind of the American company or European company.
Brainstorming is a popular working method which is commonly used by UX design teams. It involves a group of designers meeting (whether offline or via video call) and generating as many ideas as possible to find the best solution to a specific problem or come up with creative design ideas. Brainstorming sessions are usually held at the start of a UX project so that designers could use the ideas they think are the best later in the process of product creation. These sessions can vary in duration and form depending on which problems need to be solved, how many people participate and how many ideas need to be generated.
I wonder why IT developer interviews are so strange most of the time. It feels as if the people are looking for computer science teachers, not engineers. All those theoretical questions that have no relation to the working reality. It is strange to be looking for eloquent teachers, who can perfectly explain any term or pattern, and then ask them to do the actual work. Maybe it is the imprint from the years spent in university when the teachers looked like all-knowing gods and seemed to solve any issue in your life. May be, may not. Anyway, these teachers stay in unis and don't do the work.
You know, what would be my universal answer to all interview questions? “I have no idea how and why it works, but I can use it, and I can use it for good”. This is the reality. Actually, no one knows exactly these hows and whys. What is a computer? What is electricity? What is an electron? No one knows for sure. But it works and we use it.
Imagine a famous author, like Stephen King, asked a question about the difference between deus ex machina and Mary Sue. Would his answer change the quality of his books? He may or he may not know all those scientific literature terms, but he can use the language and use it for good.
Every time I turn on my computer it is a wonder. I have no idea what is going on, but it awakes, it becomes alive, and I can communicate with it in its own sublime and subtle language.
Have you ever realised that all these electronic devices are monsters, Frankenstein's monsters? Some pieces of dead matter were put together, and then, with some electricity involved, it suddenly awoke. “It's alive!”. Had Frankenstein any idea why it turned alive? Of course not, or why he was so surprised? Every developer experiences this feeling almost every day. “It's working!”
A couple of years ago the PVS-Studio analyzer got its first diagnostic rules to check program code compliance with the MISRA C and MISRA C++ standards. We collected feedback and saw that our clients were interested in using the analyzer to check their projects for MISRA compliance. So, we decided to further develop the analyzer in this direction. The article covers the MISRA C/C++ standard and the MISRA Compliance report. It also shows what we already managed to do and what we plan to achieve by the end of the year.
We are increasingly aware of the importance of our personal data. Primarily due to numerous data leaks and the fact of numerous sales of personal information on the black market. Yes, huge corporations like Apple or Samsung prioritize the preservation of sensitive user data. However, they find it difficult to store and use them at the same time. That is why blockchain technology is the perfect tool for solving the online privacy problem.
There are constant news in the media about the problem of personal privacy, which is represented by constant data leaks and the general technological illiteracy of the world population. In the Pew study, nearly 80% of respondents said they are very concerned about how companies are using the data they collect. In MState's study, 24% of respondents stopped using certain apps due to privacy concerns.
Today, an increasing number of people are actively protecting their data by refusing the services of companies and applications that use personal data. This is why Apple, Lyft, Dropbox, and Adobe have started taking a consumer-centric approach to data privacy. Consumers' understanding that their personal data is a commodity is increasing.
Free TON is a prime example of a secure blockchain. This blockchain has some of the best features compared to Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Stellar. Data security directly depends on the use of blockchain. Each of the above blockchains provides a different level of data protection. Ethereum is the most popular blockchain, but Free TON may soon overtake it. This blockchain is just over a year old, and its capabilities exceed those of all other blockchains.
Many of us spend time in specialized telegram groups. The power over communication here belongs to random people with their own shortcomings. Conflict and abuse occurs regularly. Is there another way to keep order so that scam spam doesn't flourish and no one has total control over group members?
In my case, these thoughts led to the development and testing of a system that can be connected to your Telegram today.
