Question 1

What is a high-added value offering?

Accepted Answer

High-added value offerings are usually unique business solutions which bring valuable improvements into client's businesses that have concrete financial impact. Often they are based on new technologies which significantly improve the way buyers do their business.
 
Because they're linked to new concepts, are unknown to buyers, they are difficult to sell, have long sales cycles, but have high margins and can only be sold by a personal relationship including consultancy & local representation.
 
High-added value offerings are the right solutions for the PGN platform as there is room for a reward for competent advisors.

Question 2

Why do you call them offerings?

Accepted Answer

We use the term offering as a common term for product, service or solution. An offering is often also a combination of a product, services and consulting.

Question 3

PGN is a membership relationship. What does that mean?

Accepted Answer

This is somehow a buzzword, but when it comes to a level where the membership starts, you can feel the tangible elements. Producers and PGN (Members and the HQ) have the same mission - converting innovation to business value for the clients.

Question 4

Where can I find the rewarding system for members?

Accepted Answer

The rewarding system is explained at the first introductory web meeting where we learn more about the potential member and see how PGN could be of value for them.

Question 5

How can I become a member?

Accepted Answer

The member onboarding process is explained on the first introductory web meeting where we learn more about the potential member and see how PGN could be of value for them.

Question 6

Is the Member rewarding system fixed?

Accepted Answer

In a B2B segment with all the diversities of offerings, it is impossible to have fixed percentages. What you will see in the rewarding system table is an average or typical split depending on the margin. In general, the total PGN margin is 18% - 25%.
 
The value of the PGN is in its flexibility. Therefore, we consider every project individually.

Question 7

Isn’t 20% - 30% margin a high margin?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and this illustrates who PGN Clients and what their offerings are and why PGN is focused on them and the need for consultative selling.
 
10% margin is applicable for normal selling, but 20% - 50% is applicable for difficult, complex B2B selling.
 
Consultative selling cannot be done on remote markets by agents, because it's simply not possible to sell such offerings as products.
 
The trade products are commodities which are more or less self-explanatory.

Question 8

You are mentioning PGN methodology. Why is it useful?

Accepted Answer

PGN has a methodology that allows us to extract small advantages from PGN Clients and translate them to what type of their buyers should be addressed with what kind of messages.
Let me give you an example. If you go to a Client saying PGN is very flexible - this does not mean anything to him. This is only a feature of the network. But in order to translate the feature into something that is relevant to him, you have to study their business.
Our methodology allows us to translate those features and pack them into a sales system for the Sellers on remote markets to use. The Sellers are trained based on specific sales manual and know what to do and how to do it. It is based on the Solution Selling™.
As the methodology is very structured, we can extract those advantages for each Client in the terms of workshops (and this is what the Enablers are trained for).

Question 9

Why should I go with PGN? I am more comfortable doing projects alone.

Accepted Answer

When you get a Client you should feel more comfortable bringing them to the PGN:
 
- There are trained, trusted professionals who will sell for your Clients in remote markets;
- You earn passive income - income coming in without much work - the royalty.
Bottom line - more Clients you bring into PGN, the less you work and more passive income you get.

Question 10

Does PGN search for sales opportunities or generate leads for Clients?

Accepted Answer

Even more - usually, we take over the whole sales process, including closing - also engaging clients' experts when agreed. We are experts in solution selling so we can rely on our organisation to deliver results.

Question 11

How much are Clients investing?

Accepted Answer

We target only those Clients who know that sales agents just cannot succeed in selling their offering. Clients need to see that PGN is a good alternative to building their own sales network, employing people, managing them, etc. People who are experienced know how difficult internationalisation is.
 
To show seriousness Clients deposit from 5,000 to 10,000 EUR. They co-invest in the initial sales system setup worth, in total, at least 30.000 EUR.
 
If it were free, it would fail on a long run.

Question 12

I see that on one side there is a Recruiter and Enabler role, and on the other side Advisor and Implementer. Can I play both roles at the same time?"

Accepted Answer

Yes, both are possible.
Let us repeat:
 
- Recruiters and Enablers find Clients, enable their offering so that it is ready to be sold within PGN;
- Advisors and Implementers find Buyers in local markets and implement their solutions.
While you are advising in your local market, the same company might ask you if you can help them to go abroad, too. This is where you bring them to PGN and earn additional revenue.
You execute some projects that come from PGN to you as an Advisor, so that you also understand how your projects are taken care of when you bring them to PGN as an Enabler. Some people identify themselves as both, Enablers and Advisors. Executing both roles is not monotonous and it is more rewarding in the sense that you did something good for Clients.

Question 13

You have 4 main Member roles explained, but there are more, actually 6. Why so many?"

Accepted Answer

Some people feel comfortable on both sides, but the majority don't. One person can completely handle a limited number of things.
We separate the roles in order to be effective. Otherwise, it is difficult to scale. Other member roles are:
- Leader, who manages PGN projects
- Caller, who generates or identifies potential opportunities (leads).
 
All these roles are rewarded within the PGN.

Question 14

How big is the network?

Accepted Answer

We have more than 300 members and, in principle, we cover all continents. Of course, with every project, new Advisors are being added.
You can check the list of PGN members

Question 15

How much time would I need to spend as a Recruiter/Enabler?

Accepted Answer

We estimate approximately 20% of normal work time. We do not expect anyone to dedicate full-time.

Question 16

What is the target for a Recruiter and Enabler for 1 year?

Accepted Answer

The plan is 2 projects per month.
If you reach that target, then you earn the enablement fee of 6,000 EUR per month. But, more importantly, with this tempo, in a year or two, you will have already be receiving a passive income (royalty), estimated to 8,000 EUR per month.

Question 17

What about marketing activities and lead generation?

Accepted Answer

All marketing and lead generation activities will remain under PGN HQ's control so that the leads are distributed properly. The more successful you are, the more leads you should be getting.
 
If you organize an event, for example, (and the event is just a lead generation tool), people are coming from different cities or even countries. You can only manage a certain number of leads and only those leads which are close to you, as selling to Clients still needs to happen. For the rest of the leads from the event, you will get paid from other Members who have taken over those leads.
The market will be developed in parallel by several Recruiters. We have structured a value chain and as soon as you enter an opportunity into the PGN CRM it is assigned to you.
 
That’s how Members are protected.

Question 18

Can I also bring my existing Clients to PGN?

Accepted Answer

Advising to your existing Clients is also selling!
 
You might be getting leads from people who are actively expanding to new markets. Those guys are open to outsourcing sales. Unfortunately, many of them do not know that selling is complex.
 
Let us give you an example of an innovative startup. Some believe that their solution is so great that it will sell by itself and they do not need any sales. And you are so smart seeing how great their solution is that you should represent them for free. :)

Question 19

What about the competition? I have seen many such networks...

Accepted Answer

Yes, there are many similar projects which never really took off because they:
- Don’t have deployment tools;
- Don’t have real value in terms of the incentive scheme, lead generation, talking to members what they need, etc;
- Don't have the knowledge and budget for development, as people will not develop the network by themselves.
Currently, there are just passive portals - not really managed networks with partners incentivized to build it. Even more, they are for commodities, mainly.
You cannot expect to write something complex in a portal and people will trust or even understand the offering.

Question 20

Which way do we find prospects/customers?

Accepted Answer

We use solution selling methods, customised per project/solution to generate interest based on business challenges with carefully selected responsible persons. We use LinkedIn, events and other B2B marketing channels.

Question 21

Do you have a list of target Clients?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the first part of the PGN Producer Acquisition Manual™ contains marketing criteria and messages for generating interest. Messages are prepared for different media e.g. LinkedIn, phone call, email.

Question 22

Does your software support marketing automation?

Accepted Answer

We are constantly developing and right now we are thinking of integrating marketing automation tools to our software.

Question 23

What about some important countries – e.g. China as the promised land?

Accepted Answer

We have some Members already in China, in one or two centres, but when it comes to a concrete project we will immediately recruit new ones. We have a model to stimulate Advisors.

Question 24

Is everything managed from the PGN headquarters?

Accepted Answer

Yes, for the time being. However, as the regions develop, each region will have a special member of the headquarter to handle regional development.

Question 25

Do you have a contract for Members?

Accepted Answer

Yes, we have one Member agreement with different sections per member role, including the NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement).

Members frequently ask...