Some years ago, I was responsible for leading sales/marketing for IBM’s manufacturing sector. Those were the years when we were introducing software solutions, not just selling naked hardware. We had invested in developing relationships with key suppliers of engineering design tools, ERP, process control systems, and others.
We went to market with a solutions focus, helping manufacturers solve their toughest design and production problems.
As we were engaging our customers, a problematic question arose, “IBM is a big design and manufacturing company, what tools are you using to drive design and manufacturing performance?”
“Oh Shit!!” That was a question, we hadn’t anticipated. Some of the sites were using a few of the tools, but most of them were using either homegrown systems, and a couple were using tools provided by competitors…
When customers started learning this, the reaction was, “If what you are trying to sell us isn’t good enough for your own company, why should we buy?” It was an objection we all struggled to deal with.
I called IBM’s VP of Manufacturing at the time, saying, “Ron, we’re in trouble here, can you lead an effort with the sites to reassess what they are doing….”
We discovered some interesting things. Some of the sites had developed quite interesting tool, systems customers asked if they could buy. Some had invested lots of money in developing/maintaining their own system, but would have welcomed the solutions we were selling. There were a few systems that were so specialized there was no market need.
We adopted a principle, “Sell what you use, Use what you sell!” Of course there were a few exceptions, which we could explain. But over time, things converged. We launched a number of products developed at our own sites, they created great value for others. And the sites saw value in some of the products we were selling, started standardizing on many of them. In a relatively short period of time, IBM became our best customer–as well as a supplier of tools. It became a great lab for us to get really close to customers, understanding their experiences.
It was a very powerful principle that enabled us to understand manufacturing customers, get our internal people sharing experience with our prospects and customers, and presenting a powerful presence in the market.
Fast forward to today. I see many vendors of sales/marketing/customer experience automation, tools, and services that are, clearly, not using their own tools in their engagement strategies. Yes, they have them “installed,” but, clearly, they aren’t using them.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve sat in webinars conducted by many of these companies. I felt I needed to update myself with some of the capabilities of their tools. I wanted to know what “state of the art” is, and to know solutions that we could recommend to our clients.
A couple of them, sales enablement platforms, presented very compelling capabilities and fascinating customer use cases. Something each of them emphasized was the ability to hyper-personalize, at scale, every outreach. You can guess the follow up emails I got, “Dear occupant or current resident…..”
In fairness, they did address them to “Dave,” but nothing in the text had anything to do with our business and our likely interested. Both saw the potential of making us customers (we will always be a very small customer with a maximum potential of 15 seats), giving us the standard “we’d like to talk about the benefits of our tools to your business.” They missed the real opportunity, which their tools should have indicated, “we’d love to talk about how you might leverage our tools to help your clients improve their performance….” And based on their presentation of the capabilities of their tools, that should have been the recommendation!
Another big sales/marketing technology company, did their usual outreach. I attended a webcast where they spoke about the state of selling. Their follow up was, “what is your interest in using our products.” If they had used their tools, they would recognize we have been a customer for 10 years. A more appropriate outreach might have been related to the webcast, “What were your reactions, can we get you more information……”
The services suppliers are the same. Outbound marketing, lead gen, training, you name it. So few seem to be practicing what they preach/sell.
As I look at these suppliers, I look at how they use their technologies in their outreach to my company. When I provide recommendations to my clients, I tell them, “Watch how they leverage their technology in the way they engage you and your teams. If they aren’t using what the sell, then you should question them, ‘If it’s not good enough for you to use, then why should I buy?'”
Sadly, some of the worst demonstrations of sales/marketing engagement and practice are the vendors of those tools and services. It should cause all of us to pause and reflect. I’ve written about these topics for years. I know people in these organizations read my posts. Yet nothing changes……….
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