Flash in the Pan?

Is the advisory research world changing? For years the market has been dominated by a small number of large players who have maintained their customer base through breadth and scale (e.g. Gartner, Forrester, IDC). Back in August a little ripple occurred when Jeremiah Owyang and R “Ray” Wang both left Forrester to join Altimeter Group, a mere stripling of a company. But that was not a one-off, more it is just one of a long line of small boutiques which have started and which are thriving (e.g. Aite, EnderleGroup, TABB Group, MWD Advisors, Canalys, IT Market Strategy to name but a few). How do these firms survive and thrive when the sharks are forever circling? The answer is intimacy with the needs of their clients. That is fully understanding their market, what the buyer wants, and how the buyer wants it delivered. They do this electronically through tools such as blogs and Twitter, and they do it by talking to their clients and keeping their sales and products/services very closely aligned. So does Web 2.0 mean the end to the behemoths? Or is this a clarion call to all larger firms alerting them to the need to apply techniques now that can give them the same level of client intimacy.. else slowly die (or be acquired – which is often the same end)

2010. Happy Days are Here Again?

As you start to plan budgets for 2010 what are you planning in terms of sales growth? Most companies we are speaking with believe that the recession is now finally over and that 2010 will provide a return to growth. Sales dipped in 2009 but targets for 2010 are a return to growth. But what growth is there really going to be in 2010?

The latest IMF report on the World Economic Outlook predicts 3% growth globally in 2010. But wait a moment. When you look at how they split that number up you find that they predict the advanced economies in total (e.g. USA, Western Europe) will grow by only 1.25% and the Euro area will grow by only 0.3%. Even the most optimistic forecasts predict a much weaker recovery than prior recessions since the 1950s. Add to that the impact that government spending is having on those growth numbers. Is that money that you have access to? Government spend will drive most growth still in the first half of 2010 as companies sit on the fence (and their expense dollars) waiting to see what will happen next. It’s not until the second half of 2010 that corporate growth is likely to return and then at what rate? Certainly not the rate of most people’s sales plans! If you want growth in 2010 you had better not plan for it to come from the rising tide.

If you want sales growth in 2010 you need to figure out how you are going to steal it from your competitors (before they steal it from you). Knowing what your prospects and clients want right now, what they value from you and how they contrast you to your competitors, what your competitors are doing to try and steal from you – these are all vital pieces of information for the company that wants to succeed in 2010. Do you have this kind of win/loss analysis in your budget for 2010? Or are you just hoping, like Forrest Gump, for the great storm to come and wipe your competition out for you.

Digging for Gold

I was thinking this morning of the often used term “gold dust” when referring to great sales opportunities. How similar really are panning for gold and panning for prospects?

http://www.goldgold.com/stories/basicsof1.htm sets out the basics of gold prospecting (good luck!) and I suspect that there ARE many similarities. In the article Dave McCracken, for example, shares his experience of initially panning in the same spot for 30 days despite finding virtually no gold. Instead he realizes the need to scientifically identify where the gold is how and how to access it.

How do you find the seams of gold in sales then? One solution is win/loss analysis. Establishing what represents a good geology for gold and what does not. Survey after survey however shows that sales organizations rarely use win/loss and instead just keep panning in the same spot? Why? I suspect the answer lies in a comment a sales director I spoke with recently shared. That is bad geology – or put another way the surveys didn’t help them to find gold. Of course, if the process doesn’t work why use it? On the other hand is this experience a matter of value in the process (the survey) or an issue of execution (the surveyor)?

Where win/loss is done most frequently it is done using the time (valued at zero) of internal staff or failing that using a generic agency who undertake this kind of analysis with standard surveys. The result – information that adds no value and uncovers no gold. If you want to find gold you need someone who knows how to uncover it. Internal surveys are doomed to fail from the very outset. The surveyor is biased and the person being contacted will also be biased (positively if they have recently committed to being a client, or negatively through fear of being further sold to if they chose not to buy). Independence in surveying is vital. But that simply is not enough. If you are not a specialist in finding gold you will not find it. In this case that means the surveyor can’t simply ask a rote series of questions and expect to find gold. Success requires the surveyor to understand all the issues around uncovering gold – in this case the sales cycle, buyer cycle, market and type of product/service being sold. Its digging beneath the questions to find out the real lie of the land which uncovers nuggets.

Why don’t vendors “walk the walk”?

Having recently returned from Print 09, in Chicago, and having sat through a number of vendor presentations on sustainability and “going green,” I was struck with the image of an entire floor, at the McCormick Place Convention Center, of big iron printers consuming a small forest, to demonstrate their equipment, over the 6 days of the show. So, why aren’t vendors walking the walk?

Customers and prospects are smart. More and more, they know truth from fiction; and, more and more they can discern authentic from inauthentic. Surely smart vendors will opt for truth and authentic because the people who buy can tell the difference. Won’t they?

Why do presentations so rarely reflect their presenter’s brand??

Having attended hundreds of presentations delivered by executives, sales and marketing people, and analysts, we continue to wonder why more presentations don’t reflect the quality of the brand they represent. We recently delivered a series of workshops for a high quality B2B client. While the brand promised exclusivity, sophistication, high quality, and impeccable client service, the presentations delivered poorly conceived stories, sloppy and occasionally illegible visuals and mediocre delivery.

In today’s economic climate, when every client interaction can make or break a business relationship or a deal, why do companies continue to allow representatives to so poorly represent their brand?