So, what do we want?
There is of course another side of the coin which is for the sales companies to market the actual benefits of change! It’s all well and good being asked “do you want to buy product x, y or z”, but why is it that the salesmen never ask us what we really want and then show us how we can get it.
• As a Managing Director, do you want life to be easier?
• As an Accountant, do you want life to be more accurate?
• As an Administrator do you want life to be more organised?
• As a Customer Services operator you want life to be happier?
• As a Sales Director you want life to be more profitable?
Yeah!, Yeah, Yeah, we know all of the above is possible through technology but let's face facts, not many businesses have any intention of changing the way they work unless a proven solution can be demonstrated that will prove it will make more money. Saving time, efficiency, enhancing customer satisfaction and slick processes are all part and parcel of the same thing “creating and sustaining profitability”.
The trouble is, there’s one factor not quite accounted for, and that’s the “what if” scenario which plays in the back of our minds:
• What if, enhancing what we've got could actually make life easier!
• What if, some of our existing systems could be upgraded and not completely changed!
• What if, we could generate more income and chart development!
• What if, a different approach was welcomed by our staff and customers!
What if, we ignored technology altogether and let our competition take pole position. To find out who may be a contender, simply reach for your copy of the Yellow Pages, they’re listed in alphabetical order!
Your business has needs and demands like that of a child. You want it to grow into a mature sustainable entity. And with that sustainability, in the same way that an engine needs petrol to keep functioning, so does your business need energy and enthusiasm and innovation. But these traits can only come from nurturing staff. And that takes time. Yet time is a commodity that we seem to have so little off, and that's where technology comes into play.
So many people, when they think about technology they think Bill Gates and all things confusing. The reality is, that business owners haven't got the time to investigate the tools that can make their lives more profitable. So what’s the answer….
Having worked within and monitored the technology industry from a position of both sales and director for over 20 years I have a genuine affinity with the problems both parties have. It is not merely “poacher come gamekeeper”, it is more “absolute empathy”.
As a businessman, I must use technology to coexist and compete in any industry, however, I must understand and use the technology in order to succeed as any other business, thereby, this places me in a unique position to help and advise other companies. You may be thinking, well he would say that, but you'd be wrong. Whilst there is so much technology at the fingertips of the technology vendors it does not always mean that they will use it to run their own businesses. Fortunately for us, we do.
We have all attended a demo of one system or another only to find out that something doesn't work or that the salesman doesn't know the answer. That in itself is not a problem but the number of vendors who don’t use technology to run their own businesses is staggering, which explains why they simply sell a commodity for a profit. Where is the financial driver to get a technology salesperson to understand business process? The trouble is, if they knew enough about running a business, they’d be out there doing it for themselves!
Mismatch of Expectations
You need the technology, yet the salesperson needs the sale, what a dilemma! Will you be sold the right equipment? Will you trust their judgement? The behavioural traits between business and sales companies is based upon a lack of trust between both parties.
The onus is placed on the Managing Director to decide on the best strategy for company. However, the IT Manager focuses on technology and the Sales Director on sales and Customer Services on Customers; rarely do they combine their resources to evaluate the most profitable direction and then source products that would benefit them all accordingly.
Selling to each department may work for a reseller; but it is a poor strategy for the customer.
We live in a 24/7 society; from buying groceries, carrying out our banking and every other consumer orientated activity you can imagine is available at our fingertips. If something goes wrong with our television, washing machine or indeed if we had been charged something on our account, we know that by simply picking up the telephone we can contact the customer services representative pretty much any time of the day of night.
We have all come to expect this consumer status quo, yet we do not have the same mentality when it comes to our own businesses. Take a moment to think if you're IT system failed or if your telephone system failed, naturally you would expect support immediately to rectify the problem. Whether it’s gas or electricity or any other consumable when we want a response we want it now. But how many businesses offer unparalleled customer support and service? How many companies know exactly what their own customers’ expectations really are?
The Have’s and Have not’s
In the simplest terms, businesses fall in to two categories. Those willing to embrace technology and those who are not. The businesses who embrace technology equate to 25% of companies in the UK, the other 75% will only do something when it is absolutely necessary.
Whilst it is easy to identify your competition, via the Yellow Pages, you need to think about what your customers think of you and how loyal they are when it comes to how your efficiency affects their business. If on a personal level we require instant gratification and an instant response to any problem that may occur why therefore would your customers view you and your business any differently.
During the 80s, when a business received a letter, it was acceptable for the response to take at least a week and sometimes more. As fax machines became more widely available the expectation was reduced to a week nowadays the customer's expectations have reduced the time it takes to send and receive an email and then the customer expects a personalised response.
In today's competitive market place our customers expect us to be using the latest technology in order to provide them with the level of service that they expect. Businesses resistant to deploying new technologies will be overtaken by the businesses and forward thinking companies, who have chosen to simply think differently. The organisations that will succeed will be those that embrace technology as the catalyst to change their working practices and not those that are simply deploying technology as a means to do the same work a bit quicker.
Show me the money!
The vendors must stop selling and start learning. Learning about what matters to business, learning about how the business actually makes money and how they can help. All businesses want to know is how to make more money, more quickly, more efficiently and more calmly.
The pace of change in business is accelerating and therefore businesses must deploy technology for competitive advantage, but only user acceptance will define whether a business will use systems successfully or not.
Equally, business owners owe it to themselves to embrace technology and start demanding that the salespeople present their wonderful new systems in terms of what it can do for their companies and not what it can do for the vendors targets. Get them to accurately present the return on investment no matter what the product or its features. The R&D departments designed the equipment or systems to make money so press the salesman to come up with the information. Make their targets depend on it, if they can’t explain the ROI, find another company that can!
|
