The Danger of Trusting Your Sales Rep Too Much...

When making a technology decision, your vendor sales rep can be a mixed relationship. On one hand, you rely on them to provide you with detailed information on pricing, service options and technical expertise. And on the other hand, let's face it, they've got quotas and commissions to worry about. So while it's important to have a good relationship with your sales rep, you really have to be careful to make any decisions as objectively as possible, outside of the framework of that relationship.

Looking back to my days as a network manager, I had a relationship with a Lucent rep that was pretty comfortable. We had purchased some remote access boxes that had performed well and Lucent was a high-flyer in the networking side of the world in the late 90's. My company needed to expand their network capacity and bandwidth so I led an initiative to put in a new core switch. Research and familiarity brought me to the Lucent Cajun P550 switch, a workhorse that had performed well in head to head comparisons with competitors. Our rep brought in a sample switch that we tested on in the IT lab. My sales rep assured me it was a simple and basic operation to drop in a new switch. Everything looked good during testing and yes, I trusted my Lucent rep! So we schedule a long weekend outage and ask 350 workers not to plan on being in the office over the weekend (oh the horrors!). And yes, I promised the entire office improved file transfer and application performance once the work was complete.

On Friday night, I'm breaking down the networking rack and cabling of our old switch. Re-labeling mystery cables, pulling out power cables and FINALLY installing the Lucent switch. It's tedious, physical labor but important since no switch means no desktop connectivity. Late Saturday, cables are plugged back in and the switch is turned on, voila! It's time to do some desktop testing and hopefully call it a night. Or so I hoped. Out on the floor I turn on some PC's and do some file transfers. Gosh, boot-up times seem to be sluggish and the file transfers shows that we're now running slower than the old switch. Checking several additional desktops show the same problem, uh-oh. I go home late Saturday scratching my head and hoping that what I saw was just late-night fatigue.

The next morning there's still the same problem: slow network performance. Reviewing the documentations for the switches, I'm trying all sorts of configuration settings in vain to improve the performance. I try upgrading the firmware on the PC's to see if that helps, no go. By late Sunday afternoon, I'm re-installing the old network hubs in an attempt to jury-rig a hybrid network of new and old devices in an attempt to just get performance to where I had started. Two and a half long days of work over the weekend, just to end up, maybe where you started. On Sunday night, a notice was sent out that the work was complete but yes, you might not notice an increase in performance. In ten years of working as an IT administrator, I had rarely needed to eat crow and I can tell you for sure, it didn't taste good on Monday morning.

What's the lesson here? That even after doing my due diligence and research, even after having a good and trusted relationship with my sales rep, I had made a professional misstep that cost me the entire weekend and set my technology environment back $75K. Now I don't know if my Lucent rep really knew how good or bad the Cajun P550 switch really was and if it was problematic but I do know she wasn't there suffering with me over that long weekend. Definitely a hard lesson to learn.

Vendor reps are there to support you the best way they can, within their product lines. They have a vested interest in solving your problems but only within their solution offerings. Knowing what I know now and how the world has changed, the use of online forums, social media and the internet may have revealed this potential issue earlier as a technology buyer. And I would never make the mistake of trusting my sales rep and the relationship, more than I should. An empowered buyer can be a challenge from the Marketing and Sales side of the world but in the end, if you've got the right solution, content and messaging, it can only strengthen your business relationship. Your prospect not only becomes your customer, but also your ally and supporter over the long-run.

If You Want the Truth, Trust the Techie!

Over the years I spent in IT administration and as an IT manager, you often learn the hard way about technology implementations. Products over-promise and sales people often under-deliver. And if you really want to know how good a product is, talk to an engineer or support person who knows the product intimately! Sometimes I was the tech person and I would be cornered by one of the business folks to get to the truth of the matter. Techies don't think in shades of gray, it's pretty black and white and binary for us. Truth is our mantra and we're not very good liars, white or otherwise.

Now that I've moved into the marketing side of the world, I'll admit that my speech has become quite flowery and yes, I certainly do see shades of gray now. But not always in a bad way! And there are definitely some lessons I learned on the tech side that have been applicable to my marketing activities and philosophy. Going back many years ago, I was working as a Senior IT Analyst for a large specialty retailer out in San Francisco. We had a monitoring tool deployed called Sitescope that was extremely reliable, flexible and accurate. In comes a team of consultants from Deloitte on a technology project and they unfortunately, recommend deploying an enterprise management system (EMS), a la HP, IBM, CA or BMC software. Budget is limited (about 100K), we have our check-box list and end up with two primary EMS candidates. Time to bring in the main players for some testing!

Company 1 comes in for their one week onsite trial to set up a test-bed. They bring in a slew of consultants, all dressed sharply in blue suits. I get introduced to each one over the course of the week, even though I really have no understanding of their importance and role with regards to the onsite trial. Over time, the sales rep lets me know that he has a VERY comfortable relationship with our VP of IT (golf buddies) and promises to take care of everything for a quarter million. Of course, even with all these suits and brainpower, there's nothing to show for at the end of the one week implementation. No integration between tools, no data being collected, agents crashing on machines, the single pane of glass isn't showing much, not a very good show.

Company 2 sends one youngish Solutions Architect. He installs the product and has it running and collecting data in two hours. We spend the next day and a half going over my questions and concerns. Integration with our existing tools, deploying agents to our AIX platforms and Oracle DB's. Review of tech resources and maintenance questions. We reviewed pricing and came up with a solution for a bare-bones deployment with a small consulting package attached. And after 48 hours Sergey is done and traveling to his next client. Can you guess which product I went with?

Understand that I personally wanted to extend our existing monitoring platform but was over-ridden based upon the consultant's recommendations. I had concerns over both tested EMS systems and the political ramifications over deploying an enterprise tool in our environment. But in the end I was in the mode of risk mitigation with my EMS project. I HAD to make a decision, even if the project would be swimming upstream (limited budget, political concerns). So I sat down with my VP and carefully showed him our existing monitoring platform and carefully laid out the results of the two trials. I made it very clear that Company 1 had failed to show any significant progress or met their promises and that a technology implementation with them would be very high-risk. He accepted my recommendation and we did the purchase and deployment with Company 2.

So what's the takeaway? That technology buyers and decision-makers come at all different levels and are often, driven by risk management. While Company 1 thought they had a done deal given their relationship with the VP, there was NO way I was putting my job on the line by choosing a platform that was driven by political relationships, sales-speak and smoke and mirrors. My relationship with sales reps were driven by my primary need to get access to pricing information and technical resources where the truth could be uncovered. And while the sales reps may drive the deal for the final 20% of the purchase process, the other 80% of the real legwork was done online through individual research and with their tech resources.

Enterprise IT buyers and decision-makers are bright people and more than capable of seeing through traditional marketing efforts, CTA's and the transactional nature of sales relationships. They're busy people and can sometimes barely keep their heads above water, fighting fires and keeping their businesses running. Their technology purchases must bring some level of reassurance to their world and that reassurance can be delivered through your tech resources, online information and forums. Developing that trust and re-assurance with your decision-makers through easily accessible, unbiased information is key to influencing them and the process properly. And there's no better to way to deliver that information then through the mouths of one techie to another to keep things real. Plus just maybe a LITTLE bit of marketing...

Google+, A Social Media Contender and More

While Facebook may be the 800+ pound gorilla in the social networking and media arena, it would never be wise to count out Google! Recently Google rolled out their latest social networking effort, Google+ and after dabbling with it a bit, I am impressed. It's an incomplete effort but one that does a nice job integrating several Google services and doing so with a clean, uncluttered interface. On top of Google+ is an aggregator bar that gives you access to your Gmail, Calendar, Documents and more. The rest of the interface looks remarkably similar to Facebook with chat/messaging on the left and your network updates stream down the center. One key difference for Google+ is the ability to create "circles" of people allow you to control sharing and viewing of information. Similar to twitter lists, circles give you the ability to segment your updates based upon the intimacy and type of social relationship you have with people.

Status updates are identical to Facebook with text, pictures, videos, weblinks and location (comparable to Facebook places). "+1's" are available as an alternative to Facebook likes, allowing you to interact and recommend items. While Gchat messaging plays a central role in Google+, they've also added hangouts which allow for group webcam sessions. Your webcam sessions now become part of a stream that your circles can take part in, pretty cool! Sparks are also available, topical and special interest feeds of articles culled from the web and blogs.

One additional feature I really like is Google+'s Data Liberation option which allows you to download copies of the status update streams, Picasa photos and contacts in your circle. With Facebook, all your information is mostly locked up in the cloud. Google+ has a mobile app only available on Android (as expected) but I imagine they may some day port an app for iPhone. Some glaring gaps include a lack of events and business pages in Google+ And while there is pretty tight integration with Gchat, there is little to none with Gmail which is a bit surprising.

Perhaps if Google had delivered this effort a couple of years back, it could have made significant inroads on Facebook. But given the weight of Facebook's massive network and user base, even the best service is going to have a difficult time making headway. For those who already spend significant time on Facebook, do you really have additional cycles to explore on Google+? But a definite +1 for Google+, competition is always a good thing whether you're talking about social networking, marketing or business in general...

B2B or B2C, the Line is Getting Fuzzy

Over the past decade or so, lines have become blurry in the US as to when work ends and your personal life begins. If you've ever carried a pager or responded to a late night text or email, you know what I mean. Work encroaches on your personal life if you're a committed professional. And the same goes for the other way. With all the time spent at work, sometimes you have to cover personal items at the workplace. Sometimes technology sneaks into the office from the home whether you're talking about Linux hobbyists or iPhone fanatics. In all honesty, the line between work and play has become increasingly blurred.

So of course there should be no surprise that marketing techniques and tactics are starting to overlap in the B2B and B2C provinces. While the purchase cycle may be longer and the dollar amounts larger, marketing an enterprise or corporate solution is increasingly reliant on vehicles and mediums that have been more B2C specific. Social media, twitter, online forums and communities, hitting the event and trade show circuits never seemed more anachronistic or inefficient. Giving up control of your brand and relying more on inbound marketing is shifting marketing efforts all over.

And the reason is simple, the same person making B2B purchase decisions is the same person making B2C purchases. While the purchasing cycle and stakeholders in corporate environments are more complex, the tools and rationale for choosing one product or service over another is no different. Does the product do what I need it to do? Is the product competitively priced in the marketplace? Is there any risk in purchasing and deploying this product? And ideally, will this product improve my day to day business and take it to the next level?

Whether you're purchasing a 46" LED TV or a $50K core routing switch, the need for unbiased and unvarnished information is critical to making the most effective decision. The digital tools to present and find this 3rd party information is now readily available out there on blogs, forums and the web. And for those organizations that don't respond to this shift in the market? Well before you know it the information and opinions will be out there about your product and services. Perhaps too late for you to influence the course the online conversation will take.

It's a brave new world, learn it, embrace it and live with it...

A New Day, A New Dawn for Marketing

Over the past 10 years with the advent of the Internet and Web 2.0, there has been a profound change in how business and marketing are done and how they succeed. The interconnected nature of our new world has meant a wave of change sweeping around the globe. Tried and true practices are no longer guaranteed to be effective and the new rules of the game mean adjustments across the board.

Distrust of mass media and broadband marketing has meant a shift away from TV and to customized, on-demand media streams over the internet. Near instantaneous tweets, images and videos delivered from smartphones in the hands of the average individual. Micro-segmentation, crowd-sourcing and self-publishing online now become the norm. Google's search engine makes ALL this content available to you at a click of your mouse but what information do you believe? Who do you trust? Leading to social networks, social media and trusted relationships, 1st degree relationships.

Because while the tools and technology have changed the game, the human connection of whom we believe and trust hasn't changed at all. Marketing must have a voice that rings clear and true or else it will fall on deaf ears. So the need to reality check your marketing and message has never been more important. Because your audience is more savvy and demanding than ever before, and you need to be too, Marketer... Whether you're B2B, B2C, working direct or through channels, the ability to touch and influence your audience through all this electronic chaff has never been more important.