TCG Advisors “viewsletter” Under the Buzz has provided some tremendous food for thought over the past six or seven years. TCG is Geoffrey Moore’s (Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, Dealing with Darwin) strategy consulting firm. The most recent addition, in April, discussed the opportunity and challenges for marketing organizations in technology firms during a recession.
The important thing for tech companies to learn this time around is that they need to go beyond the travel freezes and budget cuts, and the often unconvincing attempts to make their marketing programs and sales approach more “customer-focused”. In fact, there is no better opportunity than a downturn for CEOs and executives, marketing and sales staffs, to conduct an extensive refresh regarding their understanding of what’s really going on in their customers’ businesses and organizations, and - more importantly - their approach to helping customers to solve their most daunting problems.
Philip Lay, the author, concludes the letter with his list of What’s Out and What’s In with respect to appropriate marketing approaches for management teams to adopt:
OUT:
- Broad penetration into enterprise and “SMB” markets
- Prospects get more executive attention and company resources than customers
- Focus on general “pain points” and solution bundles (oxymoron)
- Transactions matter most
- Positioning about “us”
- Broadcast messaging and events
IN:
- Deep penetration into selected sub-segments of large, medium, and/or small enterprises
- Customers get more executive attention and company resources than prospects
- Focus on specific broken processes and actual solutions to them
- Relationships matter most
- Positioning about (how we help) “you”
- Narrowcast messaging and events
Focus, focus, focus and customer relationship management are difficult philosophies to dispute in any economic environment.
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