Customer or prey. Hunting or Farming in Sales
The below observations are based on the personal experience of building partnerships and alliances for business growth in 2020 and 2021…..
These days the interconnected nature of the business ecosystem can be imagined as brain neurons intensely interacting between each other. Recent months made us more distant physically, but much closer in terms of reach out via tech.
Behavioral aspects, communication of business development and what they used to call “sales” in the previous century has direct qualitative and quantitative impact on how we address stakeholders in the value chain. How we interact as people representing our organisations and their state of health. Whether partners, B2B, B2C clients, members of alliance – we are all customers and partners to each other.
Channel Sales
Product or software vendor going to its customer through a delivery service partner is a common scenario. Peers of the tech consulting will totally grasp the context. However, the quality of impulse along the channels sales sometimes turns into a pressure harmful to the end customer and those in the middle. It disrupts the entire chain, breaks reputation, undermines quality and in long run leads to the demise of the product and services lifecycle.
Take away: channel of sales is not a soccer goal where you hit the ball one direction. Each ball should be taken out for a new game both ways. Otherwise, the value becomes finite, which is of no value for business evolution and perfection.
Partnerships
One-way partnerships where everything based on the volumetrics of cloud consumption and licenses jeopardize the customer tailored approach. Many clients end up in the tech debt and start doubting software solutions they have been drawn into.
Take away: if your product is not solving client’s problem and you are still pushing the sale – this will eventually become your brand equity debt.
Alliances or Constellations
Long term collaborations for a unified goal are very precise processes which require alignment of people, processes and values. Whereas financials and tools are just modest servants in this journey. Alliances built on the sole target to grab a bigger market share without responsible understanding around how to live with this responsibility lead to failures in the entire cluster of businesses in the critical segments of the private and public sector.
Take away: if you are not mature enough to look after the expansion – it is better to remain a decent customer intimacy-oriented product/service provider rather than exposing the organization and allies to unreasonable risks.
Hunting vs Farming
Hunting sales will brings temporary relief, whereas farming has potential of the garden – the place for customers, partners, allies, and more importantly people in the business ecosystem. The realistic formula should rather be hunting without damaging natural business chains while farming and gardening for a greater infinite value.
