But Weve Never Done It That Way Before
Jeff Foxworthy popularized the “You might be a…” meme and I recently read a version that included this gem: “You might be a Baptist if you know the words ‘We’ve never done it that way before,’ mean sudden death to any new idea.”
And it struck me: That sounds like our industry just a few short years ago. Think back just a mere five years. Did you expect to have your whole life in the palm of your hand via your smartphone? Did you think it was possible to control nearly every function of your home — from garage doors, to alarm systems, to temperature, to turning TVs off and on — from an app on your iPad? Did you expect your most critical business data and applications to reside in something as seemingly nebulous as “the cloud?” Would any of that even be possible if we had adopted the “We’ve never done it that way before” mentality? Probably not.
Mark Bonchek recently wrote a blog for the Harvard Business Review entitled Don’t Sell a Product, Sell a Whole New Way of Thinking where he details the steps sales organizations have to take to change customers’ mental models when it comes to buying innovative technologies. Isn’t that what we’re selling — innovative technologies that disrupt a customer’s “We’ve always done it that way” mode of doing business? Bonchek says, “The problem is that data, information and value propositions are not enough to sell innovative products. Without the right mental model, they [the customers] won’t see the problem, understand the benefits or make the change.”
The challenge for us as communication technology providers is multifaceted. We have to change the culture of our own organizations, change the skill set of our sellers and change the mind-set of our customers.
Culture Change
My company, AT&T, has been working on this culture change for the past several years. It all started with our “You Will” ad campaign in the mid-1990s where customers saw some of what were at the time very forward thinking technologies that would impact their lives in the future. More recently, we’ve been doing it through our “Rethink Possible” and “Mobilizing Your World” campaigns. As employees, we’ve been adapting to this gradual cultural change, too. We’ve moved from traditional silos that perpetuate a that’s-not-my-job attitude to a more collaborative, customer-friendly I-can-help-you-with-that philosophy that impacts not only how we interact with our end-user customers but also how we interact with our internal peers.
Skill Set Change
As technology and organizational culture evolve, so must our collective skill sets. Knowledge about TDM and frame relay must be replaced with an understanding of emerging mobile technologies, virtualization strategies, and how the cloud pulls it all together.
Customer Mind-Set Change
Perhaps the hardest shift of all is how we interact with customers to help them understand, adapt to and adopt these new technologies. We have to work to change how customers see their business problems — think virtual reality goggles versus bifocals. In his blog for HBR, Mark Bonchek talks about how Salesforce.com has made this shift: “For years, the company’s marketing strategy has focused on the idea of ‘No Software,’ reflecting the shift from packaged, installed software to cloud computing and software-as-a-service. Salesforce.com recognized that only after buyers understood the mental model of cloud computing could they understand the benefits of Salesforce.com as a product.”
Our challenge is, and will continue to be, how we move customers from their comfort zone of easily understandable technologies that have been around for years to more virtual technologies that either they may not fully understand technically or from the standpoint of the potential they mean for their businesses.
Interestingly, the HBR blog closed with one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” In short, we all need to rethink what is possible for our businesses, our employees and our customers.
Jeff Quinn, vice president of the AT&T Alliance Channel, started in AT&T’s Computer Systems Division in 1986, after three years with Digital Equipment Corporation. During his career, he has primarily held field sales and sales management roles for multiple AT&T sales organizations, the exception being a four-year stint beginning in 1995 in New Jersey at headquarters where he helped create, launch and consolidate multiple indirect channels, which includes a version of AT&T’s Alliance Channel launched in 1998. His current responsibilities include leading the AT&T Alliance Channel sales and management for Central and Western U.S. He is also a member of the 2013-14 Channel Partners Advisory Board.
