When taking a new technology to an old market, take the time to see what those guys read. Then take the time to see what their tech vendors pitch them. You will be pretty depressed so much dough is spent for so little benefit.
The electric utility market is a prime example, let’s spend a little time there.
Google (it’s what we all do) “utility transformation” and you will see every large consulting firm “publishing” multi-page whitepapers on the “utility of the future.”
Nobody reads that stuff but the people who write it and the clueless executive who pays them to write it – and their parents. That exec thinks some utility CEO or other C-level executive wants a peek into the future of their industry from a vendor.
Let me clue you in.
They live the life, they know everything there is to know about strategic transformation – and they know most of them fail. Like 75% according to McKinsey.
What is in abundance – picture perfect, bright, well written white papers.
What is scarce?
90-day deliverables, the utility can touch and feel every day delivering actionable success every quarter.
Why don’t firms market that way?
There are several reasons.
Consulting companies are not about success, in 90 days.
Consulting companies are like the dermatologist. They know the patient is not going to die, and is never going to be entirely cured.
Consulting companies get paid for placing bodies, not fixing things. Anyone who ever worked in the tech industry knows they are driven by body counts, period.
Software vendors typically have solutions that take months to install and may not have a payback for years. If ever. Just try installing SAP, Oracle or any of the legacy enterprise stuff and you find them to be just like consulting companies, only with a license fee.
If your software takes years for a payback, you message with long whitepapers about transformation that never happens.
Tell your prospect to look to the horizon, not to that monthly bill.
Ever speak with a CIO who has had Oracle installed for a few years? Just do it sometime and you will hear the word “despise” more often than the word “the.”
The tech industry has saturated prospects with transformation, strategic, company-of-the-future messaging and nobody, literally nobody believes it. Nobody even reads it any more.
There is a Bangladesh-level crowded street where no message can stand out – at least no message current today.
That has left a wide open opportunity: the 90 day deliverable.
If you can deliver an actionable solution, in 90 days, every time, this message is there for you to own.
You don’t need to protect your high ground – because nobody will try to challenge you there.
Prospects read what stands out: 90-day deliverables, measured and actionable in a quarter.
Prospects want what is scarce – quarterly success they can brag about.
Message in quarterly deliverables and you will get read. And not just by your parents.