Welcome to the first day of the second half of 2024.
Time is ticking, and what didn't work in the first half probably ain't gonna work in the second half either.
Customers don't want your solution.
In buyer research at IDC we found that executive buyers pictured the McDonald's Happy Meal® when sales people mentioned "solution."
Yea, the happy meal. A preset bundle of hardware (the burger), software (the bun), and services (fries, soda, etc). Maybe this 720 calorie bargain is right for some people, but it's not right for everyone, and while meals are somewhat fungible, fitting IT products and services into an existing complex business environment requires a lot more than off-the-shelf offerings.
What customers don't want today is more information. They don't want demos. They don't want carefully curated success stories. They don't want to sit through endless discovery interrogations. They don't even want discounts.
What they do want is targeted advice on how to meet their investor milestones, or their OKRs, or to complete their strategic initiatives. They want help seeing around corners.
And they expect sales teams to show up having done their company and industry research. With a strong point of view. With built out business value hypotheses.
Am I wrong?
For a deeper dive on this topic, please review my recent presentation at the 2024 Pavilion Palooza or the associated podcast.
Thanks!
Lee
