Intel Inside Case Study

The Inside Intel Inside case study provided a real insight into how the megalithic giant of an embedded micro-controller company found its commercial bearings. The article follows the evolution of the marketing strategy of the Intel Corporation. From its ability to hold market share while still being able to maintain new costumers and readopt existing costumers through its upgrades.

1. Red X - Changed its previous marketing strategy from being nonexistent (read: ineffective), to being the only way the market can react to processors in computers.
2. Intel's Marketing division paves the way for sales by shifting the customer focus not on the current need, but the future need.
3. Although the Intel Inside ads were the first ads that the article discusses as being qualitative, in a way the "Red X" campaign also proves the effectiveness of qualitative marketing for technical products.
4. It probably would have been pretty difficult for Intel to do a mass-marketing campaign for the 486. The article says that the sales people were failing when comparing the two products.
5. This shows how, by broadening the sales message, a marketing team can be critical to a product's success.

A costumer, with any passing knowledge or Murphy's Law will be able to know that the processor power of the commercial processor controller doubles every 10 years. The computer that I bought 3 years ago, is starting to show signs of wear. I notice that the Core 2 Duo I bought 3 years ago is powerful enough for the moment, but for how long? I hear those i7s are pretty powerful....

Stanford 2012 Lean LaunchPad Presentations

               The companies mentioned below are some of the few companies I found the most interesting. They  are web based or app based approaches to solving some of the most simple aspects, otherwise known as untapped market, of daily lives. Probably the best aspect of each company is their iterative approach to the business model and how far they have come from the first initial design of their previous business models. In some cases, it required the addition of features that made them better, and for others it involved the creation of freemium, or free with paid features, content.

               As a would-be customer of any of these applications, I found that all of my concerns were addressed in a pretty straightforward manner. The feedback they anticipated from customers was instrumental in bringing the product from a failed prototype to a successful product or, as in the case of Mi Casa, a potential lucrative invention.

Mi Casa

•         Wanted to make the rental process easier for someone moving to a new city or someone looking for a place to rent given a previous bad experience
•      Targeted too many types of customers early on, found no benefit to using Realtors
•         Dropped an entire target consumer after learning their mistake
•         Found success in using social media platforms to generate customer conversion
•         Customer feedback created more of the necessary insight needed.
•         Simplified the market by analyzing the current implementations out there and found an untapped market.

GameSpeed

•         They were doing poorly early on because they started their business plan without completely analyzing their business model.
•         Decided to take the financial hit and reanalyze their targeted consumer: The Coach (64 of them)
•         Broke down their consumer type down to 4 segments, chose the 2 types that were more receptive to the idea
•         Found that direct email was the best way to approach coaches instead of searches, meaning that coaches don’t go looking for fitness applications, they get approached by them instead.
•         Visitors are NOT Users. Just because you get page visits, does not mean you convert them to customers in any way.
•         Made the coach the final say in the application structure and how well that worked

“Sync”

•         Abused of a very small niche market, and saw none of the ROI they initially had hoped for upon launching prototype.
•         Learned that the virtualization of gifts means nothing to couples, they want something tangible or they prefer the communications portion of the application
•         Offered their beta for free, targeting couples in relationships to sign up after 31 min survey; 10.8% conversion rate.
•         Partners would include successful businesses, but the click-through rate of  Expedia, the travel site, required a large amount of conversion. 1800Flowers was a successful business partner lead.
•         Made a one-to-one social media exchange for couples successful by publishing on the iOS app store and pushed updates about activities each partner was doing.
•         They have no viable product, not that the product is faulty or bad, they just acknowledge that it is unpolished and the generation of leads is now somewhat of a priority

Don't Fall to the Hype: ET the Hip Hop Preacher

In class on Monday, we were shown the video of ET (Eric Thomas) the hip hop preacher.
This charismatic individual is what is called a 'motivational speaker', or in layman's terms a feel good snake oil salesman.
ET makes a lot of noise. He really does, if you look at the video below, you'll have the scene set for you for the rest of this post.



Don't you feel psyched? Don't you feel like you could take on your business' next challenge? Great. We're done here, or we would be, except there's a slight problem. It's all horse manure.

ET is entertaining, as is his purpose, and he does make people feel good about about working in the service industry at a price. Don't sharpen your pitchforks just yet, it's just how he makes a living.
There are many others like him, and we'll talk about the "Motivational Speaker" as an archetype, but in his specific case I'd like to point out a few things:

Getting Pumped, Getting Motivated  

Not every employee in a company likes doing their job.

It's a fact of capitalist life that you must exchange a service or good for the ability to procure a credit or tender to later exchange for one of your own choosing.
This is the perpetuating kind of system that allows for the continuation of the system so long as the working class continue working for goods or services they can not continually afford. It's insane to believe that a working class drone of an employee has any sort of swelling of pride at the notion of having to obey ridiculous rules at the hands of their employers.

Not all employees work of fiscal incentives

Some employees perform worse if they receive higher pay for their work. This has been studied, especially in sales teams. When the sales team is incentivize for their work, they seldom perform any better than before and more likely trend towards performing worse.

Motivation is a Unique Experience

I was motivated to write an entire assignment, of my own volition and fervor, because I was taken aback by Eric Thomas' video. My parents are motivated to finish work for the week by the prospects of going to the beach. The family dog is motivated to action by the sound of the can opener opening his food.

The employee is not motivated just because someone puts on an atmosphere and a show, and even if they are visibly motivated then and there. The inspiration, however, is not cultivated within making the motivation temporary at best.

Everyone is differently-motivated.

The Costumer is Always Right

False. The costumer is a person, they can be wrong. the trick is to get them to realize it on their own before the urge to tell them overcomes your polite nature.
ET delivered an anecdotal story about going to a franchise at 9:30PM and ordering a shake to have the employee at the store confidently tell him that "we turned off the milkshake machine because we want to leave at 10". What a lackluster employee, right?

Wrong. If this story even ever bothered to happen (see Strawman Fallacy).

The employee was doing what he felt was right by the other employees and the maintenance of the store. He/She turned off the machine so that the rest of her co-workers could promptly leave the store on time, as is their schedule and contract.
They are torn between offering the off-chance costumer a milkshake at the end of the store's opening hours and obligating the contractual limitations to their employers taking into account their paid hours and their responsibilities.

Small Mistakes Cause Great Disasters

On this one, I actually agree with ET. If you have an oversight that causes a major catastrophe, it should have been your responsibility to deal with that oversight making you accountable for the result.

Small caveat: You are only accountable, and by extension responsible, for the stemming issues from the oversight IF and ONLY IF it was an expected part of your job and was made immutably clear.
The mistake ET casually tosses out there, is the BP oil crisis.

The BP oil crisis, for those unfamiliar, happened in the summer of 2010. This oil spill has ramifications that, 3 years later (at the time of penning this sentence), the Mississippi River Delta is still unfishable.

He claims that it was the employees fault. Whoever he was, he needed to tighten the nut, or replace the battery, or keep the system up to date, and he's not wrong, but again, only if the responsibilities of the employee were to maintain the equipment up to a level standard. This lands the blame solely on the employee, this is a flawed and unacceptable claim.

If ET had followed up on the report, he would have seen that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean (the companies responsible for the drilling effort) were telling their employees to keep their costs down, in order to keep their profits high, of course. They chose to be negligent of the standards and regulation of safety equipment. What was to be expected of their employees, then?

Conclusion

The point I'm getting at is this, the employee is not some resource with stats or figures attached to him/her. They are a person with pride and a desire to feel important and useful. It stands to reason that if your business practices are generally lacking then your employee ethics will be similarly lacking.

If you want to motivate your employees to be better, to be motivated, be a better company.
Don't hire the motivational speaker, known simply as oxygen thieves .

 

Siebel Systems, Part 1: Anatomy of a Sale

In this case study, we follow the first person perspective of  Gregg Carman, sales manager of Siebel Systems, who is currently experiencing the dilemnatic issue of Siebel Systems is a software solutions provider for CRM software. CRM stands for Costumer Relationship Management and is important because of what is implicit in its name: retaining costumers to the business.

 Earlier in his life, Gregg had made the decision to provide Siebel's CRM solution to a brokerage firm Quick and Reilly. Q&R was represented by Cathy Ridley at the time of the sale, and Gregg attempted to sell the solution to her. In the first few moments of the sale, he managed to alienate the costumer, confound her, and neglect her needs. If he had thought about the values of his company as he would do again in 2000, he would see that he was wrong in the way he attempted the sale of his CRM to Q&R.

First thing to talk about is the values of Siebel Systems when it comes to sales.

1. Prove to them that we have a superior product.
2. Convince them that we would collaborate with them to make the system work.
3. Meet the right set of executives at Quick & Riley to convert the opportunity into a sale.

 He did manage to think of the company's organizational structure when thinking of who to sell to, and he did think about the budget of the company to take into account what best to sell to them, but he neglected to ask her what the needs of the company were.

Even if the costumer is not always right, you can at least find out what they need and see if maybe that changes their unfortunate delirium.

Case: Cross Selling or Cross Purposes? (HBR Case)

TopTek recently acquired a consulting firm, Rossberg Lee. Nine months later, the honeymoon period is over, and the two components of the original companies are seeing troubling contrasts in methods as far as commission or account generation go. 

Company Structure Analysis:

1. Sales Force
1. Existed within TopTek and are responsible for generating the new accounts.
1. Every new account generated is a long-time commission that the sales person receives.
2. Lack the technical knowledge or day-to-day contact with the company account to keep the account or to expand on the account.
2. Ron Murphy is head of sales.
1. He swears by the relentless nature of his sales force.
2. Albert Washington, named Prince Albert, is apparently their best salesperson.
2. Solutions Division
1. Peter Lee of Rossberg Lee.
1. Excited about new prospects 
2. Created 'Solutions' for business
1. A package of products and services for the business with different customization and pricing needs.
3. His underlings are calling directly to clients and harassing them about new things to sell.

Sins of Commission: 

Sales personnel get commission on an account forever. This leads to a lot of new account generation, absolutely, but leaves little TLC (read: tender love and care) for the accounts already existent. 

Sins of Omission:

 On top of the lack of TLC for companies from the lack of attention sales gives them, other divisions of labor for the company 'selling' packages or bundles they have to do begrudgingly don't see a single ounce of commission, but still have to work on bonuses. 

The Princes of Sales: The sales department, headed by Ron Murphy, has the numbers, has the drive, sells the product, but doesn't sell the solutions! He blames the misfortune of the solutions department for their lack of figures even going as far as to say they are incompetent sellers.

Searching for What Works:

 The theory holds up to scrutiny, so what is the solution?

A Productive Pairing:

 The mythological beast of a perfect compensation system is best mimicked, as the case study suggests, by a company TopTek had successfully helped and is their most touted success, Trigestis. Their sales person is not an overzealous brochure-tosser, and their solutions person is not overly droll with technical solutions but listens to the costumer about their concerns.

Buyer's Perspective:

I would be completely frustrated out of my wits with TopTek and their gods-forsaken merger with that solutions firm Rossberg Lee!

     "Ever since then, I buy a product and all they can do is harass me about adding a services package ON TOP of the product. Is that not what I paid for? Am I not already receiving their product in its final form? Why are they so dead set on giving me all these added features I don't want. Is the product broken? I'm so confused.... maybe there's another company that sells a complete product bundle...."  

                                                        -- Typical Costumer after the Merger

Solution:

 As with all relationships, there needs to be a proper division of labor and communication. If you are sales, it is your job to sell the initial package and provide a small level of technical knowledge. If you are a solutions consultant, you need to be able to continually provide the proper technical feedback as well as have a bit of knowledge and charisma to sell a proper upgrade or solution SHOULD THE NEED ARISE. 

A happy mix of both, without overstepping roles.

The Sales Learning Curve

The Sales Curve, Mark Leslie and Charles Halloway

-What do salespeople do? -Ask Mark and Charles

-They sell things to costumers, of course! -Everybody, Ever.

-Yes, but how?

-By... selling them to the target market?

Outside of the obvious reason being that he is a straw man, EE represents the uninformed members of a company that view sales as some amorphous blob capable of accruing money through selling of a product or service to the costumer, and if they good, great. It's when they under perform that everyone starts to panic.

To first understand how performance comes into the question, the role of sales has to be understood.

First and foremost, the sales team is the voice of the costumer when talking to the company as well as being the voice of the company when talking to the costumer. They are the boundary personnel of the company next to costumer support. If they are not heard on either side, or do not communicate with either side, serious issues can arise.

The Sales Force has the daunting task of having to sell a product, interpret costumer reception of the product, and report back. This is a closed loop feedback system and in Controls Engineering, its the best way to control a system. A lot of things happen during the different stages of the product life. First the product exists or is about to be made or is in a sell-able condition, and the company hires a sales force. The sales team then starts to learn about the product, see who wants it, and attempt to sell to them. If the product is good but lacking in the features costumers want, they'll be the first to hear about it. As soon as they do they can report the flaws in the product or the features most desired by the costumers. 

Examples of this were seen in the Scalix-Linux email client.

1. Client was made.
2. Sales force was hired.
1. Price was too high
2. Features were undesireable/missing
3. Target group was not ideal (CIOs)
3. Sales Force was trained to target smaller companies and early adopters to build a loyalty
4. Rebuilt the product to match costumer needs throughout the years.
5. PROFIT.

All that thanks to the sales force. GG.

Airwide International: A Case Study

Airwide International Sales Strategy Analysis

Airwide International attempts to stay afloat the only way it knows how: scrambling and taking every lead it can churn up and taking overcompensating for it.

Sales Force - Costumer Value Propositions

Wei relates that his sales force is trying their hardest in procuring bids and are surprised by their inability to   complete them.

1. Lei Jiang - Airwide internationals 'best seller' is attempting the fallacy of being all benefits - or  only providing a list of benefits the product has or is thought to be-  to the costumer talking at length about the benefits of the air conditioning system. This makes the costumer believe that they are going to be paying for a luxury cost item when in reality the seller thinks that they are providing the costumer with an immutable list of why the product is just for them.
2. Mr Chen Weimin - Another reputable vendor meets with an old contract to renegotiate the terms and it seems to be "in the bag", "a sure thing", etc. However, when he meets with the purchasing manager it is not the old friend he has known, it is a new purchasing manager. The manager isn't the only thing to have changed; the entire position is a different version of its former self. The purchasing manager now needs the approval of others to provide Airwide with the bid contract. 
1. In the meeting with the new purchasing manager, Chen gives only favorable points of parity, stating that switching to a new system would be more costly than just sticking with Airwide. He also does not address the lack of familiarity with the the product the current purchasing manager has.
1. Airwide has not remained current and has neglected the adoption of making their existence known on the internet. Instead, they attempt to keep their sales alive by just maintaining their old practices of chasing down leads in the manner to which they have been accustomed to since 1975. The sales manager makes no mention of the new emerging car air conditioning market or how the company might want to make it in that market. It may be that air conditioning sales are seeing a drop in the residential portion due to this emerging technology.

Airwide international is not a failing company, its practices are past successes that are now simply anachronistic with the current environment that is the sales force. Taking fewer bids, making their online presence, and addressing  better sales tactics and new technologies sooner and they will turn around their losses.