Growth implies value-selling

But adding value also implies selling value. Broadening the range of products and services is all very well but you can’t ask the same sales force to sell more services without minor adjustments. On the one hand, Telco core business-related services are more mature and require one-to-one relationships and close contact customer service management. On the other hand innovative growth-generating services (such as outsourcing services for instance) imply a change in both mindsets and sales approaches. On high-end innovative services, an ROI-driven approach is necessary in order to prove to your clients that purchasing a particular service will imply fringe benefits which offset the cost of the service to such an extent that this cost ends up being marginal in their eyes. Very often, in order to be able to implement value-selling approaches, one needs to evolve the sales force, or even to bring new blood, through the hiring of new people possibly with a strong consulting background.

Cisco’s experiment with the so-called IBSG Group (IBSG standing for Internet Business Solutions Group) is probably unrivalled. IBSG’s business consultants in Europe are committed to supporting Cisco systems’ sales force. Their mission is to deliver tailor-made argumentations aimed at emphasizing the value that Cisco can bring to their clients. Value can be measured against 2 axes (see Figure 31) but in no way must these business consultants supersede the regular sales force. On the contrary, their role is that of a supplementary sales force only.

One of the most common mistakes in marketing strategy is due to the misunderstanding of the term strategy itself. Strategy is, as the Merriam-Webster online dictionary states [96] “2 a : a careful plan or method : a clever stratagem b : the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal”.

Let us stress once more that ICT marketing is somewhat different from the marketing of other sectors (refer to the chapter entitled the amazing complexity of ict marketing). ICT marketing strategy has the following characteristics: Firstly, it must remain down-to-earth for it is dealing with subjects which are little known or even unheard of. As a consequence, ICT marketing has to evolve according to circumstances. This is why very stable, rigid once-and-for all strategies do not apply to ICT marketing at all. Secondly, ICT marketing is very product-orientated, which is normal since it is innovation-driven and innovation generates new products. Thirdly, fast-track marketing is particularly adapted to innovation since moving fast and reducing time-to-market is key to gaining competitive advantages in the field of information and communication technology. In the fourth place, ICT marketing requires specific satisfaction survey methods and techniques, as direct as possible, as cheap as possible.

Because of the nature of ICT marketing (fast paced and ever changing), ICT surveys have to be iterated as much as possible or even kept alive in real-time. Lastly – as we have shown already – ICT marketing is on average mostly offering-centric, and therefore, ICT marketing strategic thinking has to be carried-out both internally and externally. I have described the following business planning process (which is fundamentally different from the financial planning process as seen earlier); this business planning process will pave the way for the entire strategic assessment (see Figure 32).

Figure 31 : The Value Matrix

Figure 32: The Visionarymarketing Strategic Assessment methodology[97]