Want to know how to prosper, not just survive, in an economic recovery? There are 10 new basic business truths for achieving that, and Janet Schijns, vice president of global channels at Motorola Inc. (MOT), laid them all out on Monday at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. As she made clear, the steps are not easy but if implemented correctly, they do mean profit in 2010 and beyond.
First, though, Schijns made three predictions for technology and the sales process as the world emerges from one of the worst financial downturns in decades:
- The worldwide computer will replace the World Wide Web. Any application will be available to anyone.
- Technology for all. In other words, as the democratization of technology takes root, and small companies, too, enjoy the benefits of products such as unified communications and VoIP, agents must include those firms as customers. Schijns said smaller businesses tend to spend more money per person than enterprises.
- Lead formation. The traditional way of generating leads is a dying art thanks to social networking. “The crowd” – think LinkedIn and Facebook participants – has taken over lead generation. Companies post their opinions and those views are taken as gospel. Stay on top of the message, and make sure your employees are contracted to follow the rules as well.
With those forecasts in mind, Schijns then led attendees through the 10 steps that will help them get ready for a recovery – whenever that might occur for them.
10. Being competitive and wise – not smart – will be the key. More profit from a recovery will come in the first 18 months of said recovery than in the following seven years.
9. How you go to market has changed. Your customers need to cut their capex from about 40 percent of their budgets to 20 percent or 30 percent. You must sell from a service-level-agreement perspective.
8. The days of direct mail and e-mail and postcard marketing are pretty much done. “Something’s coming that we can’t control and it’s the social network. ...It’s really going to be how the market goes to market,” Schijns said. So, on sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, focus sales messages on time to deploy, productivity; and then cost. This will pull leads to you. And get “search optimized” now. Reserve all combinations of your personal and work names on the major social networks and also buy domain names.
