Copyright © 1998-2008 by Techtel Corporation. All rights reserved. 2000 Powell St., Ste. 1070, Emeryville, CA 94608 (510) 655-9414

Copyright © 1998-2008 by Techtel Corporation. All rights reserved. 2000 Powell St., Ste. 1070, Emeryville, CA 94608 • (510) 655-9414 • www.techtel.com Slide 1

Systems Thinking in High Tech Marketing: Interesting Experiences

Michael F KellyCEO [email protected]

Techtel Corp www.techtel.com

With Michael Zargham, Graham Crowe Judy Dinglasan, Elliot Feinberg


Agenda: Using Models

1. Problems in High Tech Marketing2. Solutions based on Systems

Thinking/Systems Dynamics Models3. SAP Example4. Techtel Contribution Chart


Marketing In High Tech

Typical - Silo thinking Marketing gets awareness, and sales leads Sales complains about the lead quality, sell

anything they can PR and Advertising ‘send’ messages, assume work Products often immature, not good match to

buyers needs, but sell anyway After sale, seller hides behind poor automation Unchanged for years….


Meanwhile …

Customer becomes king, demand everything Competition from everywhere Fast-changing environment Customers are seen as misbehaving, getting

info more from each other than from sellers Fear and doubt by marketers: What to do?


As a result

Marketing’s contribution is questioned CEO’s demand Marketing ROI, but performance

is hard to prove Average CMO lasts 1.5 years Processes that don’t work are endlessly

repeated Much waste, much academic criticism, little

change.


Old Mind Models in Marketing

Best practice – find out what works for someone else and imitate it

Simple models of customers Customers don’t learn Linear, bullet point analysis and summaries

Effectiveness: ‘it was done’, not ‘did it work?’ Local optimum for politics vs. what did it do for

the company See only a part of the overall Don’t know what to change to improve Often give up trying or work on the trivial Manipulate customers to buy what brings you

revenue vs. provide real solutions to what customers want.


In other words….

The usual problems of non-systems thinking. Non alignment of functions Locked into dysfunctional system which

continues to be used


Using Systems Thinking and SD

We thought a lot about this…. And came up with new tools:

How Sellers see he Market How Buyers see the Market Combination Become the Customer

Example: SAP redefines Influence And a better way to measure performance


How Sellers See the Market


How Buyers See the Market


Rethinking: Become the Customer


Strategy: Become the Customer If you could become your customer-

You would know what you need to supply You would know what you need to say and do You would know what not to say and do You would know what you do with the solution and

how it should work You would know how you want to find and decide

whether or not to buy it You would know what you think of alternative

solutions You would know what you think of your company vs.

competitors, and why and how it affects your choice. All based on the full experience of the customers So, how can you become the customer?


How to Become the Customer

If it’s a consumer/small business product or service – become a customer like anyone else and have the experience. Are you happy?

If it’s a business product or service, its harder - how does a PR person at IBM become a customer of DB2?

The approach – intense customer knowledge plus models: ‘Know customer ‘as if’ customer.

Know your customer as well as if you were your customer.


We’re not talking about…

Customer Centric Customer Touch Points Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Customer Service Customer-Oriented And Customer Communities These are ways to find out enough of how

customers think to have them buy more from you

What you want is to understand your customers to build a relationship, to offer them more and better, to build together


The SAP Influence Initiative In 2006 SAP Global Communications undertook a hard

look at itself, and problems like these. SAP was questioning the status quo and their old

processes, old organization Asked Techtel for new info: how are Software Buyers

influenced – from customer viewpoint, not from internal structure. Unbiased, BuyerPOV.

Asked for new info: what’s the value of each influencer (signal theory model)

Asked for feedback from buyers, users, in depth to respond to.

Asked customers if the messages they were contemplating were important

Models everywhere, what to ask, who to ask, how customers think and what they do and why. Where do needs come from, and especially, who and how to drive influence especially thru third parties.


What happens? From the buyer’s point of view (buyerPOV),

you’ll look back at your ads, your pr, your messages, and see which are on target, which just don’t work and which are embarrassingly irrelevant.

You’ll know which half of your advertising doesn’t work!

You’ll know what your customer wants and why You’ll know where and how to reach them You’ll know if they don’t want to buy from you

and why and what you have to say to make repair the relationship

You’ll also know what you need from the product, the service, the support and what you’ll tell others, and why

17

Techtel Contribution Charting

Start with what is to be achieved and then show what should be done to achieve it:

Done as opposed to DoingAccomplished as opposed to Working On Then organize Or reorganize around that and measure performance by contribution

n





Learned

Thinking in terms of states, agents led to care in talking about POV of sellers vs. buyers.

Systems Thinking is the way of Thinking

iThink, then iDo

Michael F KellyCEOTechtel Corporation [email protected]

Documents

Copyright © 1998-2008 by Techtel Corporation. All rights reserved. 2000 Powell St., Ste. 1070, Emeryville, CA 94608 (510) 655-9414