Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007 - (Page 23)

behind the BRAWN the BRAINSbehindtheBRA “I know exactly how they feel. I was managing what I consider one of the world’s great brands at Texas Instruments, and I realized that I wasn’t very well equipped to do that at first. Right off the bat, I sought out help from people who knew how to make this work.” However, Oliva adamantly insists that ISBM is not an academic-only think tank that focuses on theory to the detriment of real-world results. Most ISBM fellows didn’t just get their credentials in a university; they earned them while walking the beat as sales and marketing executives. One example is Jim Anderson, professor of behavioral science in management at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. In addition to being an ISBM Research Fellow and Board Member, he is author of the upcoming book Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Value in Business Markets. “All academic journals recognize his work as superior academic research,” Oliva says. “But when he talks to ISBM members, it sounds as though he’d just unpacked his suitcase after a long road trip of selling chemicals to a paper mill. “And the reason he sounds that way is because he often did just get back from a sales trip with a company he was advising. We want to create new knowledge, but we want that knowledge to provide real-world results so our member companies can put it into practice and improve their businesses.” While ISBM member companies sometimes hit it off with each other and decide to do business together— “commerce happens,” as Oliva says—they are forbidden from active selling to one another at ISBM meetings. An advertising agency could join to learn about being more effective as an organization, for example, but couldn’t use ISBM events to troll for clients. The focus is on improving business practices for everyone. As Oliva puts it, each member company is like a boat, and ISBM seeks to raise the water level so everyone’s performance improves collectively. “Across-the-board improvement is ultimately in everyone’s best interest,” he says. “You can’t defend yourself from a truly dumb competitor. For example, a dumb competitor might drop its prices to a ridiculously low level, and there’s nothing you could do to protect yourself from that. That foolish decision might eventually kill the company, but it’s going to hurt you as well.” Ultimately, companies customize their experiences to find their own way to success. Some take what they learn and adopt the theories into planning, while others take www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com the things they learn and implement those exact methods and tactics into their operational processes. “Although we work to teach new skills and approaches to our members, sometimes they’re the ones leading the way by setting a stellar example for our entire practice,” Oliva reports. One example is ISBM member Parker Hannifin, whose CEO, Donald Washkewicz, adopted the concept of value-based pricing. He analyzed which of his company’s products were appreciably better than the competition’s and charged more for them based on the value they provided, not on what they cost to produce. “He implemented value-based pricing from the top down, by order of blood and guts,” Oliva says. “It brought his company a reported $200 million in additional operating income since 2002. “To me, Parker Hannifin’s success is proof that execution is the key to sales and marketing success, not the tools themselves. I could go out and buy the exact same set of clubs that Tiger Woods uses, but he wouldn’t need to lose any sleep over me challenging his position in the game of golf.” MEETING THE INDUSTRY CHALLENGE Oliva says that there are three primary challenges that B2B sales and marketing departments typically face: Understanding the relationship between value and pricing, ineffective marketing segmentation strategies and making decisions based on hunches rather than data. “There is concern among B2B companies that what they don’t know about their market, their competitors and themselves can kill them, and they’re right,” Oliva says. “For example, sales managers often come to us and say, ‘China just showed up in our market. What do we do?’” There is a virtually endless list of answers to that question, depending on the product and market. But improving revenue through value-based pricing, better market segmentation and expansion into adjacent markets are all proven solutions to that challenge and many others. As a result, ISBM focuses on teaching members to think as much as it tries to teach established methods and techniques—the proverbial “teach them to fish and they will eat for a lifetime” mentality. He points to a case that was presented at an ISBM members meeting. It is reminiscent of approaches discussed in a book called How to Grow When Markets Don’t by Adrian J. Slywotzky—a must-read for ISBM members, Oliva says. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT 23 http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007

Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007 Contents Editor’s Letter Management Strategies What “Tell Me More,” Really Means Sales Strategy Marketing Management Motivation/Incentives Training Technology The Brains Behind the Brawn Are You a Bad Manager? Pipeline = Lifeline Feeling the Squeeze; The Foray Mobile Workmate; Seeking the Sights of Pittsburgh; Testing the Social Media Waters. Gadgets & Gear Books That Improve Strategic Thinking, People Skills and Sales Work/Life Take-Aways

Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007

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