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Digital Donuts Mean Focus on the Real Customers
June 20, 2007
Mark Sylvester adopted a policy long ago to identify the customers who make a difference. “We have a donut shop with three lines waiting to buy our donuts,” says the CEO of introNetworks. “In the first line are people who can’t wait to get their hands on our donuts and show up before the doors open to make sure they get one. In the second line are people who like our donuts but are not willing to go out of the way to get a donut. A bagel or croissant would work just as well. In the third line are the
people who don’t like our donuts but they show up so they can get a donut and complain about it.”
Mark’s focus is only on the first line. This line is long and he is busy serving the people who are excited about his product. Of course he’ll attend to the other two lines, but he is happy to “fail fast” to keep from wasting time with opportunities that are just intrusions to the center of attention of his company.
It’s easy being master of your destiny when you have people taking numbers to schedule access to your technology. It becomes a choice between striking out and hitting home runs. Why waste time with two strikes already against you? The quicker he can opt-out of a proposal that de-prioritizes the value of his solutions, the sooner he is off to the next meeting.
Mark’s solution is the dream donut for many customers that have come to understand and implement it. The value might be less obvious to show producers and meeting professionals who have not yet taken the time to explore this category of tools. Yet suppliers like Mark will spend time on educating potential customers if these prospects are willing to learn.
Today’s industry software isn’t designed to solve all enterprise data management issues. Most new technology is launched as an application suite that should work cohesively to meet show organizer and meeting planner requirements. Investment into the right solution requires research and solid understand of their own organizational business processes.
For the people who develop a craving for a particular donut, it is well worth the wait in line.
Have a specific meeting technology or show tool that you want to hear more about? Let me know.
Posted by Stephen Nold on June 20, 2007 | Comments (3)
Industries:
Associations,
AV & Technology,
Catering,
Conferences,
CVBs & Venues,
Destinations,
Destinations,
Events,
Exhibiting,
Food & Beverage,
Management Update,
Meetings,
People,
People,
People,
People,
Production Technology,
Show Management,
Site Selection,
Speakers,
Speakers & Entertainment,
Technology,
Tradeshows,
Tradeshows
