Tech a tough sell in today's economy

TRIGAUX E-mail: Click here Archive

By ROBERT TRIGAUX, Times Business Columnist

© St. Petersburg Times
published September 18, 2002

Just ask Tom Wallace. He did it with one sentence. Nine little words.

Isn't it great to be in the tech business?

Well, that knocked the wind out of 150-plus techies. Instantly, you could hear a PIN number drop.

Wallace happens to be the emcee and, on this particular day, the smiling provider of gallows humor brought to you by the Tampa Bay Technology Forum. The regional tech advocacy group held a breakfast gathering Tuesday to explore a painful subject: How can area technology companies snared in the post-dot-com doldrums kick their sales into high gear?

After all, in today's lousy economy and a market grown skeptical (if not cynical) of undelivered technology promises, most tech sales people might find it easier to sell tickets to a Devil Rays game or convince the nation of Florida's voting expertise.

But the Tampa Bay Technology Forum is nothing if not bullish on tech. That's why the group assembled a panel of four area technology sales managers and executives, including: Microsoft area partner account manager Tim Berry; Cisco Systems regional manager Matt Stevens; Custom Manufacturing and Engineering president Nancy Crews; and Pilgrim Software executive vice president of business development Prashanth Rajendran.

Their mission: to cajole, to motivate and to educate the forum audience with the best-kept secrets of selling expensive tech products to cost-conscious customers who are only too eager to say: We don't have the resources right now.

So what is today's biggest sales challenge? Facing customers so skeptical of technology's promise they now say "prove it," says Pilgrim Software's Rajendran.

Re-tooling a sales staff to sell to "mahogany row" (CEOs) after selling to "linoleum row" (tech managers) for so many years, adds Cisco's Stevens.

Now I'll be the first to say that selling is a high-energy art that too often gets a bad rap. Aging salesman Willy Loman, the sad character in Arthur Miller's 1949 play, Death of a Salesman, painted a miserable picture of the selling life. Movies -- Tin Men and Wall Street (both 1987) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), to name a few -- reinforce the stereotypical salesmen as loud, pushy and endowed with a missing link in the morals department.

Just answer the phone at dinner time and you'll get the idea.

But I've tried selling, way back in an earlier financial life in a lousy economy in New York City. It's tough. It requires thick skin, personal discipline, blind optimism, the support of a good organization behind you and a good product. It's part of the salesman's heroic culture to say he or she is bringing in money that everyone else in the company is waiting to spend. In short: no sales, no company.

I admire those who do a good job of selling.

The sad news is a sizeable portion of today's tech sales force could not sell batteries to flashlight owners in the dark. The tech boom of the 1990s bloated the sales ranks of tech companies with folks who never mastered the art of closing a deal.

Just ask Howard Anderson, a tech guru and senior managing director at YankeeTek Ventures in Cambridge, Mass. The 1990s, he says, produced a whole generation of "order takers" who never received adequate sales training.

The best question posed to Tuesday's tech panel? How do you motivate your sales staff?

Crews, the founder of her St. Petersburg communications-electronics business, explains it best. "For overachievers, get out of their way. They motivate themselves," she says. In contrast, Crews suggests she is doing a favor by terminating the least successful sales people because they benefit by finding something else they actually like to do. The middle tier of sales people, she said, are the biggest challenge and take the most time.

"I wish we had a daily motivational speaker," says Rajendran of Tampa's Pilgrim Software.

At giant Cisco, which has 40 people in St. Petersburg, the company tries to recognize its sales staff for short- and long-term successes. "There are lots of peaks and valleys in sales," Stevens says. "We try to celebrate the peaks."

For Microsoft's Berry, it's tough to find one rewards system that motivates his entire sale staff. Some need a "kick in the butt" while others get a "pat on the back."

Nor is sell, sell, sell the only mantra. Keeping customers happy -- happy enough to be repeat customers -- is also key, the panel of sales executives say.

Cisco balances sales quantity by measuring customer satisfaction on a 1-to-5 scale. Stevens says he is eligible for a bonus only if his sales group attains a score of 4.75 or higher this year.

Pilgrim Software tries to stay in touch with customers so they can address any problems early. The company boasts an 83 percent customer retention rate, though Rajendran is shooting for 90 percent this year. The ambitious goal: 95 percent retention.

These days, with so many of technology's downsized pounding the pavement for work, tech companies are looking to upgrade the quality of their sales forces. Based on the panel's remarks, here's what a Help Wanted ad in fall 2002 might say:

Tech sales: Aggressive hunter to chase business with "can't lose" attitude. Well organized, strong ability to focus, self-motivated, eager to spend face time with customers. Skilled at listening first, talking second. Capable of ignoring media's "gloom and doom" coverage of tech. A true believer in tech's contribution to productivity, economy.

Any takers?

-- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright