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By Ed Finegold
Two different cable companies serve the building where I keep my office. I’ve thought about switching because my current provider raised its TV rates, but inertia and inconvenience are giving me pause. The other provider just sent me a promotional offer. On the surface it looks like it’ll cost me about $10 per month less. The fine print, however, says they’ll charge me for equipment rental – which my current provider does not – and an installation fee when I sign up. It also says they’ll charge me a cancellation fee if I terminate service within one year. Way to blow a legitimate sales opportunity. This is the state of affairs for sales in today’s communications business. This is why I’m still dubious about new, more complex applications being the ticket to future success.
Seeking Good Konczal
I’ve been chatting with a long-time colleague named John Konczal. John and I have known each other for at least 10 years now. He’s the Global Industry Executive for Sterling Commerce’s Communications and Media business unit. As a result, he lives and breathes the communications sales experience. Fundamentally, we share an opinion about what’s wrong with that experience today for most communications service providers.
“The way I think about this,” Konczal says, “is that CSPs have had a captive audience to sell to. Competition was non-existent or trivial in most regions of North America and they could take the position of passive order takers… Passive means ‘here’s my offer, take it or leave it,’ but that’s just not the case anymore.” He’s right. In fact, cable operator #2 is insane if it thinks its postcard is compelling enough to get me to call, wait on hold, wait for an appointment, pay set up fees, and maybe run into installation delays that force me to use the free WiFi at the cafe down the street for a few days. The $5 a month I’m not even sure I’d save by switching definitely isn’t worth it, and I wouldn’t get any more service for my money than I do today from cable operator #1.
Let’s talk about cable operator #1 for a minute. They just raised my rates about $10 a month, so I’m paying a bit more for the same service I’ve always had. I think they send all kinds of promotional offers in my bill every month, but I ignore them. The TV in my office is on most of the day because I tend to follow CNBC for business news, to track the market, and because as annoying as I find Maria Bartiromo’s Jersey-girl accent to be, I guess it reminds me of home. But for all of that time with the tube on, cable operator #1 has never reached through it to say, “Hey you, I’ve got an offer you’re gonna love!” Once again, way to blow a legitimate sales opportunity…
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“CSPs have had a captive audience to sell to.” |
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European Flashback
Now, folks who know me know that when it comes to height, body type, and hair style I’m more George Costanza than George Clooney. I’m not as socially inept as Costanza, but I can count on one hand the days in my life that I’ve played the “Mac Daddy.” One such glorious day occurred during my last semester in college when I lived in London. The two most popular women in my study abroad program, who I’d befriended on the flight over, invited me to go shopping with them. Whatever the reason, there I was, hopping from one trendy boutique to another with a beauty on each arm and feeling extremely Clooney-esque.
Being a dork in chic clothing, I took a lesson in sales from that experience. Sometimes selling isn’t so much about pitching an offer as it is about getting the shopper in a buying mood; building a stimulating environment; and creating a flow to the merchandise that puts the right items in front in an appropriate and compelling way. The boutiques in London, as well as others I’ve seen in New York, Amsterdam, and elsewhere, play throbbing club music; have dramatic, theatrical lighting; and pose slinky outfits on idealized mannequins. Those two ladies had a ball, and I realized why I’d been invited – someone had to schlep all the stuff they bought.
Communications providers can learn something from this retail adventure. The sales experience, or buying experience, is really part of the overall customer experience. If I’m watching TV, banging a text into my mobile phone, uploading a video online, or just riding the train home, there’s an opportunity to wrap a compelling, consistent, and continuous set of messages and offers around me that at best will put me in a buying mood and at least will give me an idea of the products that might appeal to me. Communications providers need to move from today’s come-on oriented ordering process to a compelling buying experience of the sort successful retailers offer. They need to use their many points of customer interaction in a fluid, continuous way that informs, compels and excites, but does not offend.
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