Hot topic

Reverse IT recruitment survival kit

To judge by the distressingly anorexic state of the recruitment pages of the computer magazines, far too many readers are at greater risk of ‘reverse recruitment’ before Christmas than a seasonal bonus. So Cambashi’s early yuletide gift is this guide - for anyone in sales and marketing who feels they need it - to making sure the next redundancy list doesn’t include you.

Step one - Are you in sales or marketing? If not move there quickly. Companies are thinking short term and unless you are contributing to the top line an easy way to improve the bottom line is to cut your cost.

Step two - Are you in sales? If so, do you sell? Or do you do what your managers tell you?

It sometimes seems sales managers only concern, is to make sure that, whatever happens, their staff have filled in their Siebel forms. [See related article on CRM returns on investment]

It’s true that filling in the forms may help the sales manager. His or her bonus depends on how well they measure against their goal sheet. At the top of the sales manager’s list is an instruction to make sure their staff provides the raw data only sales staff can provide. But sometimes it seems sales managers care less about whether you sell than about filling out forms so the bean counters can see the pipeline. Why do they want to see the pipeline? So that the CEO can set the owner’s expectations (see Planning in the Aftermath above).

Cambashi’s advice? Forget the forms. Make some money for the company. When did you last hear of a sales representative who was sacked for bringing in sales, but not filling in forms?

Step three - Are you in marketing? If so, move into sales. Today’s key to survival is to be as close as possible to the customers, to represent the customer voice. When the bullets start flying, clever bean counters aim away from the customer. If the customers know and love you, you’re less likely to be in the fire zone.

Step four - Are you in services? If so, your chances depend on your utilisation rate. Your what? Most business unit managers use a rule of thumb that says the unit as a whole needs 75 to 80 per cent utilisation. This means working out the highest possible fees you could bring in and comparing the actual with the maximum. If you personally are operating at less than the 75% lower benchmark, things look bleak.

Overall, for everyone, in any organisation, Cambashi’s advice is that the key to short term survival is making sure that you are satisfying customers. There’s hardly any mystery about this. Satisfied customers either continue to spend money - or spend more money than before.

There’s no mystery either on how to satisfy customers: ask yourself what customers expect - then exceed it.

You don’t know what they expect? Then find out. If you do, and act on it, then there’s a fair chance of being around when the customer mentions “wouldn’t it be nice to have” and being able to say, “Oh we can do that!”

And the chances are you won’t hear the customers saying anything about CRM forms.

Mike Evans

mike.evans@cambashi.com

Also in this issue . . . .

Planning in the aftermath
Markets were hard to call even before September 11th. We cannot even begin to imagine the impact of that terrible event, and its aftermath, on those personally affected. We can only offer our deepest sympathy. Inevitably the resulting loss of confidence has had a profound economic effect too. But we have the responsibility to continue our businesses, generate employment and endeavour to minimise disruption to economic and social progress. And part of this is setting budgets for next year, which must be based on realistic assumptions. Mike Evans gives his contribution to the debate on sales planning for the coming year.

Book Review
Rapid prototyping is a maturing technique to get products into production faster. Adoption has been plagued by a confusing set of processes and suppliers. Antony Anderson reviews the Rapid prototyping casebook containing reports direct from the coalface.

Cambashi’s 2002 seminar
Get 23rd April in your diary to catch up with the market for IT in Industry and meet the key players at our Oxfordshire seminar

Cambashi researches best practice and assists IT suppliers in best practice implementation. For more information on Cambashi services please email info@cambashi.com

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