Many of the readers of this blog veer towards the technical side of OSS (that includes me too) and therefore we could all do well to consider the old phrase, “Sell the destination, not the transportation.”
The phrase originally suggests that a salesperson should highlight the incredible experiences waiting for the prospective traveler in Paris, rather than the flight’s features like model of plane, legroom or in-flight meals. The intent of the phrase is to ensure a shift in the narrative from the means of getting there (the flight) to the end goal (enjoying Paris).
You didn’t come to this blog to read about sales. There are plenty of other places to learn all about selling (and we’re probably not visiting them right?). But we’re all dependent upon rainmakers to some extent for initiating the projects we work on and the activities we do. And we all have some sort of influence over the trajectory of this industry whether we see ourselves as salespeople or not. Anyway, I’m getting off the topic.
So many of us (and I’m looking in the mirror at myself here!) have been engrossed in the technicalities of our OSS – how fast they run, how many features they have, or how they are better than competitors in terms of specifications. While these aspects are undeniably important, they often don’t resonate with the end-users or sponsors – stakeholders who are more concerned about the problems that our OSS can solve for them than the spec sheet. In essence, focusing solely on the technical or ‘transportation’ aspects means there are less OSS projects initiated for us to subsequently get involved with. Less investments made in OSS transformation. Less buzz existing in the OSS industry.
Rather, the message I do want to leave with you is a paradigm shift – the concept of selling the ‘destination’ urges us to reframe our value proposition. Instead of merely spruiking the technical aspects of OSS software or services, our focus could be better spent on the outcomes that our solutions enable. For instance, if an OSS tool helps telecom operators manage network congestion more efficiently, the ‘transportation’ is a well-managed network but the ‘destination’ is enhanced customer satisfaction and reduced churn (two of the many significant problems facing our telco clients today). By aligning our product’s capabilities with the clients’ ultimate goals, we can create a more compelling narrative. To reiterate the reframing exercise – We’re not convincing the world how technically savvy we are, but convincing everyone about how essential our solutions are in supporting the modern electronic world.
I’ve just finished writing the first draft of our latest report with the valued help of some colleagues. We just need to make the final edits and layout before we’ll bring it to you shortly. It’s called “AIOps of the Future: A Definitive Guide,” and the cover looks a little like this:
The objectives of this latest report are:
There’s a section in it that provides helps turn intangibles and problems into quantities and a compelling business case narrative. We’re also planning to turn the contents of this section of the paper into a separate AIOps business case calculator that will help you to sell your unique AIOps destination.
We hope it will help you to shift focus from merely providing an AIOps tool and/or related services with a set of technical features… to instead delivering a transformative experience that solves real-world problems. And we all know there a lot of problems facing telcos today that AIOps solutions can potentially help with.
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