Demand Generation Machine

Now if there is one thing peculiar to technology sales and marketing within the B2B space is that some technology can be complicated to explain. Trying to explain or pitch a solution that can scan and analyze living tissues while transferring data gathered in real time can be a mean task. So can explaining a tracking system which uses radio frequency technology to locate your company’s fixed assets and value the net worth of your capital investment. Whether you use emails, talk to a prospect over the phone or do a sales presentation of your technology for the first example you are most likely going to explain to them how your analysis algorithms enable rapid and objective quantitation of tissue samples and while this message may really contain the core benefit of your technology and value proposition it’s only relevant if your message is going to a technical decision maker who understands your technology and its benefits. Now a research head at a biotechnology lab may see the value powerful analysis algorithms but if you were talking to an investor who has privately funded this lab and you want to win his vote with that you are better off sticking to explaining him how your solution can save lives by delivering reports quicker than conventional systems and give your lab an edge over the others.

Technical details are important but provided they are reaching the right ears or eyes. While getting a message out to non technical decision makers simplify your message and offering. Now many will argue “how can we do that, our product or offering is technical in nature” or “there is no easy way to explain this to someone who does not understand technology”. Thats not entirely true and you know it. Technology is used to simplify things. The means to the end maybe hard to explain in a simple way but the end itself is always to simplify something or do something better using technology. In this particular example it was simply to provide a quick way of scanning and analyzing tissue samples quicker so patients health problems can be diagnosed quicker and more lives can be saved.

Having worked with technology companies who deal with some very specific requirements and having to pitch those products to both technical and non technical decision makers we know that technology can be complicated and not everyone may understand technical terms but if you start looking at what it helps you do rather than what it is, you will find it a lot simpler. A good technology sales person need not be the one who can pitch a complex product to the CIO or Director of Technology but one who can do that and just as easily explain it to his/her ten year old, the person behind the drive in counter at McDonalds or the guy walking his dog across the street. Complicated? Just simplify it!