IBM
The selling style I eventually developed, having safely passed IBM sales school, was – to say the very least - idiosyncratic. It was almost the reverse of what sales trainers would insist on; and even quite far from IBM’s ideal. Thus, I well remember one call with my branch manager, after which he lectured me: “You should not slump in your chair, and you should not address a managing director by his first name” I discreetly pointed out to him that I had just persuaded the managing director to place an order when he didn't have to, and - in fact - had put his job on the line for me. The order had been placed three months early, before he had received formal approval from his company's US parent . In return all I had been able to offer was a vague suggestion that IBM would be grateful, and indeed my branch manager was there precisely to add some weight to this rather nebulous claim.
From our point of view, it was also the order that was needed to get me and the branch into the Hundred Per Cent Club. It was a classic sale. I had walked on water to win it - and all that my branch manager had noticed was that my shoes were wet!
Indeed, I always taught the systems engineers (SEs) that they were IBM's most powerful salesmen. The salesman, before he could even start his main sell, had to break down the barriers raised by his prospects. Everyone knew that the IBM salesman, coming from a sales force with such a formidable reputation, was bound to sell them something they didn't want; so their defences were raised every time he hove into view. When the salesman walked out of the door and the systems engineer walked in, however, the prospect would greet him like a long-lost brother. This was someone he could trust, an expert whose only role was to help the prospect. The systems engineer then proceeded to say exactly the same as the salesman. But he was gratefully believed and the sale was made, although formalities required that the order was still placed with the salesman.
I learned to look below the surface when, as a trainee, I had to take over a demonstration from a sales professional who was ill. It was not clear just why the customer had asked for this, since he had recently ordered a small system and the presentation was on a much larger system; costing four to five times as much. I, however, accepted the sales professional's bed-ridden explanation that it was just curiosity about the new equipment that prompted this. From my point of view, as a trainee, any demonstration was valuable experience for me. In the event it went well.
It so happened that I gave him a lift back to his office, since this was not too far out of my way. In the intimacy of the car, among the social chit-chat, I went on to ask him some more questions. Eventually it dawned on me that his interest was rather more than everyone else was allowing for. So very daringly, remembering that I was a mere trainee, I asked him just why he wanted to see the new equipment. His answer was, for the first time, forthright: “It’s because we are reorganising our business and have decided we need a much larger computer system to cope with this.” Within the next five minutes I closed an order for the first UK System/3 mainframe to be used for teleprocessing,.
Out of interest, I asked him why he hadn't mentioned this before. His answer was blunt, but illuminating: “It's for you, as the salesman, to find out!” I have never forgotten that lesson. Now I always do find out.
The real stimulus for my techniques came, though, from the opening up of the IBM Biomedical Group. It was an exploratory venture, and for the first few months my role was largely as a researcher. Subsequently, as the group became established, the role was extended to `consultant', where the PR element was still more important than the commercial aspects. Even so, I found that this low-key approach was immensely successful. In truth it made me even more successful than I had been with my hard sell. The picture was consolidated by the fact that, for much of the time, I was up against (head-to-head) just about the best conventional salesman I have ever come across. He was superb. His traditional sales techniques were near perfect. His skills and personality could not have been faulted. Yet, by my anti-salesman approach, I managed to achieve a 90 per cent win rate against even this paragon.
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