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BRAND

The Next Big Differentiator For Technology Executives

By Mark Braithwaite & Emily Kucukalic | February 2013

executive search

BSP GloBal ExEcutivE SEarch

PERSONAL

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Right now, market leaders are looking at their go-to-market strategy, knowing that the sell by date on

their competitive advantage has all but expired. 2012 was the year that technology buyer behaviour changed

forever. Of course, buyers change all the time, but cloud and mobility changed the game massively, in the

blink of an eye.

The technology sector is changing from primarily selling products, to selling services. 2013 will pave

the critical pathway that leads to mere survival or boom-time for many vendors as they adapt to the new reality.

If your number one priority is not about ‘adapting your sales execution model to the new reality’, you have either

got it right already, or a great deal of pain is heading your way.

The good news is that the global spend on technology is still growing. So the issue is less about the

market and more about how you go-to-market.Competitive advantage in the Tech Sector has typically been

technology driven. Better, faster, cheaper and easier to use. Apart from Apple, the rest of the sector has

largely focussed brand image around innovation, trust, reliability, etc. A safe pair of hands to get the job done

without fuss!

In the last 20 years, the technology sector has brought more innovation and change to the world than any

other industry. From a marketing perspective though, it is now almost as boring as banking! Highly commo-

dotised and mature service industries, such as airlines, offer an interesting lesson. They compete heavily on

price. Customers buy online and have little loyalty. Having said this, the British Airways and Virgin brands,

both raise a different emotional response (similar to Oracle and Apple). Both credible companies, but the

mention of their names, take you to a different place.

Brand positioning is only one component of competitive advantage and in the enterprise sales

environment, people still buy from people………

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Should you consider the Personal Branding of your management team and salespeople as part of the

new Go-To-Market Strategy?

CEO’s often say, ‘our people are our most valuable asset’. In most cases, this is a meaningless cliché.

Companies hire the best people they can, give them some goals and metrics then mostly leave them to get

things done. The investment in getting the most out of people is expected to have been made by previous

employers. Putting those ‘assets’ to work properly, means linking the individuals that serve the customer, to

the brand. Think about the cool staff in an Apple shop, or the smiling hostesses on a Virgin flight. Their

appearance, communication and attitude are consistent with the brand. You don’t just buy a product. There is

an experience. It is all linked and this is crucial in services sales.

It is interesting to see that the most impressive and aggressive marketing innovation comes from

industries with skinny margins. The tech sector has enjoyed fat margins for so long, that the disciplines,

smarts and true marketing innovation are often lacking. Added to this, the timeline of bringing innovation to

market, has become so short, that it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to differentiate between

competitors’ products. As usual, the clients are the ones who are on the right track (and yes, the customer

is always, or at least usually, right). Using consumers of IT services as an example, to a certain extent, they

make buying decisions on the basis of the relationship with the people selling and delivering the service, not

just the firm. That is, they buy the expertise of the firm’s brand AND the trust of the individuals.

It seems clear that all of the money spent by services companies on developing a company brand, is

at best dimly reflected on the individual person that a client buys from. While a consumer might find it easier

to project perceived brand values on an inanimate consumption item, such as a T-shirt or toothpaste, it is

straining belief to assume that a sophisticated consumer of IT services, will project a company catchphrase or

colour (or any aspect of the company brand, for that matter), onto the individual the client is buying from.

Could the next frontier of competitive advantage lie here?

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With the flight to “Services” in the Technology Sector, the people aspect of the marketing mix will come to

dominate marketing in the future.

Just as a firm’s brand is everything that people see, feel and hear about a product, then this rubric

can be transposed to people. However, the analogy goes only so far, as it is important to bear in mind that

humans are not inanimate objects onto which a consumer or observer can project (manipulated) values, but

rather a constantly evolving and mutating quality. In addition, it must be borne in mind that employees are

also private individuals and citizens, and although employers will wish to concentrate on developing employees’

marketability to increase impact and profit, the employer will have to tolerate individual idiosyncrasies and

non-work related conduct. This will be a difficult track to navigate in the future, further compounded by the

prolific use of social media

It follows that personal branding is not about hogging the limelight, Tony Robbins style, and not about

creating an image that is untrue. It is much more than what image consultants present about what to wear,

how to address an e-mail and how to make sales presentations.

Instead, personal branding looks at the key attributes of an individual, using the same techniques that

marketers and advertisers have honed over years of plying their trade. It works on creating brand impact at

the absolute client interface. It is the essence of niche marketing.

Building a Personal Brand, needs time and outside help. The ROI is huge!

Personal Brand is all about impact!

NOTE: This paper is the first in the series of “Sales Effectiveness, Performance and Execution in Asia Pacific” which we will cover in this year’s whitepapers.

Don’t miss out on the next one and sign-up for our whitepapers HERE(Email to: esther@bspes.com and add your FULL NAME, TITLE and COMPANY DETAILS)

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Mark is a founding Director of BSP. Mark has led many searches for global Technology vendors in building

their leadership teams across Asia Pacific. Through years of experience and specialisation in the Technology

sector, Mark has built an executive network and reputation in the region which gives the firm reach and

access.

Mark’s career began in the UK with British Aerospace as an engineer. In the late 80’s he founded a VC

backed hardware and software company, specialising in industrial data collection. Following significant

growth, his business was acquired in 1993. In 1994, he joined a South African executive search firm as

Managing Director.

He divested this interest in 1997 when he moved to Australia as a founding member of BSP.

Practice AreasSoftware & Emerging Technologies | Hardware & Systems | Services & Consulting | Telecommunications

Contact DetailsP +61 2 9460 4511E markB@bspes.com

About the Authors | Mark Braithwaite

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Managing Director and Owner, Brand New You

Emily Kucukalic is a personal branding specialist with extensive experience in the technology vendor sector.

She is the Owner and Managing Director of Brand New You, a niche marketing and branding consultancy

firm. Brand New You specialises in creating personal branding plans for executives.

Prior to starting her business in January 2009, she was the Group Head of Brand and External Relations

at AGL Energy in Australia. An Ernst and Young Entrepreneur prize winner and finalist in the 2000 Telstra

Business Woman of the Year award, Emily has more than fifteen years experience working in strategic sales,

branding and marketing roles in the IT&T and energy industries.

Emily was a winner of Lucent Leadership Awards in 2000, 2001 and2002 and has a Bachelor of Commerce

degree with Honours in Marketing.

Contact DetailsP +61 403 931 360

E emily@bny.com.au

www.bny.com.au

About the Authors | Emily Kucukalic

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