Page 95 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

82 grow from within

business development professionals create instead of using
CRM tools to manage their sales efforts. Salesforce.com knew
that its original target customers, sales teams at smaller and
midsized companies, were most likely to be using these low-
cost alternatives.

Why Should I Believe You? Promises are meaningful when
we trust those who are making the promises. Why should your
customers believe what you say? For years, people in the
information technology industry used to say, “No one ever got
fired for buying IBM.” Because IBM had such a strong and
resilient reputation in its industry, no one questioned a
decision to do business with IBM. The firm’s reputation
decreases a customer’s perceived risk in selecting it as a
vendor, thus increasing the strength of its proposed value
propositions.
Consider whether your company has a long history of pro-
viding related value propositions or working with other cus-
tomer segments that might validate your assertions. Perhaps
you have a trusted brand, but your company is offering some-
thing new. Consider whether you have what marketers call
“brand permission” to provide this service. You have brand
permission if the product or service you are selling is consis-
tent with your company’s brand identity and the role that cus-
tomers see you playing. To use an extreme example, Microsoft
might have brand permission to introduce a line of laser print-
ers, but the company probably doesn’t have brand permission
to launch a chain of luxury boutique hotels. This is not to say
that it couldn’t do so, just that it probably wouldn’t make sense
to consumers for Microsoft to play in this arena. Other options
exist, such as partnerships with companies with relevant
brands, but in a competitive marketplace, it’s important to val-
idate why customers will believe you over others.