I call it the Whopper Strategy – tell a lie long enough and loud enough and soon enough people will accept it as fact, just like in the past when many believed the earth was flat or like right now when many think that global warming is a hoax. Yes, I know, no one ever walked off the edge of the earth, and yes glaciers are sweating like oxen in a hot field, but some people would rather eat the whopper hook, line and sinker than digest a grain of truth. But I don't have to dwell on science or politics as business has its own share of whoppers, like the “early adopter" concept, widely accepted as a theory where so called “lighthouse" B2B customers have an innate willingness and desire to be the first to try and buy new products and services. Sure, on the consumer side, you will always have the “techies” who have to have the first new release of the iPhone, but to extrapolate this pattern over to why businesses buy first is at best a big stretch, and at worst a deliberate whopper.
A real whopper!
The worst part of this whopper is that its foundation completely undermines the role of the business founders and the entire sales profession itself. A “successful” founder can do two things well. First, they have the ability to get people to buy into their vision. In other words, they can sell. Second, they are good negotiators who can impose and drive a new market reality on competitors and customers while encountering a lot of give-and-take, sometimes known as “wheeling and dealing.” There, I said it. Founders are often good sales people who can wheel and deal. It is not as pretty and packaged like the “early adopter” theory but it is the truth. Companies buy these products early because they run into founders who can sell, or “wheel and deal,” and not because of a natural market just waiting for someone to fill an order, as the “early adoptor” theory would have you believe. So why in the world is the “early adopter” theory taught by almost every MBA school in the country?
Because just like a good whopper that gets passed along, the “early adopter” theory survives because it sounds good. It also fits nicely on a Powerpoint chart with the terms “laggards” and “last to buy,” and finally, because it is easy as pie to understand. But as all whoppers are, it is cruel hoax on young companies trying to emerge with new products and services – here is why.
The “early adopter” theory not only says there is a natural market just waiting to be harvested, but that the market is comprised of 14 percent of buyers for your innovations. So what happens? New companies go around looking for “early adopters” and most of the time come up empty handed. How do I know this? Because I sold to Fortune 1000 for 8 years and never came across one “early adopter” for the simple reason that they do not exist. We did, however, make a successful sale to 86 percent of the Fortune 1000, and yes we had our share of what we would affectionately call “Blue Birds" where the sale came fast and fell in our laps, like a blue bird would fly into a car window on a Sunday evening drive. But none of the sales were “early adopters.” Everyone was jumping on the so called bandwagon because we were burning up the market with a new vision and market execution. In short, we had a great product and we knew how to sell it.
But even with a great product, you have to know how to sell – you need to know how to turn “laggards” into leaders willing to be pioneers of your new product. Here’s a story on how to do just that. Our first multi-million dollar sale was with Ron Ford at American Business Products, a 650 million dollar company. After months of selling and going back and forth with him, I finally made an offer he could not refuse, even though IBM was vying for the deal also. After a visit with Ron, I went back to the office and told my seven employees that I was sorry but I didn't think we were going to make it as a company. We were close I told them, but I had just left Ron’s office for the sales presentation where IBM was to present too with at least twelve people in attendance, almost double the entire size of our company. How could we compete?
But then I made the deal. I agreed to let Ron hire our people "Johnny on the spot" if our product didn't make it or our company failed to meet our high standards in the SLA (service level agreement). Boom, he bought. So that makes him a so called “early adopter” of our new products and services. Wrong. He was a very smart businessman that saw that our product reduced his downside to such a degree that he could afford to take a chance on us.
In the real world, forget the “early adopter” theory. Here is how entrepreneurs sell new products and services:
- They target agile organizations in a state of flux rather than ones with a clearly defined problem looking for a pre-determined solution.
- They find change agents with budgets vs. friendly informants who do not have purchasing authority.
- They educate key leaders on who, when, where, and how to buy.
- They are creative with the Request for Proposal (RFP) and fill out the information requested but also show-up with a Plan B, an entirely different solution than what the RFP even requested showing that you’re solving problems the client didn’t even know existed.
Have you ever seen how fast a lizard can change colors on a fence post? Well, now you know how fast a laggard can become an “early adopter” with a founder that knows how to sell and also understands the vital concept of “GFC,” Get the Friggin’ Check. Believe me, that is not a whopper.
