The Hindu Business Line : Are you saying IT with bite?

When was the last time you, the CEO, checked what was put on your Web site? Do you remember those early days when you were starting off on your business and needed a Web site quick and dirty? And the design team obliged. So there it is, even today, a skinny site with bare content, and visuals of young men holding cell-phones, or of global handshakes that promoted your “customer satisfaction philosophy.”

We call this “Death by the globe and handshake.”

Both images mean nothing either to you or your customers, yet companies invariably fall into adopting these vacuous identities of the early nineties, when the Web was still a new element of marketing.

Look at your print material. See that fuzzy globe to show your company is a global enterprise. Do you really believe it works? If you don’t, why will your customer?

If yours is a company that caters to the international — and specifically to the US, the largest market — clientele, how are you ensuring that your communications is in tune with what customers are seeking? With the Internet truly flattening the world, gone are the days when customers came through referrals, and offshore engagement was a possibility only for large corporations.

Today, even start-ups are actively seeking Indian offshore companies to support their product development right at the inception stages. Not surprisingly, service providers are in a price war to compete for bids that close at lightning speed. Companies use platforms such as Elance, Craigslists, and other online bid centres to send out bids, choose vendors, and close on engagements.

What has changed? The market is leaning to buyers, and India is now looked at with sceptical disbelief — failed projects, team leads that disappeared midway, and other causes have engendered sufficient negativism in the market. Other countries are fighting fiercely for the available dollars, and complacent sellers will not survive too long.

Communications for the services industry

As India grows to become the largest hub for IT-enabled services, the very nature of the industry creates a demon — commonality. Here are some of the common pain points that IT Services companies face:

Our customers do not see us to be any different from another Indian offshore company, and in fact, consider us expensive to other bids.

We want to sell consulting, but are given opportunities for staffing or tactical projects, such as testing and migration.

For every bid that we submit, our clients ask us for references that we are unable to provide due to non-disclosure agreement clauses.

How do you fight this? How will you ensure that your customers are receiving the right messages about your company? Your services portfolios are the same, the vertical and horizontal expertise in your team is the same, and your engagements are no different from what other companies are delivering to other customers.

Today, services companies do not need to stand out — it is not a benefit that can be sustained in the long term. The critical need for services companies is to provide conviction — of capabilities, of commitment, and of customer-driven thinking. How do you communicate these to convince your customers, especially when you are not even going to see them face-to-face?

Is there a “bite” in your communication?

In the rush to sell your capabilities and solutions, there is intense pressure to create massive laundry lists of solutions, expertise, methodologies, and so on in the communication. This does nothing but firmly place you back in the quagmire of commonality, where every services company is saying the same stuff.

So, let us stop for a minute and ask ourselves:

Are customers interested in your capabilities? Yes? No. They are interested in solving their problems. So why should your capabilities interest them? The first purpose in your communication should be “Benefit.” What is in it for your customer to spend time reading your communication that can benefit them in their businesses? The trick here is to turn your capabilities into business benefits for their interest.

For example, the most common business many of the IT companies engage in is staffing. This cannot be anymore vanilla-flavoured, as no company can make a significant claim to be different from the rest. And here is the tough part: how can you turn your staffing capabilities into a customer benefit?

One way could be to show how many different clients you serve — and yes, it means you should be brave to tell the world your customer list and survive competition’s onslaught. If you focus on testing and QA support (by staffing), why not put up a rolling ticker on the number of bugs your team has resolved? The point is, the customer should be able to see a significant value in spending his or her time on your Web site or to answer your cold call.

If you manage to stop customers with your first-level communication, you have achieved a good deal of success. The next challenge is to retain that interest. An example is when we shop for food. We have two thoughts running in parallel — the boredom of need (we need food) and the expectation to be surprised (we will find something new). Check if your communication has an element of “Interest.” Do you build a theme? Is there a philosophy? Have you created a new method of resolving common business challenges?

Some of the larger companies follow some themes. While they may not completely agree with my call, the themes are fairly accurate, nevertheless.

Accenture: The company promotes excellence in execution and focused vision. It landed a hit with Tiger Woods (and here’s wishing his game and handicap remain unsullied), and the company’s theme has positioned it as one of the leading consulting firms globally.

Wipro: A few quarters ago, the theme was all about awards and achievements — riding on the industry’s recognition. Recent themes include frameworks for organised innovation.

Cognizant: The US-based services company leads with customer success stories, providing proof-of-concept directly.

Do customers believe in what you say? Yes? No. Today, decision making is a tough choice for your buyers, and they have numerous compliance issues to deal with too. So how will you prove yourself? The next purpose of your communication should be “Testimony.” If you can provide sufficient layers of belief in your communication — from case studies to analysts’ calls to industry awards — you are making it easier for the customer to make a choice.

We have seen many client sites use their Web-based content, such as case studies and whitepapers, as lead-capture services. What were you thinking? Will a prospective client freely give away his or her identity to receive information about you to help him or her make a decision about you? Well, no.

A simple check on the more popular company Web sites will show you what I mean: Cignex, Fieldglass, Xoriant, and others prove my point.

Are your past customers and prospective customers truly aware of your expertise and experiences? As they have evolved, so have you — in business, capabilities, process maturities, and so on. Many of you have moved on from pure staffing to business consulting and other value-added services. How do you showcase your growing maturity in front of the client?

Consider the element of “Evangelism.” If you have gained deep experience in a particular vertical, and are slowly gaining repute as the go-to company for that particular service, you should be evangelising your service capabilities. Your communication should move to a higher plane, where customers can freely read about how your service model or engagement helps businesses gain distinct advantages.

A company like Xoriant was predominantly engaged in the staffing business for a long while. As the industries changed, so did the company’s business model. Today, the company has emerged as a leading product engineering outsourcing services provider, and has built deep content in framework-based development, vertical-focused successes, and so on. Through a mix of webinars, newsletters, and presentations, the organisation is highly successful in its sales process.

Review your current set of material — from Web site to case studies to whitepapers to your sales presentations. Are they filled with “bite” that will engage your customers? Are you selling features or are you delivering customer benefits? Are you hawking wares or are you convincing your prospects?

The author is President and CEO of Purplepatch Services. He can be reached at Karthik@purplepatchservices.com.

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