While most companies offer products and services, and then look for customers for those products and services, IBM has found success using a very different approach. Find some really big problems and get paid very well for solving those problems. (Fortune, May 4, 2009 “IBM’s Grand Plan to Save the Planet.”)
Not long ago, IBM sold stuff — especially big computers and expensive software. But smart leadership realized that there was money in solving problems. So IBM sold off their well-respected ThinkPad line of laptops to Lenovo, bought software and consulting firms like Cognos and Price Waterhouse Coopers, and spent heavily on R&D and advertising.
In one example, Stockholm Sweden had a big problem with traffic. So they put out an RFP for a congestion pricing scheme that would charge drivers by time of day. IBM found a way to make the traffic problems disappear.
Relying on 18 subcontractors and IBM R&D in Haifa, Israel, the teams placed two cameras above each lane, facing in opposite directions to capture front and back license plates. Within months, they had a 99% accuracy. A team of humans reduced misses even more. The information is processed in a data center in Copenhagen and drivers receive monthly bills in the mail. IBM contracted with a call center to take calls but they never came.
The goal was to decrease traffic and that it did. Total traffic dropped 35% almost immediately and stay
ed down 22% — and not just at peak times or solely downtown. Emissions dropped 14%. Streets became more pedestrian friendly and buses began finishing routes so fast, they had to rewrite the bus schedules.
What is the lesson for Finding New Customers? Solving problems are what businesses and governments want to do.
If you focus on those problems, rather than just the products and services you offer, you can prosper just like IBM did.
For companies looking for best practices in b2b lead generation who wish to improve the way they acquire new customers, Find New Customers is the place to go. CSO Insights says companies need to improve the way they generate leads and implement processes for business to business lead generation.
Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is a demand generation expert and sales leader, as well as the President of Find New Customers, a lead generation company, who helps businesses create lead generation campaigns and continually publishes the best lead generation ideas, so his readers can determine the best lead generation strategy to find new customers.
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Jeff Ogden