Business Corner
STRATEGIES & ANALYSIS
marketing, therefore, begins with the
technology enthusiasts.
In any business, technology enthusiasts are the gatekeepers for any new
technology. They are the first key to
any technical marketing effort. It’s
ironic that during corporate buying
decisions the technology enthusiasts
pose fewer requirements than any
other group in the adoption profile,
but one must not ignore the issues
that are important to them. First and
most critical, they want the truth.
Second, when an issue presents itself
they want access to the most technically knowledgeable person to answer
it. Third, they want to be first to get
the new stuff. Working with technology enthusiasts under a non-disclosure
agreement, one is able to extract a
great deal of meaningful feedback
early in the design cycle, while gaining
loyalties that will influence buyers in
the market place itself. Of course, the
ideal technology enthusiast is one who
has access to the major company decision makers.
The early adopters, or visionaries,
are persons who have the insight to
match an emerging technology to a
strategic opportunity, the character to
translate that view into a high-visibil-ity, high-risk project and the magnetism to get the rest of their organization to buy into that project. An example of a visionary is Bill Gates and his
dream of the company offerings that
emerged as Microsoft.
As a class, visionaries tend to be
recent entrants to the executive ranks,
motivated and driven by a dream.
However, the core of that dream is a
business goal, not a technology goal
and usually involves taking a quantum
leap forward in how business is conducted in their industry or by their customers. In the coatings industry visionary leaders have captured market
share over the past 40 years with
developments such as electrocoat products in the 60s; waterborne automotive
topcoats and thin film powder coatings
in the 70s; UV coatings in the 80s and
EB coatings in the 90s. Today in 2008
we see visionary leaders taking great
risk by fostering the development,
refinement and marketing of nano-based coating systems throughout the
world and across many markets.
Therefore, the visionaries are not
looking for improvements in existing
products. They are looking for a fundamental breach of the ordinary and into
what might be best described as a
breakthrough. Another interesting characteristic of the early adopter/visionary
is when they see a vast potential for the
technology they have in mind, they are
the least price-sensitive of any segment
of the technology adoption profile. They
can usually provide upfront money to
seed additional development that supports their project. As a result, their
importance as a source of high-tech
development capital is apparent.
One very important additional characteristic of visionaries is that they
are easy to sell but very hard to
please. The reason is that they are
buying into a dream and this dream
will always vary from one degree or
another.
The most important key to success in
launching a new technology is understanding and successfully managing
the early adopter/visionary’s natural
inclination to project manage the tech-
Source: Chemark
nology by establishing milestones with
attendant success plateaus. This mindset is in direct opposition to the inven-tor/entrepreneur/vendor’s natural tendency to desire one major success or
milestone that can be extended to a universal multi-customer business base,
illustrated in the chart above.
One other important quality of
visionaries is that they are in a hurry.
They see the future in terms of windows of opportunity that are closing.
This mindset exerts deadline pressures, which plays into the classic
weakness of the entrepreneur.
The basic needs in dealing with
early adopters/visionaries from an
entrepreneur/innovator viewpoint
include:
• Emphasize control of management
expectations;
• Entrepreneurs must deal with
Visionaries through a small, top level
direct sales and marketing force;
• Entrepreneurs must give them confidence that you can step up to the
Visionaries goals;
• Entrepreneurs must be flexible and
have the ability to change;
• And lastly, entrepreneurs must keep
the spark of the vision alive without
committing to tasks that are unachievable within the time frame allotted. CW
