The Buggy Whip Manufacturer Syndrome

Imagine that you manufactured CD players in 1998 - the year Compaq Computer Corporation released the first hard drive based Digital Audio Player. Would you have foreseen the impact that digital music distribution and playback would have on your business? If not, I’ll bet you would have been shaken when your retail customers began lowering order volume from you shortly after Apple Computer introduced the first iPod in late 2001. Are the changes in the media delivery and distribution business much different today? I think not. Here’s another tip. Actually, it’s same tip with a spin. Look deeper still and understand what may be happening to and with the customers of their customers. You may sell to traditional broadcasters. Their customers - couch potatoes like you and me - are changing the way they receive and consume content. If you sell to channel partners (value-added re-sellers or integrators) who in turn sell to broadcasters, what impact are changing consumer viewing habits having on the broadcaster’s business?

Sound (and be) Informed

Salespeople who demonstrate an understanding of the bottom-line business drivers important to the prospect’s CEO, COO, CFO, and Vice Presidential executives stand a much better of sales success. They are perceived more as a consultant trying to help solve a business problem and less like a sales rep angling for an order. If you don’t know, ask your prospect who buys what they sell and then research the business of your prospect’s customers. Here’s an example. Yesterday I was speaking with the VP of Sales of a prospect company. It was our first conversation. I spent most of the call asking questions that demonstrated I knew his business and the challenges he faced. A the end of the call, I asked for a face-to-face meeting to advance my sales opportunity with him. My goal for that meeting is to explore his challenges in greater detail and share some ideas on plans that might be able to help. He quickly accepted the meeting. He told me, “I get between 100 and 200 calls a month from people who want to meet with me. They typically call clueless about what we do and what problems I might have. Of the very few calls that make it through my initial filter, many begin by saying, ‘Tell me a little about your business.’ That’s when I cut the call short. I tell them that if they can’t even spend a few minutes before they call to learn even a few basics about my business, they are wasting my time.”

Are Your Salespeople Partners or Just Another Vendor?

When your salespeople call on senior, business-focused executives, do your those executives feel they are talking to someone who understands their business and the business of the people that buy their products and services? If the answer is no or even maybe, you must explore ways to become trusted business partners and not just another vendor.

The WSJ article reports that one challenge facing the company is whether to keep Harris’ media technology unit as well as its other civil sector business units.

Since 2001, Harris has built onto its basic transmission systems business through the acquisition of broadcast business systems developer Encoda and infrastructure and digital video products developer Leitch.

For the 12 months ending in March, the company reported revenues in excess of five billion dollars.  Compared to that, the media tech component of the company is small, but growing.  Harris’ broadcast-related business units generated about $160 million in quarterly revenue when Q3-2008 closed at the end of March.  But, that gain was 14 percent better than the results reported for the same quarter last year.

It’s difficult to imagine that the same companies interested in Harris for its defense businesses - Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Northrop Grumman (according to the Wall Street Journal) - would be interested in the media technology components.

So, who would buy that piece of the business?  Or, is it possible that Harris would keep the growing media tech business, sell the defense business and use the proceeds to dramatically expand into other areas of media technology?

Of course, all the speculation could be for naught. Harris executives interviewed by the WSJ warned the company was in the very early, exploratory phase of the process.

The company’s share price was up $2.31 at $56.72 toward the end of the trading day.

Regular readers may be interested.

Whether launching a new IPTV service into the market, or upgrading an existing service to support HD, multi-stream DVR or social media applications, the integration of new IPTV technologies and features can be a risky and difficult proposition.

In this webinar, Curtis Howe, President & CEO of Mariner Partners - the industry’s leading independent IPTV integrator, describes the challenges his team has faced in a decade of IPTV deployments. Howe also shares the techniques and practices that they have used to successfully develop and deploy innovative IPTV services.

[Link to Registration Page]

SOURCE: Mariner Partners

Media Technology Sales and Marketing Conditioning

Sales Performance Associates provides sales and marketing conditioning tactics, methods and services helping media technology (broadcasting, new media, IPTV, and digital signage) companies improve their ability to create and win more business.

Another IP Video Industry First: Mariner Unveils frostt, the IPTV Service Acceleration Platform

SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mariner Partners Inc., a leading provider of services and solutions to the IP Video industry, is unveiling its latest innovation, frostt. This revolutionary IPTV service acceleration platform delivers web based entertainment services to the TV – and maximizes the value of existing IPTV networks, Set Tops and remote controls.

A news conference to unveil frostt will be held at Mariner’s booth – C1154 – at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday, April 15^th at 9 a.m. The NAB show is an annual digital media industry event hosted by the National Association of Broadcasters which features companies and products from across the globe.

Mariner’s President and CEO, Curtis Howe, who will be presenting Best Practices in IPTV System Integration as part of the NABSHOW Telecom2008: Building Your IPTV Business track, on Monday, April 14^th at 10:25 a.m. stated “frostt delivers on the original promise of IPTV – new entertainment applications and improved service to consumers …innovation driven by interactivity.”

Mariner’s latest innovation, frostt, is the toolset service providers have been looking for, a web architected platform that leverages existing IPTV investment and enables low cost, low risk service innovation. The platform fuses the power of Web 2.0 and IPTV technologies to simplify and speed the deployment of new IPTV services.

frostt allows IPTV operators to deploy Internet video and social media services not yet available on cable and satellite TV systems. Operators can increase revenues with frostt self-service software that lets consumers subscribe to premium channel packages and features from the TV, and will also enjoy cost savings with frostt integrated self care tools that help consumers correct common service problems using only their remote control.

The Service Provider will be able to:

• Drive additional sales: Harness the power of interactive advertising and self -service purchasing to increase the penetration of premium features and content.
• Accelerate Innovation: Deploy innovative new IPTV services in less time while leveraging existing IPTV networks and systems.
• Reduce Churn: Differentiate their TV service from competing offers, with unique personalized content: empower the viewer with in-home control, and deliver industry-leading quality of experience (QoE).
• Control Costs: Reduce the cost of order processing and customer service visits (truck rolls) with TV-based self service purchasing and repair capabilities.

About Mariner

Mariner is a leading provider of IP Video solutions and services. Mariner continues to leverage learnings from its Lifecycle services to develop market-leading technologies that deliver unique value to the IPTV industry. xVu, Mariner’s innovative TV Care platform and frostt, the IPTV Service Acceleration platform, enable Service Providers to successfully meet the challenges of developing and operating advanced video services in today’s increasingly complex marketplace.

For more information, or to have frostt presented to you at the NAB show, please contact:

Marie Jo Thibault, Director Marketing Communications, Mariner Partners, Inc.

506-650-6111 / mariejo.thibault@marinerpartners.com

Internet, IPTV networks, and mobile handsets are expected to contribute to the increase, according to an Insight Research report.

Streaming video and music will generate $70 billion in revenue overt the next six years, according to a research report released Monday.

The Insight Research reported that content streamed over the Internet, IPTV networks, and mobile handsets will increase revenue through content and networks.

Insight’s study, “Streaming Media, IPTV, and Broadband Transport: Telecommunications Carriers and Entertainment Services 2008-2013,” covers several issues affecting the streaming market.

On-demand audio and video, as well as the revenue they generate, are expected to boost the market, which will grow at a compound annual rate of almost 29% through 2013, according to Insight.

“The outlook for streaming media has never been brighter,” Robert Rosenberg, Insight Research president, said in a statement released with the study. “Questions surrounding consumers’ willingness to pay for content have been dispelled by satellite radio and iTunes. The forecasts that we present are conservative and in line with current performance.”

In fact, if per-stream costs decrease faster than expected, or consumers accept IPTV sooner than predicted, or 3G delivery takes off more quickly than forecast, “it could blow the doors off” Insight’s predictions and push the industry’s growth to “explosive” levels, Rosenberg said.

Insight examined several factors that face the market, including: licensing, broadband Internet access, mass-market demand, and enterprise use.

Insight said its forecasts include revenues for the U.S. market by network services and by content services. The predictions for network services include digital rights management (DRM), encoding, and performance measurement. Revenue figures for content services cover advertising, music on-demand, Internet radio and video on-demand. Hard copies of the entire 140-page report are available for $3,995.

Insight Research is forecasting that streaming content will generate almost $70 billion in the U.S. by 2013. I don’t know how they come up with that number as I have not seen the full report, but $70 billion?

They say the revenue prediction comes from audio and video files transmitted over the Internet, via an IPTV network or to mobile phones. They say that advertising revenue will fuel this growth and that “Questions surrounding consumers’ willingness to pay for content have been dispelled by the popularity of satellite radio and iTunes.”

I would disagree. Customers are willing to pay for music via iTunes, but so far, not videos on a mass-market scale. Over time, yes, more video specific content via iTunes will be purchased but you have to back up the $70 billion number with more than just iTunes as an example. And what does satellite radio have to do with streaming?

They also say that if pre-stream costs drop faster than expected, or IPTV or 3G takes off faster than expected “it could blow the doors off of our forecasts, propelling this industry into explosive growth.”

I am all up for reports that show growth and make predication based on accurate data, but $70 billion is just so far away from reality. If someone has a copy of the full report, I’d love to see how the $70 billion number is calculated.

Well, a lot has changed since then - for both professions. I wouldn’t be surprised if research today would show that no industry has been so rapidly changed by computerization and connectivity in the past ten years as the media industry.

The rapid change in media production, distribution and consumption models present media technology companies - large and small, established and start-up - with huge opportunity. But, technology vendor companies also face formidable obstacles.

Some of these obstacles are largely beyond your control. You can’t control the competition, for example. And few can predict the next new, disruptive technology that changes the playing field for everyone.

You Can Control the Way You Sell

One thing you can control is how well your sales team executes. Yet, I have found that very few media technology companies take effective steps to measure and improve their sales effectiveness. This is especially disturbing when you realize that there are few areas where such a small investment can match the return of improved win rates, increased market share and better margins.

Industry Experts, But Sales Novices

Many, if not most, of the salespeople in media technology companies have never been exposed to modern sales methods and techniques. They are in sales because of their industry knowledge, experience, contacts or a combination of all three. Their “situational fluency” equips them to understand the technical and functional requirements of their customers and how their products and services can match up on a feature-function-benefit basis. But, few have the ability to sit down with a CEO or departmental vice president of a prospect company and communicate the strategic business advantage they offer - even though those executives may be the ultimate decision-maker and have a totally different agenda than an operational or engineering executive.

Media technology sales managers - like their counterparts in other industries - are even more poorly equipped. Typically, the person charged with directing the sales team to deliver promised revenue is a top salesperson promoted into sales management with little or no formal training in sales management. They become the sales “superman” or “superwoman” who must fly in to close critical deals when the salesperson loses control of an opportunity. They seldom have the time to coach salespeople with deals and haven’t been trained to be an effective coach if they did have the time.

Many of these managers are also encumbered by a sales force that is made up of 20-percent winners, 50-percent performers (who could be winners if supported and coached) and 30-percent passengers (the salespeople that will never “get it”). These sales managers don’t know how to document the factors that their winners have and, therefore, have a hard time making sure they recruit quality new salespeople.

The problem is magnified when sales and revenue forecasts are missed because of poor opportunity qualification, inferior execution by salespeople and an inability to make the time to really manage a sales force.

How Do I Know This?

I know this based on first-hand experience. I’ve been that technically fluent salesperson being asked by a non-technical senior executive, “Why should I choose you?” I’ve been that consistently-successful salesperson promoted to sales management. I’ve been in that prospect meeting after being brought in to save the day by an ill-trained and poorly-coached salesperson.

And, I’ve taken the time to observe, learn and develop methods, processes and tactics to address these areas.

Media technology - be it newer digital signage, streaming media and IPTV systems or more traditional broadcast hardware, software and systems - are part of a unique and rapidly-changing business with a distinctive selling environment. It’s also an industry that is woefully under-trained in the methods and tactics, the arts and sciences of sales and sales management.

That’s why my firm focuses on helping media technology companies find ways to improve their sales effectiveness and win more business.

I wonder how those dentists are doing these days.

To quote Johnny Carson, “Stay tuned. There’s more to come.”