Cardinal Initiatives Newsletter Mar 18, 2023 6 min read

This week I share a story about helping a public sector account get what they need. We must go back in time for this one, so I’ve worked harder to set the stage.

I hope you enjoy it.

Process this:

- A territory left uncovered – no resource calling on these accounts

- A public sector account planning to release an RFP

- A formidable competitor with a seasoned salesperson “wiring” the RFP in their favor

- Industry analysts say you might be their fourth choice, behind IBM and the top two DBMS/4GL vendors

- A new hire who is also new to selling in this space and this territory

- He learned of the RFP in his third week while reviewing his territory list and cold-calling accounts.

What are your odds of winning this opportunity?

This was the scenario facing Gary, the Regional Sales Manager.

The new hire was me.

The Industry

The industry was mainframe system software.

The market segment was DBMS/4GLs.

The targets were Fortune 1000 companies building new in-house online applications.

Their environment was IBM system software, including CICS for teleprocessing, VSAM for managing files, and COBOL for programming.

The 800-pound Gorilla

IBM “owned” this space.

And even though they began slipping in the early 1980s, their market share remained at over 70% until 1990.

If you had a mainframe, you ran IBM’s system software.

In many cases, your IT staff was populated with former IBM employees, making IBM even more influential.

This was especially true the farther you were from a major metropolitan area.

The Three Challengers

The database industry was relatively small.

To put things in perspective, any software company that wasn’t IBM was known as an ISV, an acronym for Independent Software Vendor.

The DBMS ISVs at that time were: Cincom (Total), Cullinet (IDMS), Applied Data Research (Datacom DB), Software AG (Adabas), and Computer Corporation of America (Model 204).

The fourth-generation language field was slightly larger because it encompassed programming, query, and report-writing tools.

The 4GL ISVs were Mathematica (RAMIS), Information Builders (FOCUS), Informatics (Mark IV), Cullinet (ADS/O), ADR (IDEAL), and Software AG (Natural).

If you had a project to develop a new online system of significance, it behooved you to look at the latest technology.

For those projects, there were three candidates: Cullinet, ADR, and Software AG.

The Need for a Sales Force

If you were talking with one of these three, you would always compare against at least one of the others, and many times both.

The three had plenty of differences when looking close enough – deep enough.

But stepping back, if you had prepared yourself to buy from someone other than IBM, there wasn’t an ounce of difference.

The technology, support, pricing, training, and company viability were all comparable.

You could be successful with any one of the three.

With over 90% of your targets using IBM’s file system and the COBOL programming language, you had a “missionary sale” ahead of you.

“Missionary,” as in selling religion, was an appropriate analogy.

Why do you need a DBMS? Why a 4GL?

This job originated “Why Buy Anything?” for me.

With formidable competitors involved in every opportunity, “Why Buy (from Us)?” was exhausting, typically consuming a minimum of six months.

The slightest competitive advantage was the difference between winning and losing.

Discovery

The account was located in the northwest corner of Arkansas, in Fayetteville.

You could fly there directly from Dallas on a “puddle jumper” operated by American Eagle.

When it’s too tiny for Southwest Airlines, well…

Location: Advantage IBM

The project was a new student information system (SIS), including class registration.

The person responsible for releasing the RFP and conducting the evaluation was Sandy, the database administrator.

The school used a DBMS?

They had IBM’s DL/1 running under a couple of applications.

Gary provided me with a list of questions I could ask Sandy.

They would cause her to consider what is essential to ask in her due diligence and add to the RFP.

Her answers would provide us with more information.

I was off on the first of many trips to Fayetteville and took my Systems Engineer, Jeff, with me.

The First Meeting

Jeff turned out to be one of the best in the business.

Between Gary and Jeff, I had hit the jackpot in professionalism.

When we sat down with Sandy, it was easy for me to be disarming.

It wasn’t an act.

I was new to the company and the territory and knew little about our products.

I knew even less about the competition.

I did not attempt to hide this.

I was lucky that this eliminated any psychological barriers Sandy might have otherwise experienced.

Learning Moment

What I just described is known as unconscious competence.

I was merely being authentic, but even if I was an experienced DBMS/4GL sales veteran and knew much more about the space than Sandy, I should still act the way I did on that first-ever call as a Software AG salesperson.

Dumb it down.

It’s not what you know.

Tellin’ isn’t sellin’.

Customers will share more with you when they trust you.

Trust happened quickly in this case because Sandy felt I could not take advantage of her.

I didn’t know much, so I didn’t say much.

I merely asked questions and listened.

I was harmless, and Sandy felt that.

What We Learned in that First Meeting

They had looked at a couple of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) SIS packages and felt like their needs were better served if they wrote their own.

The Registrar of the school was the person who wanted the new SIS.

They had no experience with a development project of this magnitude.

She built the RFP by sourcing input from others.

She said that she had contacted Software AG, but we had yet to respond.

She had heard about us in an article about DBMS/4GLs.

While she knew little about 4GLs, she had experience with databases – IBM DL/1.

She thought that Adabas might lack some essential features that they needed.

Referential Integrity was the main feature lacking.

She was unaware of any Adabas/Natural customers in Arkansas.

She saw that our headquarters were in Darmstadt, West Germany (the Berlin Wall still existed).

She was concerned about our ability to support US customers, especially their school in northwest Arkansas.

Sandy had already released a draft of their RFP to potential bidders.

She gave us a copy and encouraged us to submit clarifying questions.

She wanted to release the RFP by the end of the month, which was two weeks away.

We’d have two weeks after that to deliver our proposal.

They would host a Bidders Conference a few days after we received their RFP to answer any questions.

Upon Our Return to Dallas

We shared what we had learned with Gary and Lee (the SE Manager).

Gary jumped right in. He was the perfect player/coach, leading by example.

The draft RFP was very database-centric.

We could help Sandy (and our cause) by unloading all the questions we get asked – one should ask – in a development tool evaluation.

Gary intended that Sandy would want to add these to her RFP.

Gary also saw that James from Cullinet was executing his playbook.

- The industry was small enough that everyone knew everyone else, including who had what territory for every competitor.

- The sales teams from Cullinet, ADR, Software AG, and CCA were constantly poaching talent from one another.

He saw the “Referential Integrity” reference, heard what Sandy said about our Germany HQ and lack of Arkansas customers, and immediately recognized James’ handiwork.

We had an Arkansas customer; Tasty Bird was a chicken farm in Russellville.

They were a great reference but would not inspire the confidence that we needed for Sandy.

The University of Texas was a global reference for Software AG.

They had written nearly all their computer systems in Adabas and Natural, including their SIS.

They were perfect: same application, same industry.

Jeff and Lee combed through the rest of the draft RFP.

Referential Integrity was a requirement to be a bidder.

Without it, we would be eliminated.

We scheduled time for the next day to plan out our strategy.

To Be Continued

Next week, I'll pick up where we left off today. The finish is loaded with lessons you won't want to miss.

Thanks for reading.

Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

- Advisory: my time helps Growth-Stage technology companies with sales performance

- Coaching: my time helps salespeople perform their best

- Digital: my online content helps sales leadership and sales professionals.