Risk has always been a potent marketing tool. First, an advertiser finds some latent fear – a health crisis, a major vehicle repair, a tax audit – and then they blow the issue up, to get your heart beating faster. Now that they have your attention, they tell you that for a price, they can make the risk disappear using some magical new product or service. Too often, the risk wasn’t as big as it seemed. Even worse, the solution doesn’t even fix the problem they magnified.
While these pitches are common, you don’t hear many radio ads for accounting firms telling you that you’re going to get audited if you don’t select them, or physicians telling you that your current doctor might not spot that early melanoma. Companies in the most prestigious (and highest-cost) professions understand how destructive it is to their reputation to promise peace-of-mind they can’t deliver. There isn’t an accounting firm in the United States that can protect you from an audit; if there was, they would have the most active switchboard in the world around this time every year.
Unfortunately, technology companies often market more like an aftermarket car warranty company than an accounting firm. It’s not helpful for us when every technology vendor forecasts corporate implosion for anyone who doesn’t buy their service. As bad as this is, however, it’s far worse when a vendor sells a “solution” to a serious problem at a cut-rate price – and then does almost nothing for the customer to protect against the problem.
Some of these unkept promises are visible and mostly benign – a managed IT service provider (MSP) promises exemplary service but creates a system just frustrating enough to discourage you from contacting them for minor issues. Some of them are deadly serious – a company that promises to protect your network, but leaves generic passwords and other open security chasms unguarded. Either way they’re still the same problem – a technology vendor making a promise they don’t have the ability (or the intention) to keep.
When we identify a risk that a customer or prospect faces, we don’t blow it out of proportion. When we offer a solution that mitigates that risk, we don’t promise results we can’t deliver. And when we charge you for a service, we actually perform the service. And while this approach can make it more difficult to win new customers, we’ve found that it’s great for keeping the existing ones on board for years or even decades.
Do you have any vendors who hyped a problem and then sold you a solution that seemed too good to be true? If so, it’s probably worth seeking some validation that they’re delivering on the peace of mind they sold you. Unfortunately, in our experience, you might not have bought much more than the peace of mind they gave you on that first phone call.
To learn how WingSwept can help you determine which risks your company faces, call us at 919-779-0954 or email us at Team_WingSwept@WingSwept.com.