Hello all, Rob DeRobertis back for the Technology Marketing Center. I originally published this short story Jan 5, 2007 on my old blog. I've been thinking about this scenario lately and still think it is true today so instead of another Five Things In Marketing, here is a short story about hamburgers.
If selling hamburgers were a Business to Business exercise, the sales scenario might look like the following:
There are two teams in the engineering community. One likes charbroiled hamburgers, the other likes fried hamburgers. The teams scoff at each other because they both believe they have a better palate. The purchasing department doesn't care about what kind of hamburger that is purchase but knows that if they wait until the end of the month when the hamburger franchise reports their revenue; they can get a better price on hamburgers. The product managers want the hamburgers eaten and eaten on time. They worry about the two engineering teams, the apparent inefficiencies since the engineers aren't working together and the product managers are dealing with the sales team screaming for the hamburgers to be eaten.
The managers are worried about picking the right hamburgers because a promotion is pending for one of them. One manager always buys charbroiled and believe that since the people at the counter are friendly it will always taste great. The other manager likes fried hamburgers because of the special sauce. He also likes the fact that they will allow him to customize the hamburger. He believes that choosing this hamburger will create a competitive advantage and get him promoted. In the mean time the engineers are working out various value meals.
The General Manager doesn't eat hamburgers, he is a vegetarian. He doesn't care what hamburgers are eaten. He does care if these hamburgers will help increase market share and grow profits faster than the competition. He is also worried that since they buy a lot french-fries from the fried hamburger company that he doesn't upset the balance. He does work out in the gym with the fried franchise owner and knows him well but says it is the decision of the engineers.
The product managers call a review meeting that includes the engineers, managers, purchasing people and general manager. It is determined that the value meal of the fried hamburger looks the most promising. The team who were considering charbroiled hamburgers leave frustrated and tell the people at the charbroiled hamburger restaurant not to worry that they will be back. Once returning from lunch, the charbroiled hamburger contingent is re-assigned to chicken.
The fried hamburger team spends the next 18 months negotiating contracts, getting place setting right, visiting the fried hamburger restaurant many times asking many questions and coming up with the best value meal. They then place their order for 5 hamburgers on the last day of the month. The hamburgers are wrapped in a special package and shipped priority mail to the factory where the quality inspection team approve deliver and release payment.
Finance releases payment 90 days later.
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