Why we’re proud to be ‘rubbish’ at sales (and what we prioritise instead)
Yes – it’s a click-baity title. No one is actually proud to be rubbish at anything.
This title is a tongue-in-cheek way to summarise what I really feel about the way we work and the service we aim to offer.
When I say we’re ‘rubbish at sales’, what I mean is we’re not great at doing the typically salesy things, like cold calling or emailing, stalking people, or giving out silly pricing to hit a monthly target.
This is what we do strive to be good at:
Choosing ‘best of breed’ partners
Being a product developer is a tough call and not the business we want to be in.
Instead, we’re good at partnering with software vendors who are really good at having the vision and developing great solutions. On the flip side they may have less capacity for marketing, they may not have localised UK customer relations and support, they may operate in a different time-zone, whatever….we make up for any shortcomings by bringing our skills and capabilities to support, adding value – see my next point.
Adding real value
Software vendors in the Microsoft-adjacent space are always evolving: From mergers to acquisitions, growth journeys that go from scrappy start ups to VC-funded corporate models.
While these shifts are often signs of success, they can also lead to distractions that impact product roadmaps and the quality of customer support.
That’s where we come in.
An important part of our role as a partner is to act as protective buffer between changing software and vendor situations and our customers: helping keep service levels high, and ensure our customers continue to get the best possible experience – no matter what’s happening behind the scenes.
Solving challenging problems
We’re not here to tell anyone what to do, we are here to listen carefully to the challenges you’re facing and apply our expertise to find the right solution. We want to use our skills and knowledge to match solutions to problems, and to do that for organisations who are looking for a partner they can trust.
Our sales people are product specialists, who just happen to be equipped to handle commercial conversations and options when they need to. Our team don’t rely on AI to get the job done, it’s down to actual knowledge (though we may occasionally use AI to help make sense of long-winded documents, it’s the humans who write it, and check it!).
Importantly, if we can’t solve your problems, we will let you know. We never want to over-commit and under-deliver, otherwise you won’t come back to us.
Being ‘in it’ for the long-run
We’ve been operating as a company since the first version of Windows NT – that’s over 35 years ago. Blimey!
The fact that we’ve been successfully operating this long shows that, so far, we’ve mostly got it right.
Our incredibly low team churn means we keep valuable skills and knowledge for far longer than the average organisation.
Essential is also a proudly independent business, which means as long as we’re covering our costs and looking after our team and our customers, then we’re in the enviable position of choosing how we behave, and not having to dance to anyone else’s tune (which is something that can happen to our partners).
We’re not fans of behaviour which prioritises short-term thinking, such as the sales tactics I mentioned at the start of this blog. Experience tells us this rarely leads to longer term success.
Instead, our team prioritises long term relationships and partnerships with our customers above short-term revenue goals – every time. We’d probably be a lot richer if we didn’t. But we’re happy as we are.
Unless a short-term revenue goal aligns with customer needs- in which case… #winning!
Want to learn more about what we do?
Get in touch to arrange a chat.
