RE: Just a little tease on how to place proper product spin.


Are you billing your customer at the same time you're
typing all this today Gumby?

--- Ian Michael Gumby <im_gumby@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Gee!

Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this
morning?

The purpose of the exercise is to think.
Sure its easy to poke fun of the marketing
department. Most people here have never done sales.

The key here is how do you answer a question that
doesn't do the following:

1) Play one product against another.
2) Open yourself up to *more* questions that *you*
*dont* want to address.
3) Detract from the message that you want to
project.
I've been accused of ripping on IDS management and
not being positive.
Yet here's a positive post and the only two
responses have been you, being negative, and Mark
Townsend a developer and employee of Oracle who
would rather spend time here than actually work on
making Oracle a better product. It works, but you
have to throw lots of hardware to make it work well
enough. (And don't get me started on some of the
"certified" Oracle DBAs walking around. IDS may be
simpler, but I'd take an IDS certified DBA over an
Oracle certified DBA.)

So when I try to get those who also criticize IDS
marketing and sales management to try and think in a
more creative and positive way, they don't want to
be bothered.

Product management doesn't really grok the sales
mentality. I've told them countless times that you
need to change the PBCs of certain individuals to
make real change happen. They haven't done that.
Why? Because they don't understand what motivates
the S&D team. Or their management. Hint: PBCs
indirectly affect their pay.

The point of the "spin" game is an effort to get
individuals to modify how they think about a given
topic. Oracle is great at doing this while they sell
smoke and mirrors.

The truth is... Its easier to be negative and bitch
about a problem than to solve it.
When given an opportunity to add your two cents, you
bitch.

But hey! What do I know?
I've actually done more behind the scenes that just
bitch... ;-)

-G




From: indeep@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: Just a
little tease on how to place proper product spin.>
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 20:12:00 -0700> To:
informix-list@xxxxxxxx> > Ian Michael Gumby wrote:>
Lets play a game...> > > > We all know that IDS's
problems aren't in the product development team. > >
But in how the product is being positioned and
presented to the > > industry, their
customers,press/analysts and of course IBM's very
own > > S&D team. So lets tease Jerry and his crew
(Cathy and Bernie) and > > suggest, a much better
market position statement.> >> > Why bother.> > >
Sure we all want to say "Keep IDS in the LUW aka
"Distributed" world, > > and place DB2 on the
mainframe and AS/400 aka I series. While we know > >
that will never happen, it is still a very viable
option and one that > > IBM should consider.> > What
makes you think anyone gives a ***.> > > (And of
course, support those customers who are already on
DB2 in LUW > > world.) -- Just Kidding. IBM would
never do this. Serge would lose his > > job and be
forced to work for Oracle or Microsoft... 8-0 :-)> >
But lets get serious, yes, even Gumby can get
serious... ;-):> > > > I believe it was Bernie who
did the IDS "whitepaper" interview which did > > a
horrendous of product positioning.> > HEY IBM,
HERE"S A FREE CLUE. THE NEXT TIME YOU'RE ASKED THIS
QUESTION... > > CONSIDER THIS AS YOUR ANSWER...:> >
A: "We [IBM] believe that we're in an excellent
position because we have > > two thoroughbred
racehorses in our stable. Through the Informix > >
acquisition, we have acquired not only talented
engineers and > > developers, but also a product
that has an incredibly loyal fan base. > > That fan
base exists because IDS is an easy to maintain,
performance > > beast, well suited for embedded
solutions, OLTP solutions, and > > datamarts.
Through their acquistion of Illustra, they also have
extensibility that will allow them to adapt to
"web 2.0" type > > applications, along with the high
end custom solutions that some of our > > customers
need. Contrast this to DB2 whose lineage comes from
the > > Mainframe. Well suited for handling large
volumes of data and large data > > warehouses.
Products like SAP have been specifically tuned for
DB2.> > > > So when we look at the customers' needs,
we can supply an engine that > > can meet their
diverse requirements. From one end of the spectrum,
we > > have IDS. The other, DB2. Together, our
product base covers *all* of the > > customers'
needs...."> > > > Q: "What about product overlap?">
A: "We [IBM] believe that the overlap is actually
a good thing. Both > > products adhere to the DRDA
standard, so that our DRDA compliant tools > > will
work with either database. These databases can work
well within > > environments together and compliment
each other. No other company can do > > this.
Product overlap also gives a customer choice. If
they've started > > with IDS and they are
comfortable with IDS, they can stay with IDS. The >
say is true of DB2. IBM is working to keep both
products in parity when > > they can. Technology is
shared between both engines. "> > > > > > -=-> > > >
I think you get the point. No bashing of either
product. Each product > > receives equal footing.> >
So you're saying the marketing department is
filled with cocksucking sychophants.> > > > > Now
here's the Game.> > Its your job to poke holes in
these statements.> > As you poke a hole, then find a
counter argument that defends this position.> > The
more you do this, the stronger the argument
becomes.> >> > Q: What is the sound of one hand
clapping?> > A: A Slap in the face.> > > > With
respect to the sales force... That's a different
story.> > And that is something I'd be happy to work
on with IBM. Sales critters > > speak a differnt
language. ;-)> > > > > > Sun is moving to Ubuntu.
What does that tell you? An invincible company> that
has totally lost its way. They'd never go x86, never
go Linux, never> go open source, never
open-source-java, the list goes on. Now they do all>
of the above, trying to find relevance. They can't
even give away Solaris,> nobody cares. What else do
they have? They have to buy companies because> they
lost their way.> > Soon IBM will cease to be
relevant. It's coming.> > Microsoft, invincible. Now
comes Vista, a total, gargantuan flop.> > It doesn't
take much imagination to see where things can go
when people get> arrogant and think they can't fall.
IBM will be next. It's coming, get> ready for it.
Informix went thru it once, deja vu all over again.>
It doesn't take much imagination to see Apple's
iPhone in a little bit larger> size, as a fully
blowed out laptop. Totally capitalizing on the
market.> > I am eagerly looking forward to IBM
hitting the wall.> > It's coming.> > Get ready.> >
-ID-> > > >
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