Sleeping Partner Number 1:
What's it all about?
What exactly does a business like The Galbraith Muir Consultancy do?
Well, that's a lot easier to ask than to answer. The intention, the purpose, indeed the commitment of the company is exactly as identified on the 'introduction' and 'about us' pages of this site. Yes, it's another of these "does exactly what it says on the tin"® identifiers. (For the non-UK readers of this site, this is a reference to an undoubtedly popular and successful TV advertising slogan of the last few years referring to, of all things, do-it-yourself wood preservatives. If you would like more details of this catchphrase and advert, try this link.)
But, coming back to ourselves, what do we do? We don't sell a product. We don't have a tin of magic marketing dust - "just two sprinkles and you'll see the difference". What we do have is a wealth of experience acquired within market-leading blue-chip companies where we were able to learn the fundamentals of how to link high-technology products and services to customers.
We're not in the business of peddling fixed solutions, marketing secrets, or uncovering sales mysteries.
Let's face it, ask a scientist, engineer or technologist what they think of their company's 'sales department' and you probably won't get a very enlightened or complimentary reply. Imagine the typical responses. What about the job titles themselves? How many sales staff actually have the word 'sales' in their job titles, unless it precedes 'executive' or 'director'? They're more likely these days to be 'business development managers', or 'account managers', or 'revenue enhancement facilitators'. But despite this rebranding, there's still the old image. A get-out-of-my-way-red Mondeo or Vectra (except these days they're probably in a BMW 3-series) thrashing down lane 3 of the motorway, inches from your rear bumper, one hand on the phone, the other re-tuning to MegaDeathHits FM, with the compulsory 85% polyester 'Couture by Little Chef' jacket on the hook behind the driver's seat. And, of course, why is he in such a rush? Stands to reason: he's late for the tee-off he's booked with Mikey from West Region. Work for a living? Do me favour guv!
And yet this character bears as little resemblance or relevance to modern professional sales and marketing needs as Basil Fawlty did to catering management (oh, all right, we've probably all met one Basil. But they are the exceptions.)
But what about the other side of the coin? The poor public esteem of 'sales' as a profession in the U.K. is probably matched only by that of 'engineer' or 'scientist'. If an engineer introduces himself as such to someone at a dinner party (assuming engineers get invited to dinner parties at all!) he or she is as likely to get asked about changing the oil filter on a car as they are to be asked about true engineering design and practice. Oh, to work in a country like Germany or Italy where 'engineer' or 'physicist' or 'statistician' is a qualification or title to put on your business card before your name. Where the social status of these roles is akin to lawyer or doctor. (How on Earth lawyers have wangled that, I'll never know!)
Sales and marketing is a science. It may be a particularly 'soft' science, but there do exist fundamental principles. If these are understood and applied correctly, change can be effected. How to apply them, and knowing what tuning and adjustments are required as the process starts to respond are vital.
This is an area of expertise that The Galbraith Muir Consultancy has to offer: where to start with the interaction between producer & client, how these parties should modify their behaviour to get what they both want, and how to establish the best methods of ensuring this actually happens. Two key elements on which we concentrate are helping to establish an understanding of these sales & marketing principles in the minds of technologists; and pursuing the clear realisation that meeting a customer's needs is not always an external task - many of the 'customers' you have to deal with are your own colleagues.
For an enlightened, informed, and experienced review of your own company and its processes, please get in touch - we would be delighted to talk with you