IBM SE Asia Sales Cafés Ditch the pitch

I ran a series of Sales Cafés a few years ago in SE Asia, for IBM as part of the launch of a new social software product where we used the Knowledge Café method as part of the sales process.

IBM organized three 2-day launch events for their customers in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok.

The events were held in hotel conference rooms,  though in Singapore, they held the event in an actual café which was by far the most conducive venue for interaction and conversation.

At each event, there were approximately 20 – 30 people representing 10 or so IBM clients. Also, in the room were several IBM marketers, salespeople, and sales engineers.

The event consisted of a series of talks and Q&As about the new product given by the IBM staff.

On the second day of each event, I gave a short presentation of my own on Social Tools and facilitated a Sales Café where I posed the questions:

What will be the impact of Social Tools on organizations?What are the issues, opportunities, challenges and risks?

A Café then followed to the usual Café recipe and the IBM staff also engaged in the conversations with strict instructions to take part in the conversation and not to be in “sales mode.”

This was a very effective way of engaging IBM’s customers with the product and getting them to think about the opportunities and implications of rolling it out in their organizations.