by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
I’ve just seen a company that describes itself like this
They have “developed a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that combined the most complete account-level dataset with AI to identify gaps in stakeholder relationships. The goal was to find and increase pipeline attrition.
The startup aimed to use AI to integrate a salesperson’s communications platforms, including email, calendar, and phone, as well as monitor relationships. The company had a free offering ….”
Let’s break this down part by part ….
“developed a customer relationship management (CRM) platform”.
I have no idea if this product is a CRM product but by saying “developed a customer relationship management (CRM) platform” you are positioning your product into a very competitive market, where there are some very well known players such as Oracle, Salesforce, Nimble, Microsoft, etc.
As as start-up do you really think you can compete with the might of Salesforce?
While I know there are statistics that most companies don’t have a CRM, but if you position yourself as a “CRM”, it does mean that many people will read your brochure and say, CRM? got one of those.
The next thing in the statement goes like this.
“that combined the most complete account-level dataset with AI to identify gaps in stakeholder relationships.”
Honestly, does anybody really understand what this means? I don’t.
Moving swiftly on.
“The goal was to find and increase pipeline attrition.”
Again, does anybody really understand what this means? I asked my Co-Founder what “attrition” meant. I also looked it up, it means “wearing down”.
If we use that word in the above sentence “the goal was to find and increase pipeline wearing down”.
I would have thought you would want to decrease “wearing down” / “attrition” not increase it.
It reads to me and to my co-founder that they have a word that means the opposite in their product statement. While this has an impact on grammar, it does make you wonder if people are just not reading this. Surely, somebody would have picked this up?
“The startup aimed to use AI”
Why use the word “aim”, you are either using AI or you are not.
“integrate a salesperson’s communications platforms”
What is a salespersons communication platform? If that is Outlook then call it that, surely?
“salesperson’s communications platforms, including email, calendar, and phone, as well as monitor relationships”
Again, isn’t this outlook?
“as well as monitor relationships”
You can do this in Sales Navigator.
Those marketers reading this will have spotted that the company is product focused, rather than brand focused. There is nothing of their “why”, their “purpose” what they stand for. We all know that Martin Luther King had a “we have a dream” speech, he didn’t have a “12 point implementation plan” speech.
I took the above company statement from the announcement that they were going bust.
Now I’m not saying that having a company statement that is meaningless, with grammar mistakes, that nobody understands, that is product focused means you will go to the wall too. But this is a great example of how it might just happen.
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