Economic survival lessons from fools

RECESSIONS ARE LIKE natural forest fires: they're unpredictable, devastating, and absolutely essential for long-term growth. Wall Street commentators lampoon skittish stockholders for overreacting to minor events such as insider trading. Pundits see hypervigilance. I see investors running the skimmers, scammers, and glad-handers out of town. But I think some of the bad guys haven't left. They have new careers counseling IT vendors about foolproof techniques for selling into the trough.

In the challenging business climate that grows from a lengthy downturn, technology sellers can feel boxed in. The tried-and-true formula of innovation, education, and advertising is expensive. When a company stalls its R&D, it can't use new technology as a calling card to get meetings with influential IT executives and members of the press. That's the perfect time for an opportunist to knock on your door and say, "I can get you seen."

When you sign up, the lesson begins: The first step is to stop selling your product or service short. You have an inconsequential point release of your software coming up? No you don't, you have a major, mandatory upgrade, and you won't support users of the previous release. You can't figure out how to get more revenue from your paid-up customers? Rewrite your licenses and service policies so that tomorrow, all your accounts owe you money. Through the magic of hyperbole and a garish paint job, last year's mediocre server will be transformed into today's groundbreaking appliance that will usher in a new era of enterprise computing.

It's not difficult to spot the trough marketing graduates. Hyperbolic marketing is invariably delivered by people who have never used the product they're selling. Just ask a question that's not covered in their slide presentation. Ask those pitching the product to fold up their laptops and just tell you what they like best about the product. If they don't nervously recite every catchphrase they remember from the slides, it is probably worth hearing what they came to say.

Smart sellers would not trust their image and their relationships to vapid marketing. It is the straightforward presentation of a product or service -- not its newness or the force of its delivery -- that makes an impression.

Fortunately, there are several players in today's marketplace that get it right. For example, Sonic Software aced an InfoWorld briefing on its SonicXQ product that was mostly a barrage of questions about what the software doesn't do. When Intel unveiled its updated Pentium 4 and Xeon processors, it didn't overplay the extent of the improvements, and it brought along plenty of technical details. Apple is approaching its marketing with uncharacteristic humility and frankness that, so far, has proven to be more than a veneer.

When this recession ends, the trough marketing experts will credit themselves for the recovery and tote their carpetbags to the next town.

The sellers that were too smart to take the experts' advice will just sail ahead. The others will find they've strutted and oversold themselves straight into the box they so feared in the first place.