This quote has been making the rounds widely in various forms, and is increasingly being touted as an obvious truth. And frankly I agree.
It seems to have been first attributed to Watts S. Humphrey, an American pioneer in software development who is often referred to as the “father of software quality”. He said this 20 years ago. A lot has happened since then.
Right now we tend to think of companies as being part of traditional industries or technology industries. Increasingly, business leaders believe this distinction will disappear, if it hasn’t already. There simply won’t be any companies for whom technology won’t be at the core of what they deliver — and how their performance is measured.
Are you a business leader who believes this?
A quote from Fedex illustrates how they became a technology company instead of a delivery company, and seems directly relevant to the transition of car dealers: “Early in its history, Fedex took the view that the information about the package is as important as the package itself.”
I saw this, and I immediately thought of you.
There is a tremendous amount of quantitative and qualitative data that your OEMs and technology vendor partners have about what goes on with your customers. They know the vehicles purchased or leased. They know sites visited, links clicked, emails opened, and much more.
They likely know more about the path your customer took to get to your showroom floor or service area than you do, particularly in the case of a new vehicle purchase as so much effort is being made to capture prospects on the OEM website and grow the role of the build and price modules on those sites.
But they don’t get to see, hear, and witness what happens inside your store.
If 80 per cent of communication is non-verbal, it is also not clickable. You and your team get a chance to witness and participate in the client experience in a way your OEMs and vendors can’t. And that gives you an opportunity to create value that you alone hold — and that you can monetize.
It’s been interesting to witness our own evolution at Universus. We started the company almost nine years ago primarily as magazine publishers. Now, our mix is dramatically different. We still publish magazines, but the main pillars of our business are completely different from anything we started with.
We are a creative and content marketing agency producing a wide range of video, graphics and other things, mainly for online platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and more.
We provide in-dealership digital signage solutions to OEMs and dealers, and can bring with that advanced technology like touch screen applications and content served based on facial recognition software and other technology triggers.
And we are a software reseller, bringing marketing automation software to the automotive industry, including all the aspects of technology support and change management skills that software sales requires.
Is every business a software business? We weren’t, but we certainly are now. I think you will be too.
