C3's ​Goal of Being the Best & Why We Will Achieve It

By the end of this decade, C3 Technology Advisors will be the preeminent technology consulting company in the US. We know this is quite the BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), but we have faith that we will achieve this. The 2010s saw the establishment and acceptance of our business model. The 2020s will be a changing of the guard and we intend on leading that charge. This is our game plan of how we’ll get there.  

The nature of buying is changing (think Amazon or Wayfair vs a direct seller) and we cater to the new tech buyers

  • If you are buying an office chair and wanted to gauge the quality of an AcmeCo office chair via feedback of other buyers, would you go to AcmeChairCompany.com or Amazon? Of course you’d go to Amazon because Amazon is providing unvarnished feedback from real users. Do you think you’ll read anything but glowing reviews about Acme products from Acme’s own site? It’s for this reason that enterprises are flocking to C3 for technology research, analysis, vendor evaluations, and procurement. We’ve built our tech comparison tools, created detailed feature matrices, stockpiled customer feedback, and are creating systems that will make it easier for our customers to research, evaluate, buy, implement, and manage products such as UCaaS, cybersecurity, SD WAN, cloud contact center(CCaaS), DRaaS, and more. Buying direct products from biased direct salespeople will largely die out.

Continuous pivoting

  • C3 will annually take 5 to 10 percent of our portfolio, processes, products, tools, and systems and replace them with cutting edge solutions that will help us stay ahead of our competitors. Our competitors tend to milk profitability of legacy solutions for unhealthy periods of time. There are no sacred cows at C3. We will kill off profitable products that don’t align with our customers’ goals.

Recruitment of the best people

  • We don’t hire people simply because we have “open head count”.  We hire people because they
    • Are leaders
    • Are a top 10% talent
    • Will culturally add to a strong culture
    • Don’t want to be just a cog in a machine, but want to actively remake an already great company

We hire entrepreneurs, not salespeople

  • We don’t hire sales reps, we hire entrepreneurs.  Sales reps continually move from job to job, company to company and are the kind of people that randomly show up to our customers’ sites and say “Hi, I’m Bob. I’ll be your new sales rep.” They are paid up-front commissions to sell only their own solution with unyielding bias. Their goal posts are moved yearly, if not more, as management and boards of directors continually change year over year.
  • We hire entrepreneurs that want to control their own destiny. Entrepreneurs want an active hand in how they create and execute their go-to-market strategy. Entrepreneurs don’t just walk away from their store front when troubles arise, but hunker down, pivot when necessary, and prepare to weather storms. The entrepreneurs we hire want a system of the best people, systems, brand name, marketing strategies, and thought leadership to support them so that they can focus on what they do well. Our entrepreneurship model is built for top performers

Agility

  • If we see a better way of doing something, we implement a plan, execute on the plan, and do so without hesitation. Death in the world of technology is swift and we will be on the delivery side, not the receiving side.  

True customer advocacy

  • Customers don’t want salespeople in this era of technology disruption. They want guidance, thought leadership, and most importantly, their needs must come first. The trusted advisor model, that C3 is a pioneer in, is just that.

Portfolio enhancements

  • We continue to evaluate the technology spectrum in search of truly great companies that our clients should entertain for their technology needs. Today, we help our clients in procurement from 300+ companies. This list continues to grow as truly innovative solutions come to market from newer companies like Zscaler, Cato Networks, Velocloud (scooped up by VMWare), and Assured Data Protection (offering Rubrik-as-a-service).

 Thought leadership

  • In the Age of The Great Tech Disruption, our clients don’t need salespeople and yes-men. Our clients need forward thinking advisors who look around technology corners to help advise them on upcoming trends and technologies to keep you ahead of your competition.

Systems and processes built on the backend –

  • C3 is built on an unmatched combination of tools – Salesforce, Hubspot, DiscoverOrg, Pathfinder, O365/Teams, and RingCentral. Our marketing team combines Hubspot and DiscoverOrg to provide custom tailored information to ensure the right customers hear the right messages. Our consultants use Salesforce and Pathfinder to ensure that clients select the right technologies. We use O365 and UCaaS to communicate effectively within our organization and outside of it. These tools integrate together to give our consultants the best tools available to help to serve you the customer. 

World-class events for client education and networking

  • We stage and execute fun and engaging networking/education events that help our clients become well rounded IT professionals. If your employer requires ongoing education requirements, C3’s events may help satisfy those. 

Our business model(helping consultants grow their mini-businesses)

  • Want to know a key reason why tech buyers like you are so often flustered with their sales reps? Tech and telecom companies provide mostly upfront commissions and focus on short term results. What is the end result? A lot of sales rep turnover and sales reps that mysteriously change within a year of selling your project. At C3, we measure growth with a long-term mindset. We continually incent our consultants with ongoing commissions that dry up quickly if you, the customer, are unhappy and leave. Long term client success = long term commissions for our consultants. Bottom line – we incent our consultants to take care of our clients long term and our competitors don’t.   

 

Wayne Gretzky once replied to a question about how he achieved success with – “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” This describes, simply, our philosophy and why we will outgrow and outlive our competitors. For you, our clients, we hope you come along for this wonderful ride.

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