At a Proformative event in San Francisco today I made a bold suggestion.
I approached Paul Turner, senior director of Product Marketing at NetSuite and Rob Hull, Founder of Adaptive Planning -- two of the hottest small/medium business software companies. I suggested that they train unemployed business executives for FREE. Here is what I said:
I really think Netsuite has a huge opportunity to do some long-term marketing and to build some incredible good will in the financial community.
Right now, due to the Great Recession, there are thousands and thousands of senior business managers without jobs. Few have experience with Netsuite. Most have used Quickbooks, GP, etc. At some time in their career, most will participate in the decision about an ERP/CRM/accounting implementation.
It would be great if Netsuite took a long-term view and treated this situation as an opportunity. Netsuite could develop a formal program to train those out of work finance managers on the Netsuite product free of charge. Then...when they are employed again, and they will be employed again, they are much, much more likely to recommend Netsuite when it comes time to upgrade accounting, ERP, etc.
This was a bold suggestion. Offer training for free. But...the value is clear. Both Paul and Rob clearly "got it". They expressed cautious interest in the idea. We will see if their organizational view is long-term enough to embrace it.
Twitter: @jroym
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