Selling the Market

This phase of market development presented several challenges:

First, we had to convince the market that we had a superior and reliable product.

Second, since we were not known as a systems company, we had to convince the market that we could be competitive with companies like IBM and NCR.

Third, we had to convince the market that ATMs would supplement their marketing strategies by providing an exciting new service that their customers would use.

For most of 1975 we focused or attention on getting the first 30 or 40 customers involved in our previous product successful with our pilot program.  Then we began to focus our sales efforts on the large to medium size financial institutions that we knew would be a positive influence on the market.  Remember at this time interstate banking was not allowed and a significant number of states did not allow bank branches. 

The pilot installations and one single sales success really started a significant positive market change.

One of my early mentors in this process was the IT manager for a small local bank.  John was very helpful is both testing and critiquing our early ATM software. More importantly he suggested we develop online transaction processing capability and helped us along the way with real world testing.  As a result we were the first company with the ability to implement real time online transaction processing.  Yes, even before IBM and NCR.  That took care of that challenge.  Well more on that later.

One of the ideas that really helped with the consumer acceptance issue came from a bank that was an early adaptor using Docutel machines.  In order to humanize the machines and make them friendlier, they named them.  In this case “Tillie the Teller”.  AL, the VP of marketing for the bank, became an important mentor and a great friend of mine.  Virtually all the early adaptors of ATMs began to name them.  It was a great marketing idea and helped us sell ATMs.

However the key event in moving this market was the decision by Bank of America to purchase 100 ATMs from Diebold.  This was not only good for us but energized virtually all financial institutions to make sure they stayed competitive with this giant financial institution.

Lessons learned:

1.  Always keep your eyes and ears open for mentoring.

2.  Always take the time to prove your product or system in a controlled environment prior to full release.

3.  Be on the constant look out for new marketing ideas and spread the word via your sales force.

4.  Never assume you cannot achieve sales success if you are not the biggest and most experienced.  Ie…Bank of America.