Is It Good to Talk?

I see that Sage has followed in the footsteps of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones by sending its executives on tour. The accounting software vendor has launched its Fresh Talk Tour for its Business Management Division, sending road-weary executives to 10 different areas across the United States starting today in Dallas.

Sage said in a statement about the tour that it will look to a “new level of conversation with business partners” telling them about the firm’s road maps, strategy, products and channel marketing programs. All very commendable, I’m sure.

The thing is that while it’s great to see a company like Sage getting out there and talking to partners, talk, unfortunately, is cheap. Business partners are talked to, and at, all day every day and the thought of sitting in yet another room with a vendor-led PowerPoint presentation explaining the virtues of whatever theory of business they happen to be touting this month may not entice many business partners any more.

Sage has had a rough time of late, being dogged by rumors of trouble in its U.S. arm – the firm parted company with Ron Verni, the chief executive of Sage’s American division, and Jim Eckstaedt, its chief financial officer, back in October. With sales in the U.S. flat rather than anything more, the company should at least be applauded for trying something, anything, to boost its U.S. business again.

But crucially, and for the tour to be beneficial, it is the actions that result from the tour that will really matter. Talking to partners is all well and good, but Sage must ensure that as well as talking, it also listens to its business partners and then follows all that up by taking copious amounts of notes and acting on them when the tour is over.