Dear Reader,

Just a couple years ago, it felt like everything was going to the cloud. Not just our computers, but also our people. Branch offices were closing. Long-distance teleconferencing was all the rage. The world was getting centralized. Virtual business culture reached a heyday during the Covid era, but the fact is, things have been growing remote for years. Many of the big Linux conferences that once drew massive crowds don't even exist anymore. Sales teams that used to fly across the country (or around the world) just for one meeting are now content to walk through their presentations over Zoom. But just when you think you know which way the wind is blowing, a gust from another direction messes up your hair.

Now it looks like IBM, which is still a huge and savvy company even if it isn't the big cheese of the world anymore, is sending its sales teams back out into the provinces. According to a report at The Register [1], the recent "return to client" initiative is based on IBM's new model for "effective talent acquisition, deployment, and career progression centered on client proximity for those dedicated to specific clients and anchored on core IBM locations for those dedicated to territories or those in above-market leadership roles."

The plan is for sales employees associated with IBM's US Enterprise, Strategic, and Horizon client sites to return to the office at least three days a week at either a client location, a flagship office, or a sales hub. If you live more than 50 miles from one of these spots, the company will pay for you to relocate. I should add, some employees believe the whole scenario is a sideways downsizing scheme, forcing employees who don't want to relocate to resign, but that seems like a whole lot more trouble than just handing out pink slips. The company, in fact, has been handing out pink slips in the US, while hiring on in India [2], but offshoring the sales staff has never been a recipe for success.

The interesting thing is, this isn't just about getting back to the office, which many companies have been wrestling with this past year. This directive specifically calls for sales staff to be out in field offices or working with clients on-site, rather than simply finding the nearest location or clustering at the headquarters.

A dichotomy has always existed in the sales realm: Spending the minimum on overhead means you can charge less for your product, which provides a competitive advantage. But on the other hand, you really need to stay in front of the customer if you want to close the deal, and staying in front of the customer can cost a lot of money – whether by advertising, additional staff, extra office space, or more plane tickets. If you're going to present yourself as high-end, which is a big part of the IBM playbook, personalized service needs to be part of the package.

IBM's "return to client" initiative appears to contradict the current narrative about the commoditization of IT services. Could this be the next big thing? Or is this IBM deciding that commoditization doesn't work with their illustrious brand and searching for a different niche? Or is it yet another round of managers mixing things up to show yet another round of shareholders they aren't standing still? We won't know for a while, but in any case, we'll see if all those sales hubs survive the next recession.

Joe Casad, Editor in Chief