“We picked Prysm, in part, because it reflected our brand in being very innovative.” —John Heiman, Director of Experiential Marketing, Sprint
Recently, Prysm published a case study about Sprint’s newly renovated executive-briefing center (EBC) at its headquarters in Overland, Kansas, featuring Prysm Visual Workplace. The telecom giant’s choice of technology was symbolic of a movement in today’s enterprise — the transformation of the traditional “dog-and-pony show” into a consultative sale requiring authentic collaboration.
In the case study, John Heiman, Sprint’s Director of Experiential Marketing, describes the architecture of the company’s first-generation EBC as putting the guest in a subordinate position, subtly communicating that he or she was to be a passive observer of a one-way presentation. In refreshing the space, one of the goals was to place the customer into an “eyeball-to-eyeball” position with the presenter, which was better to facilitate conversation, he explained.
“A lot of companies have theater rooms with media walls,” Heiman continued. “You sit back in your seat and see a movie about how the company can benefit your business. I wanted a dynamic environment where the tools enhance the experience and are not a ‘show,’ so to speak.”
Another criterion the company used in redesigning the space was the ability to implement a content-control system. Heiman wanted presenters to be able to move things around, drill down into briefing files and navigate back up again, without missing a beat. Additionally, with the old system, a presenter would use their laptop and often, inadvertently, expose their desktop or files, something that Heiman found distracting and unprofessional.
The Sprint example above represents a trend we’re seeing at Prysm. Innovative enterprises have begun to recognize that today’s customer — who often comes to meetings with much more product and competitive knowledge than in times past, thanks to the Internet — isn’t interested in watching a brochure on a screen. In fact, they often won’t accept a meeting until they’ve combed the company’s site and read its whitepapers and product briefs. The meeting has become an opportunity for the customer to present their ideas and describe their use cases, putting the sales rep in a position of having to respond to concerns and ideas in real-time.
Of course, another main goal of an EBC, to wow the customer with an impressive visual presentation, hasn’t changed at all. In Sprint’s case, a massive 50-foot curved Prysm laser-phosphor display (LPD) running Prysm Visual Workplace elevates the impact of Sprint's content to a whole new level. “With the Prysm wall, we can bring in so much light and color and amazing audio. It really livens up experience.”
As customers become more sophisticated, the enterprise must embrace innovation or be eclipsed by its competition. Prysm has published other blogs about the next-generation EBC, but the Sprint example illustrates the transformative power of an updated collaborative space/experience, as well as how Prysm Visual Workplace can be a game-changer with a potential straight line to revenue.