The final perspective of the Technical Sales Balanced Scorecard is the most important. Arguably, it is by far the most important, as it is concerned with how the organization is viewed throught the eyes of its customers. A thorough understanding of how customers perceive the company, its products, and its people is the true measure of the organization’s viability in the marketplace. Not necessarily specific to technical sales, this category also considers any corporate initiatives that contribute to the betterment of customers’ communities.

Some attributes to consider might include:

• Frequency, responsiveness to new requirements, and ease of product upgrades
• Market share (as previously mentioned in the Financial Perspective)
• Post sales product support incidents, time to resolution, frequency by product or solution, and their nature (question, problem, outage, etc.)
• Consumption of white papers, guides, etc. designed to ensure customer implementation success
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Implementation of pre-purchased offerings (in the software business, for example)
• Community volunteer hours & participation
• Educational support and involvement in STEM academic initiatives within local schools and universities

“Perception is reality” as the saying goes. And the organization that is perceived by its customers to offer the best products that deliver the greatest value and is supportive of their customers’ local communities has the best shot at gaining and maintaining market share relative to competitors.