Every so often I get pinged by newer startups, established vendors, and also resellers, typically the DM or Email falls into these 2 types:
“…. Hey hope you’re doing well, we’ve recently hired a new rep who will be focusing on Native American Tribes and gaming and we wanted to see if you might be able to help…”
Or
“We are looking for new market segments to get into and we notice you have experience in Native American tribes and gaming, we wanted to pick your brain on how we might be able to get into this space”
I’ve interviewed with companies that were interested in potentially bringing me on as a representative or learning more about the Tribal space during the interview process. In some cases, they’ve taken insights I shared and attempted to incorporate them into a go-to-market strategy without making the investment in someone with deep expertise in this area. More often than not, these efforts don’t achieve the desired results.
But why are these efforts usually falling flat? A company has gone and gathered information on the space from someone who is “in the know” they have sponsored or shown up to Native American tech conferences but arent meeting their goals and sometimes just get frustrated and cease their efforts. Why was there a failure to make impact? Is it the technology or service the company is offering? Should they have invested more for sponsorship levels?
The answer to all of these questions, in my experience, it’s usually the lack of building the relationships with Tribes.
The companies who have been successful and have repeat business in the Tribal space are those that focus on establishing trust and developing the relationships, and tailoring messaging that speaks to the uniqueness of the Tribal space and their challenges.
Unfortunately trust and relationship development take time and dont lend themselves to typical KPI’s or metrics sales organizations use to measure activity and success with. This causes tech companies to miss opportunities within the Native American technology space and on the flip side, robs Tribes of newer and emerging technologies that can make impact for their communities and enterprise interests.
I hate this for both sides.
My goal with TRIBAL CONSULTANT is to enable technology vendors to better understand the space , lean on my decade-plus of experience in engaging with Tribes, determine where investments should be made, all with the goal of being able to be in a better position to develop relationships faster in Tribes.
Pulling back the curtain a little, the overall goal is to bring new and emerging technology into the Tribal space for the benefit of the Tribes themselves.
