IBM Reshapes Its Sales Meetings

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• Video: IBM Redesigns Its Client Briefings

IBM sales executives now follow this map to guide their client meetings.

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Each valley, Green says, represented an opportunity to address "unarticulated needs," however simple, such as ensuring that sales staff know how to pronounce client names correctly by coaching them in advance.

Using design thinking to tackle business problems isn't unique to IBM. The discipline is also taught at educational institutions such as Stanford's D-school, a program that bridges business and design education. "In some parts of American business, every problem can be solved by design," observes Bob Sutton, a professor at the D-School and a fellow at innovation and design strategy firm IDEO. "As Marissa Mayer from Google (GOOG) says, they see everything at Google as a design problem."

At the Hawthorne campus, Green also created an Industry Solutions Lab, an open space that looks like a mini-trade show, where customers can see technology prototypes of future products, as well as existing ones. It's the only lab that IBM has so far, and such a permanent and detailed display is rare in the consulting world. It's a hands-on area where clients can interact with technology after sitting through day-long sales pitches. They can also experiment with tech from other industries.

Stanford's Sutton also thinks IBM's approach makes sense, because the company is paying attention to feedback of how clients actually experience the meetings, rather than simply projecting what might work in advance. "Any human experience that needs to be changed is amenable to human-centered design," he says, lauding IBM's strategy. "Especially any interactions where you've got a professional services firm interacting with clients, like IBM. It can have a huge impact on the bottom line."

Clients such as Keith Safian, chief executive of Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., are impressed. "My visit to the IBM briefing center gave us the opportunity to look at business from a novel perspective, through the eyes of other industries, [like] banking and retail industries," says Safian, who appreciated the more hands-on experience of the redesigned briefings.

IBM won't disclose figures on how much business has been signed as a result of Green's redesign of the meetings, which began to roll out earlier this year. But Mary Jo Frederich, director of the Hawthorne client briefing center, says that Safian's positive reaction is typical, and the whole exercise has been good for client relations. "We've gotten feedback that said, 'you made me feel really welcome,'" she says. "It's good to take them out of Power Point mode."

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Jana is the Innovation Dept. editor for BusinessWeek.