Does requiring IBMers to move to major cities make sense for IBM? In Illinois, I can think of two significant IBM customers who are not located in big cities. It would make little sense to ask IBMers to live in Chicago.
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@26h IMHO Covid (Plandemic, Scamdemic) changed the world in horrible ways and 1 of them was the forced work from home. It showed people can adapt and we bailed out companies by bringing home the bacon and working in bedrooms etc. Work is no longer a place you go. It is something you do to pay the bills. I also much prefer face to face selling but just because you do not go to an office does not mean you are not working nor that IBM no longer needs you. I have sold $3M systems mostly remote via email, virt mtgs, calls, texts etc. It just IS now...BUT IBM like other companies want to downsize and have RIFs and not pay severance so they will TRACK you with trip reports and badge swipes etc which is when the lying begins to hit a number that means nothing...
Now it's been a while, but going to the customer's office had the simple effect of "showing up". I enjoyed it and had a cubicle, but now I realize the customers aren't in their offices either. I also used the time to network outside of IT to meet LOB executives. I would just go because your competition isn't going. Why does IBM need you if you are not visiting the customer?
IBM people in customer offices 1 or more times a week is a pipe dream! I was there starting in 1984 when WE DID go to customer sites almost EVERYDAY and we WERE WELCOMED! Why? Because we knew what the HEL*L we were talking about! We actually KNEW IBM hw/sw/svcs and customers ACTUALLY USED AND WANTED THEM! WINTEL and SUN and DEC and HPE and ORACLE and the Google and AWS and MSFT clouds have been wiping IBM out for 5 decades now going back to the 80s when the decline to oblivion and mediocrity and nonsense began. In the last 10-15 years IBM first went PC politically correct and then WOKE BIGTIME! Now if you are a white guy over 30 you are a target for takeout. IBM intentionally split people into tribes based on s-x, gender, skin color, age etc. And white guys over 30 are at the bottom of that list! Slacj channels for women only. Blacks only. Hispanic only. It will be funny to watch the demand from IBM mgmt heaven that if in sales thou shalt be in customer (or partner) offices 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 times a week. It will be juvenile. Customers no longer need IBM people in the office as they are too busy and IBM people think servers are the people who bring you food and clouds are the puffy things in the sky. IBM might demand PROOF of your customer visits. I can see it coming. Then of course IBM people will just lie and make things up to PROVE their visits. The whole thing is just stupid. I can see next CEO Smarmy Robbie Thomas using watsonx to track and collate and analyze IBM customer visits data and go on CNBC after combing his hair and putting on his sneakers and hoodie and telling the world IBM does the most customer visits of anyone whohoo!
It really depends on the area you're in. Some (perhaps many) managers in IBM Marketing want to get back to a time when salespeople spent their time on location at customer sites. More time on site would mean more sales, more license renewals, more requests for consulting work, that sort of thing.
But not every area is the same, and not every customer is the same. Some customers don't want anyone on the premises that wasn't invited to be there. In those places, IBM salespeople would be viewed the same way as travelling insurance or vacuum cleaner salespeople...just starving pests, looking for a meal. Boot 'em out of there.
If IBM wants you to move, it means they want you to leave.
Even customers who are in major cities, do not spend a lot with IBM