We should begin with the end in mind.
Have you ever experienced Cognitive Dissonance while signing a contract? Your gut gets all tied up in knots and you wish you were somewhere else in that very moment. Do you know the feeling? I do. And if I don’t enjoy the mental discomfort why would I want my software customers to experience it?
The alternative would be to provide Consumer Satisfaction. But why settle for satisfaction? Should my customers simply be satisfied or should they be delighted? Why not shoot for having delighted customers? Ok. How can that be provided to a brand new customer when they have not experienced any of the products or services yet?
We should begin with the end in mind. Have them answer the question “What will make you a delighted consumer?” BTW, listening helps. Selling should not be about convincing someone they have to buy your product or service to become a delighted consumer. It should be about hearing their definition and, if you truly can, show them how your product or service can provide it.
Some of the top reasons businesses invest in something is to;
Save time, save money, make money, improve productivity, quality of life for their employees, peace of mind for the business, and so on. If your offerings can contribute substantive value toward their defined categories, then proving it should be easy. And when it comes to enterprise software, I do not mean prove it with a bunch of demos. Demonstrations are a necessary validation point however I believe that when a prospective buyer goes through a series of software demonstrations they will end up with more confusion, anxiety, and disharmony…dissonance.
Here are a few of my proof favorites;
These types of proof sources are simply doing business the good old fashioned way. Some of my friends out there might be rolling their eyes right now and thinking, “Old fashioned… LOL …you sold your first product riding dinosaurs from cave to cave.”And maybe I did. It’s probably why I like my proof points so much.
#SoftwareOnYourTerms
A recent article from Joshua Greenbaum at EAC reignited passion around the topic of enterprise software implementations and the implications it has on companies and their employee’s livelihood.
Written by Tim Dunn, The forest I am looking at doesn’t contain Unicorns. They will not be showing up here anytime soon. I’m ok with that. Because if we keep doing things right, for the right reasons, like we have for the past 45 years, we’ll remain at a healthy and respectful place in the food chain. I can see it.
Written by Tim Dunn, "Imagine working with a software company that has a culture focused on what matters most. What matters to them is what matters to you."
written by Tim Dunn, "Why are there businesses and complete industries built around performing services that companies must acquire in order to obtain any semblance of value in their software investment? ".
Written by Lane Nelson The introduction of cloud-based (and cloud-priced) solutions have muddied the accounting waters again, such that a $4M software implementation project must be expensed if the customer is implementing a cloud application, but can be capitalized if implementing the same software on premise.