Industry Expert Reveals March 4, 2024 Selim Maalouf 4 min read
It's that time of the week again, where I shout at LinkedIn and hope someone hears me. I see you out there looking at my articles, don't be shy! Come in, have a cup of coffee, post a comment, anything that can pass off as human interaction with these articles.
If you don't, the LinkedIn robot will be sad and will not distribute my articles to new victims... I mean readers...
Anyway, enough about me, let's try to look at what is wrong in this industry that is trying hard to make my voice irrelevant, shall we?
I heard one leader once tell me that the issue with prototypes is like the chicken and the egg paradox. After he cleaned the coffee I spat in his face, he explained his point further.
This true visionary believes that your first customer should finance your prototype. Bold strategy, but how do you sell the customer on it, you ask?
Simple: You lie.
Prototypes are cheaper in the long run
Prototypes are early sample machines created as proofs of concept. They allow designers to test their ideas and theories before committing to a final design. They often fail, as they should. A tangible, physical machine is far easier to troubleshoot than a concept in CAD.
As a result, the team can refine the design, implement changes and collect feedback data at an accelerated pace.
Many small industrialists tend to balk at the initial costs of prototypes. Some even "trust their team" and feel that their years of experience in the business can allow them to skip steps.
Because they fail early, prototypes can save lives, avoiding the waste of energy, time and money in implementing weak or inappropriate solutions...
Unless you sold the prototype itself
Very few industries can get away with delivering an MVP.
No, I am not talking about the "Most Valuable Player" award, even the NBA doesn't get away with those!
Delivering a "Minimum Viable Product", as far as I have witnessed, is only acceptable in the software development space, where patching your product after the fact is as easy as clicking "reshare" on my articles. At least I think it's easy...RESHARE MY ARTICLES.
In industrial manufacturing, however, selling a prototype can spell doom for both you and your client.
With a commercial agreement comes pressures and restrictions. Tighter deadlines, quality thresholds, project milestones. All of these pressures go against all tenets of good product development.
Yes, I stated that prototypes allow faster design cycles. But even at their best, these design cycles run beyond the normal lead times for commercial products.
Tight deadlines accompanied by restricted budgets breed the wrong kind of creativity. The quick and cheap kind.
Sales teams should stop innovating
At least in a technical sense. If taking your client's kid to daycare can help you close the deal, by all means, have at it. Just make sure the machine you are trying to sell has already been made by your team at least once.
Sales leadership and Revenue officers are, by virtue of their roles, constant pushers. They push conversations, they push meetings, they push quotas.
But when nobody wants what they are selling, they start selling what everybody wants.
No, Dave, we can't make a carton packer that also depalletizes empty glass bottles...No, we can't just combine the two machines together...NO DAVE, DON'T SELL IT, BAD DAVE!
All joking aside, responsible business developers and sales leaders should be aware of market trends. And through a solid collaboration with their operation leaders, plan future product developments to react to an evolving market.
If the customer wants a prototype, let them have it
As with all sales relationships, trust and transparency go a long way in ensuring a profitable customer relationship for years to come. If a customer wants a new one-of-a-kind machine, there is no reason not to give it to them, as long as they are a consenting party in this transaction.
If you apply that concept to all aspects of your professional and personal lives (always ask for consent), everyone will be happy and satisfied.
If you are a designer or an engineer implicated in such practices, know that your frustrations are valid.
Have you ever lied to your customers? Tag them in the comments.
Drama sells...Just saying.
