Industry Expert Reveals March 4, 2024 Selim Maalouf 3 min read
In my last article, I discussed the downsides of only considering CAPEX in your purchase decisions.
I described the pitfalls of listening to all the involved parties that might have a stake in the sale. But nowhere did I provide hard numbers proving what I had discussed. Who needs numbers anyway? This is a blog, nobody takes this seriously!
And right on cue, I get hit with this comment:
"Great article...showing a case study with actual numbers should be next"
I expected the comment, but I didn't expect its source. For it was none other than my colleague whom I've shared an office with for the past year.
Oh, the betrayal!
All jokes aside, this sparked an interesting discussion in the office.
Why don't we have case studies to prove our impact?
The majority of our customer based falls under FMCG, a highly competitive and cutthroat sector. Every move, every development, every investment is a chance for these companies to gain an advantage, even a small one.
So what happens when our after-sales team sends a survey for some post-sale data about the impact of our solutions?
Why, of course, we receive a 40 page PDF containing highly sensitive data to use in our marketing case studies! They even send their production manager to our headquarters to play a game of checkers with our engineering interns while simultaneously feeding the stray cats around our offices...
For those of you who picked up on the sarcasm, it was a bit heavy-handed; Don't pat yourself on the back just yet!
Technical performance is nobody's business
Every company worth its salt keeps performance records for all its production. These records are crucial for management teams. They allow them to continuously tweak and improve the performance and efficiency of the production lines.
Some records show good, brag-worthy performance. These numbers are quickly pushed to the marketing team and shoved in their spinner-9000 machine until a nice sterile campaign can boost the image of the company.
Some records, however, show bad performance. Both the production manager and the maintenance team study the numbers and quickly diagnose the problems.
The type of company that would keep performance data is alledged to hire competent maintenance staff. They would, theoretically, pinpoint the real problem and solve it internally.
The vendor of my enemy is my enemy...and my vendor
"Case closed, burn the records!""But sir, we need the...""BURN THE RECORDS!"
At least that's how I imagine the conversation going in the production team.
As vendors, we need to gain valuable performance metrics to judge the efficiency of our solutions.
This allows us, also, to better sell our solutions to the next guy. But we cannot do that if every piece of data we receive is either accompanied by an NDA or is still dizzy from the marketing spinner.
Marketing professionals love selling you a success story, repurposing their customer's marketing as their own. But potential buyers are allergic to marketing fluff.
It is the failures and the subsequent rebounds from these failures that make us great solution consultants. Anyone can plan for success, few can predict failures and avoid them.
So how can consultants prove their claims?
They simply can't. Not because they do not want to, but because credible sources of information are not available for commercial and marketing use.
Instead, Solution consultants live or die by their reputation among the industry players. Big names can easily clear out a room when they enter.
Big names can even get away with some wrong opinions due to their track record. The halo effect is real.
This puts us smaller guys in a tough spot: we have to take risks, sell our solutions on sheer charisma and faith until we can match that great reputation.
Just like I am doing right now. I am taking a risk, and putting my opinions on a public forum. Some will criticize me, some will poke holes in my arguments, but the value lies in the argument itself.
So I invite you to argue with me in the comments, call me out, and deconstruct my content, for this is the only way for me to learn and for you to trust me.
