Out of the blue last week I received an email from a sales executive from a major software company.

They wanted to know if competitor X had already won the award for a very large software evaluation effort I am heading up.

I asked them why they were asking me…since the award is not scheduled to be made until October…and also since I was right in the middle of writing my initial evaluation to the client steering committee.

In other words…’No’– competitor X has not won the award. Nobody has.

They answered that competitor X had been at a trade show crowing up the fact that this major deal was going to fall into their pocket.

I told this software company to relax…neither of them had an advantage over the other. Just keep playing by the rules.

I have had to deal with this sort of thing before…several things may be happening:

One, the inquiring software company was fishing for information and made up a story to see how much information I would give up about the process.

Two, competitor X was talking smack at the trade show to get under the skin of the other software company…or to upset them.

Three, somebody with my client may be picking up pieces of my conversation and slipping it out to software vendors.

Four, nothing happened.

What is the action plan when this nonsense starts? My method is to do nothing…because nothing really happened.

A sales rep guessing as to what is going on is, unfortunately, part and parcel of the software evaluation game. They are pathologically wrong in their guesses…and are usually badly informed as to what is going on with their competitors.

My recommendation to you is to ignore this posturing when it happens…keep your eye on the ball, and to stick to your game plan.

Years ago, I received a great lesson from my son Bryan…he was 4 years old at the time. 

We were getting ready to leave in the morning…him to nursery school and me to work.  It was cloudy outside and I told him to go get his jacket…it was going to rain. 

He asked me how I knew it was going to rain. 

I told him that I watched the weather the night before and that the weatherman said it was going to rain.  Bryan stayed where he was. 

Go get your coat, I said.  Nope. 

Finally, he issued his words of wisdom: 

“The weatherman is not always right you know” 

Boy, oh boy.  Has that resonated in my life over the years…over and beyond the weather.  And it rears its head all the time in my professional life. 

Software vendors are not always right when talking about other software companies. 

Consultants, like me, sometimes miss our mark in our analysis and our judgement. 

Companies pre-judge product based on factors like price, popularity, and terrific/poor salesmanship. 

I use this expression from time to time, but nobody ever knows the background from which I make my statement.  I get ‘that look’…the one I have received from people over the years.  What’s with the gray-haired guy…. 

Well, you see, I learn, and remember the lessons, from four year olds.