Sat through another round of software demonstrations today…had to kick the vendor out of the room so I could talk to my team.

All of my clients learn this lesson after working with me for awhile…and here it is:

It is not my job to keep you focused, disciplined, and behaving appropriately during software vendor demonstrations…or any business meeting for that matter.

I’m in the minority here…nobody agrees with me…which makes me all the more think I’m right.

Situation: Software salesperson is going through demo…doing his thing. Questions are asked about the product…and then begins a general deterioration of the session, usually culminating in my client airing some of their dirty laundry to the software vendor.

While this is going on the looks and glances toward the back (at me) begin. These looks all say, “What are you (David) going to do about Person X who is so undisciplined and is going on and on”

Answer: Nothing.

Not one thing. What I am willing to do (and always do) is to discuss this exact scenario with my project team prior to the sessions. I spend a great deal of time talking about discipline, focus, and the reason for the sessions – what the sessions are and aren’t.

It’s not my job to baby undisciplined people…I like the adult route.

Over the years during evening debriefing sessions, I’ve had project team members ask what I can do stop this from happening. My answer is always this:

“The solution is easy. Just don’t do it…”

As Kojak used to say, “Who loves ya, baby?”

One of the biggest time wasters on a software selection effort is the request and review of prospective software vendor’s financial statements.

The determination of financial soundness is in itself a subjective determination. Does having a large cash balance mean that you are financially sound or does it mean that you have not been investing in new technologies or reinvesting back into the company? Does having no debt mean that you are financially sound or does it mean that you are missing the boat by not borrowing to take advantage of business opportunities? If you had a bad year last year, does it mean that this year is doomed? And so on.

To me, the past is past. What you want to know is whether the vendor is viable at the moment and how big its customer base and recurring (stable and future) revenue stream is. If you want to go into a full-blown analysis of the financial condition of a software vendor, you need to determine in advance what the criteria will be for financial soundness. I have been a CPA since 1982 and I can tell you that this is a slippery slope and not easily done unless you get audited (not a compilation and not a review) financial statements from a CPA.

This activity of asking for financial statements is something everybody thinks you need to do. I agree with checking out the financial viability of a prospective software vendor…just don’t think that asking for historical financial statements is the way to do it.

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.

Was sitting through another round of software demonstrations at a client’s office today…Was much of the same of what I go through every day.

Something hit me though…this particular sales person was not blathering on endlessly about features in their product. He was listening…and writing things down.

The Sounds of Silence.

The lack of noise was unnerving…this guy was actually listening to the many moods and nuances of my client…and was thinking about his answer. And his answer was solution, not feature, oriented. Was the software bizarro world.

Now I was paying attention….to him, and to he was saying and not saying. And it really begin to strike me that this particular company may have something to offer my client…namely, a solution to the many complex issues that reside here.

There is too much feature-based selling by the vendors…and not enough listening and discernment.

And it really is okay if you product cannot handle every single requirement that a software prospect may have. It really is.