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.

About 7 years ago a very interesting evaluation occurred with a client of mine in the Pacific Northwest.

This client was very well organized and was led by a project manager who was top notch, the best I have ever worked with. Everything was done by the book; in fact, some of their practices I incorporated into my professional practice and accordingly have been included into my software evaluation book.

Was just a real joyful professional project.

We were down to final selections. This was the only engagement where I was requested to have an actual vote in the process. Usually, I just facilitate, but in this instance I had one vote and there were four other people on the evaluation team. The team voted. The result was four votes for vendor A and one vote for Vendor B.

Vendor B won.

All through the process, the understanding was that the project manager/sponsor had the final say-so but would take the advice of the committee into account while making his decision. Between the two vendors — it was not a functional tie; it was close, but it was not a tie.

Thus, the team’s vote (including mine) to go with Vendor A.

What we didn’t know was the business relationship my client had with another organization that was already invested in and using Vendor B. The project manager/sponsor used the process to prove that the functionality was good enough with Vendor B to warrant building a connection between their two systems—using Vendor B’s software.

And this was how he went about it.

If he had let this be known from the start, he would not have gotten the buy-in that he did. It was a straight-up software selection effort, but the goal was a little bit different from normal. The “winner” was chosen in advance—for legitimate strategic reasons—and was deemed the winner by coming in a close second place.

Six years later, in preparation for my book, I visited that project manager and asked him if he regretted the decision or the approach. He did not. They are still using the product and are overall happy with the result and the decision.

So, there you go.

Over 20 years ago I was controller for John Connally’s real estate empire (yep, the same Governor Connally who was in the car with JFK when he was assassinated…and the same ‘empire’ that went down in a heap of flames in the mid-80s real estate crash in Texas).
Once, during my daily ass blistering from The Governor, he said, “Let me tell you something Wolfe…here are 3 things I learned from LBJ – and you would be wise to follow them.”These were:

1. Always answer your own phone.
2. Always return your phone calls promptly.
3. Deliver bad news quickly. Rip the %^&* band-aid off…and move on. (He had a rather ‘salty’ personality) 

I was 24 at the time. This was heady stuff.

I have incorporated the last bit of advice into my consulting practice over the past 15 years. There is constantly less-than-joyful news during these software installations…and because of the Governor I pick up the phone, rip the band-aid off – deliver the bad news. Accept the onslaught. Then I make my clients move on. And we solve problems….together. This handles the number one consulting fear with regard to software projects – the fear of being blamed. There are numerous tactics that I teach on this subject…on how to keep from being blamed (assuming the cluster is not your fault). But the first one I learned from that famous man when I was a young man in Austin, Texas.Thank you Governor.

Years ago I met a woman who was a consultant like me…the same, but different.

She had managed to create a consulting practice around CEOs who were afraid of technology…not fearful for their company, but for themselves. Her practice was sort of a computer literacy practice for executives.

These guys were paying her 3k per day to come in (secretly) and show them how to use email, surf the internet, and use MS Office. And also to learn what the lingo meant. These guys were embarrassed that they were not hip to ways of the electronic world.

When she was telling me this…I was fascinated.

I then congratulated her on her practice…and then told her that I thought the CEOs were off the mark. That they were focusing on the wrong thing.

Her eyes narrowed.

I told her that they didn’t need email to be a good CEO. In fact, if I was on the Board of Directors, I would be pleased that my top guy did not have access to, or respond to, emails. (As an aside, I have two marketing guys I work with who only work through faxes…they don’t have email…and are AWESOME producers. But that’s a whole different story for another day.)

What I would want…is for him to be all over the technology of the organization. Just as I would want them to be all over the finances, the marketing, the operations, and the overall strategy.

Good email and surfing capabilities does not a good CEO make.

I could sense her getting defensive…told her this was nothing against her…and bravo for finding this astonishing niche. And to an extent, bravo to the CEOs for walking through the fear, and embracing technology for themselves personally.

But I bet they never did sit down with their IT guys and have tough, difficult strategy sessions about their technology infrastructure…and that is what they are paid to do.