I met with a vendor this week to discuss one of their software solutions, and as part of the 2-hour meeting I was hoping to get further details on how their solution worked, how it scaled, what was required to deploy and manage it, how other customers were applying their technology, and most importantly how the solution would benefit the company I work for. We had explicitly asked the vendor ahead of time to prepare a presentation to address these topics, and what we received was far from that! If I had to describe the vendors presentation, I would have to describe it as buzzword bingo meets Alf (the guy presenting kinda looked like an alien, which is the reason I used the reference to Alf). If you are a solutions provider that deals with customers, I have a few helpful hints for you:
1. Before you start a presentation with a potential customer, summarize the topics you are planning to present, ask the customer if this is what they are looking to see, and adjust the content to align with what the customer is looking for. The vendor in question dove straight into a presentation that addressed none of the concerns we had outlined prior to the meeting, so the meeting ended up being a complete waste of time.
2. Stay on task! If I could compare the presenter I described above to a board game, it would be shoots and laddders. He was all over the place, bouncing from complex subjet to complex subject, the topics he was covering didn’t relate with each other, nor did they have ANY applicability to the problems we were looking to solve with their solution. This not only confused several people in the room (me included, since I had no idea where he was going with his talk), but people started associating the crappy presentation with the product they were trying to sell.
3. If a customer brings you onsite to discuss a specific solution, and they mention that they are looking to use it to solve problem XYZ, stick to describing the solution the customer is interested in using. Nothing irritates me more than when a vendor tries to sell solutions to problems we don’t have, or attempts to sell products that have no applicably to the solution we are investigating. If you want to show us some fancy new product that you are developing, that is fine (most techies like to see presentations on new stuff). Ask the customer if you can come back to do a presentation on your other solutions, and use that time to sell new products.
4. If a customer asks an educated question in a meeting, and you don’t know the answer, reply with “I am not sure, but I will find out.” There are actually some super smart and technically astute people in IT, and the chance that one of them is in the room is relatively high. Smart people see through your smoke and mirrors, so be open and honest. No one on this earth knows everything, and customers don’t expect you to either.
5. When a customer asks a question to which you say “I will look into it and get you an answer,” by gosh GET the customer an answer, or don’t make promises you can’t keep. Also, when a customer asks a question which you need to research, WRITE IT DOWN. Presenting can be stressful, and remembering questions during a stressful period is difficult. In case you didn’t know, when you write stuff down, it looks (looks are often deceiving though!) like you actually want to help.
6. Don’t try to kiss a customers ass by telling them how “brilliant” or “excellent” a given question is. We are the customer, so it is a given that our questions are brilliant. Leave well enough alone. ;)
7. Show examples of how your solution helped others, and be prepared to answer questions about the deployment. If your going to tout that you saved company XYZ 50-million dollars, be ready to explain how. Also, be ready to answer questions like “what did it cost to implement the solution,” and “what did it cost to manage the solution before and after the solution was deployed.” I realize tabulating these numbers is tricky, but you shouldn’t go around paraiding your solution as a cost saver unless you can back it up (most software solutions have lots of hidden costs, and smart customers will inquire about them).
8. If a customer asks if your solution supports an Operating System (e.g., x64 Solaris 10) or hardware platform (e.g., Fujitsu hardware) that you don’t plan to support, don’t try to BS them by telling them that your “engineering team will need to evaluate that request.” Be truthful, since folks will respect you more if your honest with them up front.
9. Pay attention to the audience, and if they look bored and confused, they probably are. STOP your talk and retool your presentation and delivery.
10. THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT! Define your acronyms, and don’t assume everyone in the room knows what acronym XYZ is. If you are using acronyms that are specific to your product, by gosh describe what it means!
Well enough of this tyrade! I hope this benefits someone. :)