Blog: Craig Schiff

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Bigger is Not Always Better

In the performance management space there are currently at least 6 vendors that could be classified as 'big'. While they all have a broad and deep range of offerings, for some end users these solutions can be overkill - too complex, too expensive, too much of a good thing. For some vendors, their sheer size has also had a negative impact on their behavior in the field and therefore their ability to win business. We have recently observed the actions of one of these vendors at several prospects where their 'big company behavior' cost them the business. In at least one case it was a multi-million dollar deal that ended up gong to a much smaller competitor.

The specific big company problems evidenced by this vendor fall under the headings of bureaucracy and over-confidence (or arrogance). Many prospects coached by us ask the vendors to provide a customized, scripted demo that shows specifically how they would address their unique needs. While all the other vendors (including most of the other big guys) comply, this vendor shows up again and again with a canned demo and talks about ways they might be able to address their needs. This is due to both bureaucracy and arrogance. The bureaucracy part relates to the fact that they take forever to get a simple non-disclosure agreement signed (required to work with the customer's data), so unlike every other vendor, they don't have enough time left to customize the demo. The arrogance is evidenced in the attitude that 'we are vendor X and have thousands of customers, you'll just have to take our word for it that we can meet your needs'. This over confidence shows itself in one other serious way - the assumption by the account rep that he doesn't have to work for the business. In the most flagrant example of this (which happened to be the multi-million dollar deal mentioned earlier) the rep sat in the corner alternately talking on the phone or texting on his Blackberry while the poor pre-sales person tried to address customer specific requirements with his canned demo. Specifically based on that behavior the project team removed this vendor from consideration. Before you start feeling sorry for this vendor keep in mind that many prospects do not perform the proper due diligence and make purchase decisions based primarily on brand name, marketing, and reputation alone without evaluating the fit with their unique requirements. Sometimes they only look at one vendor and never discover that they may be able to get equivalent functionality elsewhere at a lower cost and with more personalized attention. In those situations this vendor does quite well. However, with most companies starting to look at major expenditures of this type much more closely those days are coming to an end and this vendor needs to rethink their behavior in the field. Keep in mind that most other large vendors leverage their size where they can but they also remember that every deal counts, its still a competitive world, and they need to do their best to remain nimble and hungry.

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