The Stronger Company Loses? (Part 3)

Over the past couple of days, I have displayed charts of sales performance information. Up until now, I have shared the quantitative information. If you were paying attention, it looks like the battle in about 30 different performance areas was just about even, and even leaning away from the incumbent. But, in the end, the incumbent held onto the client.

The reason why should be fairly evident based on the comments below:

What features of Right Tech, Corp’ solution did you value the least and why?
“The solution was basically missing parts that we specified, or they were highly underestimated, and this was then sorted out until a week before the decision was made. Maybe it’s not a feature of the solution, but a feature of the process was a lack of curiosity from Right Tech, Corp about what was behind the specifications.”

Where could Right Tech, Corp have made improvements in Communication?
“Start to communicate early in the purchasing process and ask a lot more questions to really understand the requirements. Another point that I would like to add is not to look for one person to make the decision because that is what we saw from Right Tech, Corp, and it just doesn’t work that way. It might be US culture versus German culture, but within German companies, it is not that if you play golf with the CEO you get the job. It’s more teamwork. They recommend something and it’s a joint decision. There is one person responsible for the business unit, but that person usually will not influence the team during the decision-making process.”

What could Right Tech, Corp have done differently to win your business?
“Respect the procurement and decision-making process. Meet deadlines. Be more understanding of our specific business needs and provide a more cost-effective solution.”

Did you experience any significant problems or challenges during the evaluation and selection process for this solution?
“Deadlines, that’s it. It was strictly with Right Tech, Corp; it didn’t happen with any other vendors. We actually extended the deadline two times just for Right Tech, Corp. We extended the process to give them more time to work on their bid. We extended the deadline two times, and it still never worked out. They still came in late and we accepted it, but that was very annoying.”

Right Tech, Corp came into the deal as the new, fresh blood that was going to right all the wrongs of the incumbent. Instead, the sales team ignored the specs, didn't listen and assumed they would get the business anyway. These were costly mistakes that have to be corrected.

The funniest part is that the sales team at Right Tech, Corp is still sitting around the office, wondering where it all went wrong and blaming the potential client for not communicating. Hopefully, this feedback will help them avoid the same mistake next time.

BTW, Primary Intelligence does this stuff all of the time. We're the best at post-sales analysis, competitive intelligence in the trenches and predicting the improvements that will make the biggest difference in sales performance.