Flutterby™! : Seeding a Meme

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Seeding a Meme

2008-05-28 12:40:36.392564+00 by meuon 1 comments

Yesterday I did a software demo to a "competitor" and their client. The client was hostile, at first, because the competitor-sales-droid had pushed their version of our system to the client, and was touting feature X, Y and Z as products he should buy. The Client wasn't interested in X,Y and Z and did not even LIKE the ideas. I skipped it, went on with the demo, established dialogue, focused on problem A and talked about people and how they did things, paid for them, used them.. showed off the software and systems.. how things worked together. The light bulb turned on as he asked: "How do [insert certain demographic] they _____?" I replied, "They could X, Y or Z". Ding.

While I abhor the words: "Solution Provider" I just solved the problem he was just starting to realize he had instead of selling him a product. It takes a while for a meme to take germinate and sometimes you just have to use the right fertilizer.

I felt like I needed a bath. :)

[ related topics: Software Engineering Marketing ]

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#Comment Re: made: 2008-05-28 18:16:41.521021+00 by: Dan Lyke

I find that I run screaming from the term "Solution Provider", but as I look at a couple of places where I do want to buy solutions, I think that I believe that I understand the nature of my problem space better than they possibly can. They're telling me that they can solve my problems before they've heard what it is.

I think in your case, you took the time to demonstrate to them that you understood their problem first. "You need a hammer" versus "I see that you want to hang pictures, and to do that you need to drive nails into the wall. I suggest a hammer."