If you believe that the best always prevails in a high-tech environment, here is a story about the unmatched persuasive power of simplicity:
When I was a young R&D engineer, I developed a very small and cheap component to replace a rather expensive outdated one on a project I was working on.
One day a manufacturing line manager calls me and schedules a meeting with me and a project manager who may need what I have developed for another project.
We start the meeting and the project manager explains:
I have a fairly old product.
Despite being outdated, it has been very successful with our clients, and I don’t want to change a thing …
My problem is that this component is outdated in design and I have a new batch to make … hard to find a reliable supplier that has this component in stock.
… I heard you designed a cheap new component that can replace it, is that true?
So I show him my design and reply:
“It’s a lot better than you think – look, my cheap new component will not only replace your outdated component, it actually replaces the entire module your outdated component is in, and it’s much more robust than this old design you have. today. My New product design will save you literally hundreds of dollars in manufacturing costs! “
And I had the smile of this pretentious young engineer on my face.
I was stunned … couldn’t believe how good this sounds …
He looked at me …
Then he looked at my new design …
Then he looked at the head of the manufacturing line …
Then he calmed down and thought for a minute
Then he got up quietly and said “on second thought, I think I’ll manage to find a supplier that I can buy that outdated component from … thanks for your time anyway …”
And he left the room.
I was shocked!
I looked at the head of the manufacturing line and said, “Is this a joke ?! What the heck just happened here ?! I showed this person a dream solution to their problem and they don’t want it.”
And then he explained something I will never forget:
“Look, Shlomi, your design is good and will actually save the project a lot of money, but look at this situation from that guy’s point of view, now you will have to get a budget for the integration of this new component. .. . testing … documentation … regulatory … instead of all that headache you could look for a vendor with the outdated component and that will give you some peace of mind until the next batch that he ‘will do it at some point in the future “.
The moral of the story?
When selling B2B, the person on the other end usually buys for a company, not for himself, but at the end of the day: he is a person with his own interest as top priority, and if the choice in favor of the company contradicts that interest own – guess what choice he will make? …
Yes, a better business solution may not always be better for the person who needs to carry it out.
Always present your product and its implementation as the easiest thing to do, simply because laziness is a very tough adversary.