"Living in the House" or So What's in the Demo

Our VP of Sales recently reminded me of an old joke.  A guy dies and is asked if he'd prefer to go to heaven or hell.  He asks to see both.  Heaven is tranquil and beautiful place where everyone is well dressed, enjoying themselves and discussing great thoughts.  Hell, is one big party.  Music, dancing, drinks.  He chooses music, dancing and drinking.  He is then escorted to hell and it is cold and wet with people dressed in rags and looking forlorn and tortured.  He points out that this isn't what he was shown, and is told; "That was just the demo".

Now I'm in the software industry, so you could suggest that I'm not a reliable source in discussing this topic, but I believe customers need to dig a little.  To get beyond the demo and figure out what it would be like to 'live in the house'... 

From that perspective we often suggest to our prospects that they not allow the vendors they are considering to build demo's or proofs off-site (ourselves included).  I've seen prospects send us a set of rules and then ask us to demo to them at some future date.  What they get to see is the pretty house all laid out for the buyer.  What they don't get is an understanding of what it is like to live in the house. 

I strongly urge any team considering a business rules purchase to ask all vendors to come in and build out a completely tested, integrated and executing Decision Service live.  Allow the vendors to bring nothing other than their base products at the start of the day.  Give the vendors their demo or test scenario without any ability to 'prepare'.  Spend a day living through the lifecycle of using the vendors product.  From inception through the build, test, deployment and maintenance of your business rules.  A business rules management system is an important purchases, so this small investment in time is actually very cheap.  Once you have bought the house and are living in it for real, it's not so easy to change addresses.   

Comments

[Sandy Kemsley]

Good advice for more than just business rules!

By the way, get that full-post feed working, it kills me to have to click through to the post to read it!