Saturday, February 11, 2006
Stories I hear daily
In the position of marketing and sales person I meet customers, partners, people daily. I listen to them and trying to learn, to see where we as NextLogic can fit, can assist.
There is one story that I continusoly hear from people I meet (especially in Malaysia), which is very hard to respond to, because I myself know its so true.
The story goes something like this:
"We have tried IT before, we invested lots of money, we built our website, CRM and then the IT guy dissappeared and our website and data got lost with him. Then we tried again, this time not a freelancer because it was so hard to follow up with them and there was no support, instead we tried small IT company. After few payments and not delivered work, they also dissappeared. We don't trust IT and IT companies anymore. Its safer to keep everything manual in paper books. We don't even want to try again."
I believe every industry has story like this. There are many companies that just do not take the responsibility given and spoil the image of the industry in general. But many times the problem is on both sides. If IT partner is not selected properly (or any business partner), even if you mean to spend just little money at first, dissapointment would come sooner or later.
I know it very well from our personal experience. We also had partners that cheated on us and were very unfair. What to do with this situation? I always tell these people who tell me these stories one line from my favourite song - Fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me. It might not seem very IT related, but I believe, it is generally life related and can be easily applied in business too.
Companies, no matter how small they are (and especially small ones) literally cannot afford to get fooled twice in one area of business. They should be proactive and study and learn how to make it differently and better the next time. However, there are only few entepreneurs like that and those usually turn to be our best customers if we find them or if they find us. Its a perfect match when we find each other. Thats this famous 20% that creates 80% of your business, which is perfectly OK, because you create a value to them they see, understand and are willing to pay for.
The rest is 80% of "IT heartbroken" companies and entrepreneurs who are not willing and able to open up and listen to what honest IT companies have to say and thats our daily struggle. But, of course, we fight and are willing to spend more time on educating them, its our duty and we are happy to fulfill it. Some businessmen call it charity and stress to focus on profitable customers only, for us its a philosophy of our business life or long term investment of our time and resources believing that things and people can change.
There is one story that I continusoly hear from people I meet (especially in Malaysia), which is very hard to respond to, because I myself know its so true.
The story goes something like this:
"We have tried IT before, we invested lots of money, we built our website, CRM and then the IT guy dissappeared and our website and data got lost with him. Then we tried again, this time not a freelancer because it was so hard to follow up with them and there was no support, instead we tried small IT company. After few payments and not delivered work, they also dissappeared. We don't trust IT and IT companies anymore. Its safer to keep everything manual in paper books. We don't even want to try again."
I believe every industry has story like this. There are many companies that just do not take the responsibility given and spoil the image of the industry in general. But many times the problem is on both sides. If IT partner is not selected properly (or any business partner), even if you mean to spend just little money at first, dissapointment would come sooner or later.
I know it very well from our personal experience. We also had partners that cheated on us and were very unfair. What to do with this situation? I always tell these people who tell me these stories one line from my favourite song - Fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me. It might not seem very IT related, but I believe, it is generally life related and can be easily applied in business too.
Companies, no matter how small they are (and especially small ones) literally cannot afford to get fooled twice in one area of business. They should be proactive and study and learn how to make it differently and better the next time. However, there are only few entepreneurs like that and those usually turn to be our best customers if we find them or if they find us. Its a perfect match when we find each other. Thats this famous 20% that creates 80% of your business, which is perfectly OK, because you create a value to them they see, understand and are willing to pay for.
The rest is 80% of "IT heartbroken" companies and entrepreneurs who are not willing and able to open up and listen to what honest IT companies have to say and thats our daily struggle. But, of course, we fight and are willing to spend more time on educating them, its our duty and we are happy to fulfill it. Some businessmen call it charity and stress to focus on profitable customers only, for us its a philosophy of our business life or long term investment of our time and resources believing that things and people can change.
