Confessions e-book: Introduction

Most construction/equipment rental companies go through the evaluation process for enterprise wide software deployment.  Many do it multiple times. Enterprise software deployments are no easy task.  With so many moving parts it's hard not to lose sight of the forest through the trees. Now...there's help!
I've authored a new and informative FREE e-book that I'm very excited about.  It's called,

Confessions Of An Ex-Enterprise Salesperson:  What I Really Meant When I Said:______________ .

I'll be sharing some quotes and passages from the book on our site here and encourage you to submit your name and email to receive the entire book in PDF format. 

The book will provide a light hearted stroll through my experience in the enterprise software world.  You may find the book an indispensable guidebook for your own decision making.   My only request is that you don't share the book with the software sales people courting you...until AFTER you've decided on a solution.  They're going be shocked at some of the probing questions you ask during the sales process.  Many of the questions will stump the sales rep and expose the company's true colors.

That is what you're after...the truth behind the suit.

Selected Quotes:

The title of this book came to me as I sat in my home office planning the strategic direction of my business RentalMetrics.  Each new idea quickly summoned the "Make sure this is not an enterprise solution" mental checklist.  That is, I was checking to make sure I'm not building a bloated, over-featured, and "dead before it starts" solution that would inevitably be my undoing. 

I'm not suggesting that I’ve lived a life of lies.  There are no perfect solutions for the enterprise and never will be.  It's up to the sales professional to convince the target that she's got the best possible solution, despite the facts.  Is lying requisite?  No.  Salespeople are not lying, they are simply framing the truth in a way that closes the deal and provides a big payday.

...like many Enterprise Software companies, we overestimated the market size for clients willing to pay big fees.  We had NO CONCEPT of how much it costs to acquire enterprise deals.  When a target in NYC says, "Can you be here at 3PM tomorrow?" you say yes.  That 1 hour in-person conversation often cost in excess of $5k not including lost life minutes from doing red eyes.   

Comments

[Thiago]

Thanks for the comment on our post! Doug, I wholeheartedly agree that a change within the corporate structure is necessary in order for enterprise applications to perform to its full potential. Restrictions will come everywhere, from the IT departments and from the applications itself. Salespeople do not help the process by providing “false” information, so we can only hope for the best.

[sergio segal]

I followed your instructions but did not quite understand how to download the e-book. I will appreciate instructions.
Thank you,
Sergio Segal

[Antti Karppi]

The book sounds really, really interesting. I'd love to read it to gain insight into the mind of a salesperson - something I wish I had had more than once before when being on the buying side of solutions.