I sell a transport/logistics ERP. Prospect approached us around a year ago, looking to review their options as their current provider has a fairly one-dimensional offering that worked when they signed 3 years ago but, as the business has evolved to include new operations/lines which are not directly catered for, there is pain as they have outgrown the incumbent solution.
We did the disco, multiple demoes, sessions with Finance, Ops, Commercial, etc. - you name it. All boxes ticked and requirements confirmed - overall a very high fit for us. We're even coming in around the same annual price as the current system due to some lucky fluke of pricing (this never happens, we are by far the most expensive option in our market).
However, despite being 95% through the process, they've been telling me since about April that they don't have the capacity on their side to commit to the project 'right now'. They're argument is that, as they are replacing a central business system, they cannot afford to take key people off their day to day to commit to the project right now, so it would be irresponsible to start at this point. They run a very lean business and the logic is hard to argue with from my perspective.
Like, I get it, you're gonna have to do your day to day and the project (there will not be a separate project team, it will be the business users - this is not out of the ordinary for our product) but I've run out of ways to convince them to move. The pain is there; the current system is no longer fit for purpose, lots of manual workarounds, system isn't interfaced to other key systems it should be, etc. but it seems the potential pain of staffing the project is being felt stronger than the pain of persevering with the current setup.
I feel like they'll come over to us eventually but it sucks to have done 95% of the deal and then be stuck, knowing full well that when they say 'ok, we're ready to go,' we're going to have to go back a few steps and revisit things as so much time has passed.
For reference, it's a $175k p.a. deal which is a slightly above avg. deal size for us and about 10% of my annual quota.
Thoughts appreciated!
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