Vendor Pitfalls:
The vendor puts a lot on the line by offering a free
trial/evaluation of their product. The
potential client is now interacting with the software in a manner that is alone
and unafraid. If, instead, the software
vendor is providing much aid during the process, they are now essentially
implementing the software for free. Here
is a list of the potential vendor pitfalls:
- Loss of Interest - Probably the
largest, and primary, danger is losing an interested client due to the
initial setup work required to get up and running. If there is a lot of initial setup
required, or just larger than the client expected, then the potential
client might be lost in the setup or just muck it up a bit. There is no one to guide them and no one
to provide the simple guidance of having run through the process before.
- No gee-whiz - When doing a live
demonstration of the product a vendor is able to point out some of the
best functions and explain where that may be helpful to a client. In the TBYB case, the client must
providentially stumble upon this feature or function. Hope is not usually a good marketing
plan.
- No Dialogue - Effectively, the
client has traded that conversation with the sales force for a
conversation with the F1 online help.
Not a big problem with Adobe Acrobat, but for treasury software?
- Inability to demonstrate complex
functionality - If the client
has no complex needs, this isn’t a problem, but how does the vendor know
the client’s needs when they haven’t had a chance to really interact with
them and understand how the client intends to use the software?
- No bank polling- Since most
treasury software must be able to dialog in some fashion with incoming bank
information, the potential customer still must do much of the data
pulling/ bank polling manually during the trial period. Since automating this function is one of
the major reasons companies implement treasury software, one of the
biggest selling points is lost.
The TBYB model can cause a rush to selection that eliminates
the level of commitment necessary to fully leverage the software. Too many
organizations only build out their software through phase one and then leave
it. Building it out all the way requires a significant commitment level. One
bad possibility is that the TBYB model may cause a firm to miss making the
level of commitment needed to drive all the value out of the software they
should.
In the end, this is a seemingly confident marketing approach
by some vendors in this space saying, in effect, “Ours is so good you can do it
on your own, or with limited help.” However, we would caution any company looking
for TWS software and that is contemplating using this approach to beware of
falling into the trap of sinking too many hours into the trial. For software vendors in this space we don’t
see a lot of upside potential. There is
the potential of more targeted and stronger sales leads. However, it is likely that the complexity and
set up requirements will turn off many potential clients, or cause repeated
work during an actual implementation. Caveat
Tryer and Caveat emptor.
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