Straight from the horse's mouth!

A recent post by Fabien Pinckaers , the founder of Odoo , resonated with me. Fabien compared the uptake of NetSuite and Odoo since 2009 - and until recent times, the two ERPs were racing neck and neck. However, Odoo is now ahead by quite a few lengths!

Odoo is an ERP built on the passion of developers and the pride in what they do. That's not to say that NetSuite developers do not have similar passions: the difference is that Odoo markets primarily word of mouth, client enthusiasm, and end user conferences, running with a marketing budget that is a fraction of that of NetSuite.

Growing a company on the basis of passion for and confidence in the product, yet not really doing much marketing is surprisingly common in the tech space. The really brilliant companies will, at the end of the day, get the word out, and many customers do have the goodwill to share their good experiences.

But it's not quite the rules of the game. And some good companies do go to the wall, and not because their product was no good, but simply that the GTM (Go To Market) strategy and indeed marketing and sales budgets were not sufficient. And, for reference, this was one of the factors that drove me to build and launch the new vendor selection platform, hifo. A platform that is built on the LTMCTY strategy - Let The Market Come To You!

The sales process is a battle for the hearts and minds of the buyers - and tech being generally both complex and nuanced, often makes for a challenging sale. Hence it is of course key to spend on marketing and sales, and the corollary to the point above, is that can also be the better companies that also afford the decent marketing spend. A litmus test is to check whether their spend coming from growing earnings, or is it coming from invested funds?

People talk about brand persona - and it is important - but, in tech, how do you create an authentic brand persona for something that is ultimately based on bits and bytes?

In tech, the decision has to be based on core competencies, and the facts around the service offering, alongside other deeper considerations, such as the overall tech strategy, and fit with the current or indeed future technology stack.

How does the buyer make up their mind?

There is of course a long list of factors that contribute to the ultimate purchase decision - but the key point is there are effectively three information sources

• The horse's mouth - this is a phrase used in racing parlance - when someone asks if a tip is a good one, where did you get the information from, and the bookie will respond: "From the horse's mouth" - i.e. the horse itself knows that it is a winner. And indeed, the first source of information is from the company itself: how the company articulates what it does, and how it explains it is different and better.
• The business partner - in racing parlance, this could be the trainer, or could just be a friend of the horse's owner. The person who works closely with the horse, and helps it win the race. In the tech world, this can range from a full implementation partner, to a reference partner, where the recommender is there at the introduction phase, is paid a commission, and then moves away from the process.
• The specialist - in racing parlance this would be the journalist who has the inside edge, and the connections with the racing world, to give you the tips that will come up trumps. In tech these are the business analysts, and market research firms, such as Gartner , Forrester , Omdia , CB Insights , and Statista
• The client - in racing parlance this would be the punter who spends the money, and also perhaps just the non-betting race goer, who is happy to give an opinion. In the tech world, this would be the tech buyer, the CIO, the procurement team, and they can either share their information directly via conversation / reference calls - a really essential step in any purchase decision, or via review platforms - which can be valuable, but some reviews need to be taken with a pinch of salt. The bottom line is that each tech buyer will want to select that service provider that is a winner in their field, and will help the buyer's company get ahead of the competition. The leading review platforms for the tech space that usefully summarise end user feedback include G2 , GoodFirms , Capterra , Clutch and more.

The buyer will have specific procurement criteria and policies to adhere to - something that has informed many RFP processes that I have led or participated in over the last 25 years.

For example:

• Is the vendor teamed up to be able to service a company of your size?
• Can the vendor support your offices in all the different countries that you work in?
• Is the vendor profitable?
• Does the vendor meet a minimum turnover?

It can take a week or two to pull together the initial research, and get it into a useable form. There is also that anxiety that you have actually missed out on considering that really brilliant vendor, which will be the market leader in a few years, but currently has not got the marketing spend to have surfaced on your radar. And this is the challenge that hifo is built to solve: it's now at the vendor growth stage. Any vendor that is not currently listed can self register and create their profile - a profile that will clearly and immediately communicate what they do, and how they do it differently and better.

No platforms offered an easily accessible comprehensive list of vendors, that could easily be discovered, sliced and diced and down selected via advanced search using sector, offering, and financial criteria - so this was built into hifo's advanced search.

Money changing hands!

At the races, there's excitement in placing the bet, and hoping your horse is a winner! In the tech space, this is not a fun afternoon out, and you need to make sure that your decision is based on facts and capability, rather than swayed by advertising and marketing panache.

Huge amounts can be invested in a solution that never even reaches the finishing line: implementation failure, or alternatively just a straggler, making you feel a fool, and, more significantly, damage your company's future. You want a product and service that really delivers, rather than one that simply has a powerful marketing budget that masks a pretty run of the mill offering.

Average profits over the last three years, and average growth over the last three years can be strong indicators of the companies that are ahead of the game and that need to be considered.

LinkedIn Premium provides Insights - employee growth over time is available, and also employee role types. If a company is over 70% on sales and marketing employees, there are questions as to whether that company is investing sufficiently in both service offerings and service delivery. Other useful platforms delivering financial performance related data that can indicate vendor dependability, or flag performance or longevity issues, include Investopedia , Crunchbase and Statista .

And they're off!

So before you commit that cash, and get into the excitement (or indeed stress) of the race, it makes sense to consider all the possible options, and really research the vendors - it could be that one you have not even looked at is the next SeaBiscuit!

And if you are the horse - make sure that your potential punters really understand how good you are. But also make the research and buying decision easy - i.e. that you are clearly differentiated from the competition!