Used to be that in order to gain a better understanding of a certain software package or hardware solution, a harried IT manager would have to contact a salesperson and start that whole sales process thing in order to get a demo license, a demo unit, or (shudder!) an in-person demo. Thanks to the Internet those days are long over. Or should be.
Higher productivity demands translate to even less time for that harried IT manager to engage in the evaluation process. Who has the time to read a 10-page white paper on why solution X is The One? Who has the time to download a demo and complete a full install just to figure out if solution X is The One? Who has the time to deploy a demo unit and run it through the paces just to see if that gear could be The One? And who has the time to do any of these things more than once, which is what the case would be when the harried IT manager has whittled down a list of candidates to a small handful? I sure as heck don’t.
Now I know what you’re thinking, I’m the CEO, CTO, Creative Director, this that and the other thing, so of course I don’t have time to engage in these lengthy solution studies. But I can tell you that 10 years ago, when I was more heavily focused on managing the IT operations of a fast-growing ISP, I didn’t have the time either. And the problem is worse now because not only has the fat been further whittled away in IT (thanks to gobs of automation) the solution set has grown exponentially. That means there are now more potential solutions to practically any given problem and far less time to evaluate them.
Here’s the thing that so many solution providers don’t get: You need to work harder to help the harried IT manager to quickly understand the benefits your product(s) may offer them. Thanks to technology (!) you can do this very easily: provide online demos. For free. Without registration hassles. Use YouTube if you need to for distribution.
Every single evaluation I do begins with an understanding of the problem. At that point I’ve already begun to develop an idea of what my ideal solution would look like. Then I go hunting for that solution. And I mean That solution. The tough part always comes down to trying to better understand if a given solution is That solution and honestly, short of deploying the darn thing it’s next to impossible to figure out what it is you’re looking at. This is when a video demo of the actual product can help immensely.
I want to see someone actually using the solution the way I might without me having to do anything. Anything at all. While I can watch a video over lunch, I most certainly can’t deploy your product in less than an hour. Yeah, you might think otherwise but believe me, the harried IT manager must gain a deeper understanding of your product if he’s going to deploy anything to try out because the fact of the matter is that, and I’m really just guessing here, test deployments are often migrated over to live deployments just because there’s no time to redeploy all over again.
To put this more clearly, the harried IT manager is not looking to deploy your product in 5 minutes; if he’s going to deploy he’s going to want to deploy a solution that could easily be converted into a live deployment. That means the initial (demo) deployment must include a path to understanding the solution at an almost zen-like level; it’s the level of understanding that is necessary just to have a clue about how the solution fits in to the existing environment and (more importantly) how to maintain it down the road. A click and install evaluation package isn’t going to cut it and neither is locked down hardware that’s supposed to be returned at some point.
Deployments take time. There’s very little time for deployments. So if your product can’t be evaluated at all without a deployment you’re pretty much sunk. And that’s why you absolutely must have at least one video demo. Even if it’s just a broad overview of the architecture and the interface. I’m happy to spend 10-15 minutes watching an unpressured demo of your product, but there’s no way I’m going to set aside a couple of days to actually deploy and test unless I’m absolutely convinced your solution might actually be That solution I’ve been looking for.
This way of researching solutions has become such a big part of my toolbox that I can’t remember when I last considered a software or hardware purchase without having stopped by YouTube or Googled for “Product X review” (which I’ll cover in my next installment).
So get on out there and hook up with your favorite marketing agency and have them cook up one or more video demos for your product(s). If you don’t hop onto this bandwagon soon I can almost guarantee that your products will more easily fall out of any given solution set in the early stages of research. After all, those harried IT managers are only going to become more busy as time rolls on.