All the Right Stuff

From: Manufacturing Business Technology
By: Erik Keller

Every vendor has a value proposition; choosing what's right for a business is the challenge.

Somewhere in the world right now, an enterprise software salesperson is pitching a prospect for one of the vendor's products. Talking points likely include ROI, proof points, and references.

But for each manufacturing site, this doesn't just happen once, but many times a day-adding up to hundreds of opportunities a year. While all of these opportunities sound good, prospects are in the same dilemma that a gourmand faces when asked to visit countless four-star restaurants: Where to go? Companies have many metrics-typically financial-that surround what to buy. They also have tried-and-true best practices (see Top 10 for vendor selection). While helpful, financial metrics and best practices should be complemented by two other criteria: customer value, and corporate risk.

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