Most service providers and software manufacturers sell by enticing you with a list of features and trying to be “price competitive” (meaning they want to be the lowest). After sitting through hundreds of these sales presentations and reviewing our internal systems, here are a few things that I have learned along the way.

Just because the product says it has a feature does not mean it does. I am not saying the product representative is lying because they are usually not. But what they don’t tell you is how it works and that it is a work around that will consume more time than it saves.

More features isn’t always better. When you are buying, the more features a product has means more time to implement. We have seen over and over again were the client doesn’t end up using half of the features anyway and it only makes things more convoluted. If you are justifying the extra cost of one product you have to think, “will I use that feature or will it just be a waste of money.”  We are guilty of this as well and have spent money on add-on features to only later realize that we didn’t have the time to implement them.

The simpler the system, the more likely you or your people will use it and continue to use it. I have seen product providers come in and do a great job training, the client leaves excited about the new product and features. Sometimes they will use the features for a short time and then forget about them and never use them again. Sometimes they leave excited and don’t ever do anything about it. In many instances they didn’t need the features in the first place.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery