Each year, I get on my soapbox and say I’m not going to take this anymore.

The marking spins to entice you to click even though the vendor knows it isn’t true.

They qualify as though a vendor will deny you the privilege of talking to them and even buying their system.

And yes, some think you should feel honored to talk to them.

I’m not a fan of vendors who, before they talk to you, send you over to YouTube to see their introduction and some other spin about their platform, even though they are not showing you everything. Why do that?

Speaking on YouTube, learn more about who we are. It is all about qualifying you before you even talk to them.

Why would any vendor want to do this?

It is just like vendors who send you a link to their introduction on their website; they know you probably won’t click on it.

Those that are lucky enough may go right to the main page. Yipee!

Jerks or Polite – Which do you want?

I am tired of vendors who, in their emails, tell you that they are not interested in you if you are worth less than X amount.

And their system requires more than what they stipulate in their email.

I have no issue if, when talking to a prospect, I ask them upfront how many active users are going to use the system.

If that number is lower than their minimum, I let them know and perhaps mention some other systems that accept that or send them over to a few places, whether it is FindAnLMS or another directory you can trust, to ascertain that information.

They (the vendor the prospect is speaking with) can quickly mention a few experts in the space for them to contact.

A vendor who recognizes they are not a fit, based on users, and then identifies potential fits, recommends analysts who know their information and can be trusted for honesty and independence (and yes, there are a few out there), or points them to a directory or two is a professional and polite move.

This kind of respect for the prospect’s needs and situation can make a significant difference in the long run.

I say this because it isn’t a “take a hike” angle, but rather, “Here are some other options, and if at some point your numbers increase, please don’t hesitate to contact us.”

Now, think which angle is better for the prospect down the road. Take a hike—clearly using other verbiage, or we understand your plight, we have a minimum number of active users, and here are some other options—I say the latter because you never know.

That person may go to another company with a larger user base and remember your niceness—which is a big win. Politeness wins. Being a jerk doesn’t.

What makes you think that using this attitude will entice me to buy your system when I go elsewhere and need a new system, and your company being a jerk will be at the top of my list?

OR this person who has had the jerk approach will keep quiet at a trade show or when others ask them about a system, and they say, “XXX is really nasty.

They didn’t seem to care about us.”

If you think that never happens, you clearly think your favorite wafer is made from Soylent Green.  

Come to think of it…

For sale – Our exclusive bottle of cure-all is no longer overpriced.

If you think there is nothing more that can surprise me, you might be stunned.

Feature-wise? No—it doesn’t surprise me because every vendor’s system I have ever seen has the “We are the only ones to do this, or we are the only ones that have this.”

I want to tell them, actually you aren’t. Sometimes I do, sometimes I figure what’s the point, because they will argue or say well, they haven’t seen it – as though they spent hours and hours of research to verify it.

There is a recent vendor who pitches they are the first end-to-end learning platform for companies. Huh?

Do you know how many vendors have an LMS, LXP and content creator (which they refer to as an authoring tool).

Do you know how many vendors who have AI are using it to create content and even translate it?

Do you know how many vendors have gone beyond this?

If you talk about AI with a content creator, where is the synthetic voice option? One vendor has this.

Nevertheless,

I just do not understand how a vendor can say it is AI-driven when the only AI components are ones I have seen before.

I should clarify that the vendor I saw had one thing that isn’t unique because you can find lots of AI bots out there, like Grain, which I use, and Zoom, which I use too—and can be integrated (I’m unsure about Grain, but API will resolve that). However, within a system itself, without integration, it offers it.

However, to say you are AI-driven or AI-first is just an overstatement and is not wholly accurate.

It’s a clever marketing approach – and I give kudos for it, but I’d have an exploration to see if another vendor or vendors are doing the same or something beyond.

Best in your Town

It reminds me of those places in your town that say, “#1 x type of food restaurant, voted by our customers or some other nonsense.”

Who are these people or customers?

Well, it’s us and our friends who eat here.

The days when some entities did extensive research to validate what they were saying are gone.

Actually, come to think of it, I didn’t see it during the dot com days, and I haven’t seen it in our industry.

How do I know this?

Because nowadays I see vendors who publish that they are the first LMS, learning platform, LXP, or whatever they want to call themselves as it relates to learning/training for AI.  

Yep, the #1 system launched AI into their system.

It’s amazing how many vendors take credit for this. You are thinking of Generative AI—and some, I am sure, pitch this because they have no idea that machine learning is a form of AI, nor do they really understand AI. They are betting on you, my dear buyer, to jump into the believe of #1 of AI.

As for machine learning, there are vendors who have machine learning, and only machine learning and pitch AI, which is true.  

If you ask a vendor if their system uses machine learning for AI, I find that those who know will say yes.

Some vendors use machine learning as the core and generative AI on other items.

However, you – the buyer – will not know unless you ask.

Trust me when I say this: “The vendor is expecting (think betting minus cash exchange) that you won’t ask. because it is rare to ask.”

I see it all the time—if the buyer or prospect doesn’t ask, then the vendor thinks, okay, nobody asked for it, so we do not have it—as though it’s the let’ s-play “exit ramp” of the denial game.

This leads to another irritant – the “Transparency nonsense”.

Transparency we are!

They are not.  

Okay I shouldn’t say every vendor in the industry, but there are more than a lot who do.

Here are some of our clients list

The goal is for you to be impressed, and how could you not be? If a vendor is smart, they will place the bigger name (more recognized) in the middle of the diagram or whatever they use to catch your eyeballs.

Regardless, a vendor’s mechanism for this is for you to be wowed.

I see way too many vendors pushing out big names as though they are “exclusive.”

Exclusive means they are the only vendor for that entire company.  

Not just in Europe, Latin America, Asia, or the US—everywhere that vendor has offices or locations.

Now, there are vendors who will point out to me that people know that these companies have other systems due to their size.

I ask you—are you aware of this? Or do you immediately think, “Wow, they have so and so? “

How could you not be wowed that a vendor has Google or Microsoft, Boots (underwhelmed drug stores all over the UK – IMO), Hilton, or whomever?

I’d be wowed if I didn’t ask one question.

This changes the narrative of ‘exclusive’ and leads to the breakout of transparency.

Is it a game the vendor plays on you, as though Parcheesi will make a comeback?

No. It is not.  

However, it is a way—a showcase, if you will—of those entities that are using their system in some fashion.

Personally, I have absolutely no problem/issue with that. After all, it is intended to present you with the companies—just a few the vendor has as well, such as a client.

I’d be impressed – and have been – noting to vendors, “Wow, you have them?”

Then, I bounce right into the question.

The Question

“Are there any clients you are showing me exclusive?”

Sometimes I change the vernacular, but you get the point.

The vendor’s salespeople or whomever is on the call will either know—honestly, they should know—or won’t know.

There are those whose system is the only system for European operations—uh, the entire entity in Europe.

Not global just Europe.

There are those that the vendor is exclusive or that the vendor is in one department/division.

When you go to a trade show and that salesperson shows you their list in some manner, ask them are they the only system with that company?  

I note this because surprisingly, I find that if you say “exclusive,” many people have no idea what you are talking about.

I will always ask the vendor (in a call) to send me a list of the exclusive clients they have shown me.

I can say that in the last six years, including pre- and post-pandemic, only three vendors have done it, and one of the three is a repeat—i.e., sent over multiple times.

I cannot understand why vendors are safeguarding this information yet showing you the names of these clients.

I often hear, “We can’t tell you because we never present this information to anyone.”

I reply to the effect – you just showed me some of your clients.

And we go into a round and round as though we are on a playground ride that makes you sick after three turns, and you wonder how, as a kid, you never threw up.

Another irksome vendor is one who says they will find out and send you the information about the system, mind you, or whether they have experience in an integration of X that they are showing (yes, I have seen vendors who show it, but have never done it), and the reward you get is ghosted.

Wait a minute!

You are pitching me your system and can’t follow through with basic 101 on sales?

The Sales Inquiry Box

You are not alone if you get upset over this wonderful thing you see on plenty of vendors’ websites and the lack of follow-up.

Ditto on the “fill out this information,” and we will follow up. The only response you get is being on their email spam list.

If I stand up on my soapbox with multiple boxes below me, you will concur that the “we will contact you” is usually no, we won’t.

How hard is this?  

How much of a challenge is it to have someone, a human specifically? I often get either a bot or a general response not written by the person sending it to you but how the system is set up, with the person’s name added, based on what CRM they are using.

Here’s a concept – have the salesperson spend 10 minutes with an actual response to the customer.

No mail merge. No, generic retort, that one of my dogs could write, with a bowowowowo xkarksdfsldkfyfsdkl bowow. They can’t type hence the xkark – paw power!

I’m not asking for a miracle here; I am asking that the vendor cares.

About me.

Bottom Line

These are my grievances this year.

I’m sure I will have more to add to my list in the next two months.

It’s the holiday season after all, and if you want to score a great deal

Do it now, because the majority of vendors whose fiscal ends this year

will make it happen.

Don’t buy into you only have seven or 10 days to close.

It’s really simple

In the proposal you want them to state that the deal is good until Dec. 23, 2024.

I use this date because a lot of people take off the week from the 24th.

You may not be aware of the date and end of fiscal.

Just as you may not be aware that the majority of the industry will give you at least a 10% discount for signing a three-year deal. There are those that continue with 15%.

That is transparency.

And a way to change the darkness

To light.

At least until Nov.

2025

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