The Executive Conversation

A short snippet from a role-play last week in a workshop. As background my customer prides itself on the blazing-fast speed of its solution and always likes to lead with that fact.

I’m playing the part of a CIO from a medium-sized business. I just asked the Sales Engineer to make a case for the value his solution will bring to my business. I'm in full "Simon Cowell" mode and decide to make things as difficult as possible for the poor SE.

SE:          "Well – our product is twice as fast as the nearest competitor’s is."

CIO:       "That’s great – but I don’t have a performance problem right now."

Silence. Crickets chirping..

The moral of the story is that “it is only a problem if your customer says that it is a problem”