General Consultant Discussion

Very interesting ERP blog. First article is very well high written overview, but each point sub-link to a well researched detailed post. This must have taken a real long time to compile.

Interesting post Mark, I appreciate you sharing it. We are working on updating some of our critical foundational philosophies and related documents. (Things that sit still too long grow stall.) We combined two of our '18 Consulting Behaviors' into a single item to make room for a new standard: 'Knowledge Transfer'. The link in the blog post on that topic provides some words that helps refine some of our thinking and will help us better articulate our own ideas. Very timely. Thank you.

Fixed price estimate"". Really? He is still a long way away from sitting on the same side of the table with his customers.

Perfection its not, but you have to admit it's better content than most

True enough. Having a clear, easy to understand process for prospects and customers is critical. And you're right, very few technology consultants have bothered to really think it through. Yes, it's a pain in the ass to develop. Anything worthwhile is. And the learning and honing never stops. What I'm continuing to work on is developing an emotional hook instead of a logical one. I'm not saying that at some point you won't need a logical one but I think the emotional one is much more powerful. That's one of the goals of making videos like Bob's Barbecue.

Plus I just have a problem with anything called a manifesto.

Emotional hook seems to happen more with existing users who have been burned recently. New buyers tend to think they've properly specified their needs with a free demo and anything they miss they are going to blame you for. ...right after they hire their 15th controller in 5 months....

Is there really such a thing as a new ERP buyer? I would think pretty much every company has been burned by ERP in some way.

Yes there is such a thing. They are 99.99999% manufacturers. I do not think that I've run into a new user opportunity in 5 years where they were not manufacturing. However you're correct in that they're using some type of ERP. Generally the ""pain"" is when they are switching from something installed <5 years ago?