Do Perfect Products Exist?

By -

A Perfect Failure Part 5:
Do Perfect Products Exist?
🕒 3 min read 

By Frank Hurtte


Customers aren't shopping for perfection. They're spending money to solve a problem.

Successful automation product manufacturers invest between five and eight percent of their sales revenue in R&D, trying to build better products. That's a serious sum, yet after watching product development for decades, I've learned that every engineering improvement usually comes with another compromise.

Technically superior products lose business because they weren't available when the customer needed them. And I've watched “good enough” products become outstanding solutions simply because they kept a line running.

Sometimes C+ is good enough.

Not because customers don't value excellence, but because the best solution isn't always the technically perfect one. A C+ product that is available, serviceable, and keeps the customer's operation running can be worth far more than an A+ product that arrives too late.

Engineers love technical excellence. Plant managers often gravitate toward practical excellence. Maintenance wants easy-to-fix. Smart salespeople learn to recognize the difference.


To Be Perfectly Frank...

Customers don't buy the best product. They buy the best answer.


Catch up on A Perfect Failure, Part 4: Do Perfect Suppliers Exist? Next week, Part 6: Wait for the Perfect Time, the series wraps up. 


Ready to stop chasing perfection and start selling solutions? River Heights Consulting helps sales teams understand what customers actually need and how to position products that solve real problems. Let's align your team.



TL;DR

Customers don't buy the most technically perfect product. They buy the best answer to their problem. Technical excellence, practical excellence, and timing matter differently to different stakeholders. Smart salespeople learn the difference.



About the Author

Frank Hurtte is the Founding Partner of River Heights Consulting. Over four
decades watching product development and customer decisions, he's learned that engineering perfection rarely matters as much as practical timing and real-world problem-solving.














...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

50 Questions for Distributors

By -
Image
Last week I wrote an article titled “Six Questions that Demand an Answer.”  Sharing the article with a few trusted advisers, I received one consistent bit of feedback best summarized by this response. “Frank, I agree these are questions we must ask ourselves; they caused me to pause and ponder.  I used them as an exercise with my team to think about our overall strategy.  I believe taking the time to think about our business from an outside perspective to be justified and worthwhile.   Sometimes it’s hard to do this subjectively.  I would like to see more questions just like these.” The following is my first round of questions.  I have put them into categories to make them easier to digest.  Some will apply to your position, some will not.  I suggest spending a moment visiting these topics with members of your own team. A note:  The readers of this blog come from a variety of backgrounds, hold a diverse collection of positio...
Read more

Rebate Programs in Distribution

By -
Image
Many segments of the wholesale business use rebates as a plan to modify and reward distributor behavior. While the roots of these end of year rebates and similar programs are mostly lost to history, they have become an important part of the distributor financial sheet. For example, Electrical Distributors typically report around 40-60 percent of their bottom line comes by way of rebates. Other lines of trade indicate similar numbers. This information is not anecdotal. This is not beer talk, the Profit Reports published through groups like NAED and others back up the statement. Without rebates, the channel could be in serious trouble. Marketing and Buying Groups help drive the rebate dollars Many independent distributors receive their rebates through   marketing groups. Organizations like IMARK and Affiliated Distributors (AD) in the electrical industry come to mind, as do groups in other lines of trade. Here is a short list (mostly top of mind): • Distributor P...
Read more

A Book Designed to Make Small Distributors More Money

By -
Image
I have been a fan of Al Bates for the past three decades.  Nobody understands the financial drivers of distribution like Dr. Al Bates.  Those of you who have worked closely with me have probably heard me talk about Al and his efforts on behalf of distributors.  Further, if I ever mentioned the “Whale Chart,” which demonstrates how over half of the typical distributor’s customers subtract from the bottom line, that is a concept I discovered through his work and conversations with him.   I am currently reading his latest book, and rather than give you a book report, I have asked him to share his thoughts on the book. Please welcome as a guest blogger, Dr. Al Bates.  Smaller distribution businesses have three important characteristics:  1) They are fun places to work since they aren’t bureaucracies, 2) they are highly innovative because they have to be to survive, and 3) as a group they don’t make anywhere near the profit that they should. My work with small d...
Read more