In the weeks since we published the Midrange Array Buyers Guide I have spoken to many of the vendors who were reviewed in the guide. Most of you I have spoken to have said how great a document the guide is, how much of a needed tool it is, and have congratulated DCIG on a job well done.
Then when I ask you if you are ready to purchase the guide to use in sales efforts or lead gen campaigns, a good number of you have said essentially “If we are not first on the list, the document has no value to us at all”. Jerome and I have chatted about this quite a bit and those conversations have led me to write this next Offline with DCIG entry.
DCIG has reviewed more than 70 Midrange arrays from in excess of 20 unique vendors and, given the fact that this is a buyer’s guide and there will be rankings involved, someone will be #1 and 19 others will not. I have been surprised by the fact that many of you who I have spoken to have forgotten that you compete in a universe of vendors that has 20+ competitors. Even the company that took first place has to compete in the market and will lose deals to someone who was ranked lower in the Buyer’s Guide.
So I wanted to use some real world examples of how being #2 is not the worst thing in the world financially and that the money to invest in the effort that comes up just short is not money wasted.
At the 2010 Masters Tournament in Augusta, GA Phil Mickelson took home 1.3 Million dollars; the chump that came in 2nd, Lee Westwood, took home a humbling $810,000. The all time earnings winner in Golf is,(you guessed it) Tiger Woods ($93 Million) but the 2nd place earner is Vijay Singh who really should not show his face in public again because he was only able to amass $62 Million.
The 2009 New York Yankees won the World Series and each player earned $365,052 for winning. That infamous group of baseball slackers known as the Philadelphia Phillies only got $265,357 each.
The 2010 Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints saw each player earn an additional $83,000 per player and the hapless Indianapolis Colts only earned $42,000 per player…clearly they were not worth investing in from a team standpoint as they did not win it all, they only beat every other team save 1 in their respective sports.
In the world of acting the top paid actor, last year it was Will Smith at $80 Million and the B movie wonder Johnny Depp only scratched out a paltry $72 Million….I may never see one of his films again if that is a good indicator.
The best Actress for the checkbook you ask? Well Angelina Jolie earned $27 Million while the first loser Jennifer Anniston only knocked down $25 Million….what a failure her parents must think she is.
So are you #2, 3, 16 on the list in the Buyers guide? Are you all failures? Will you not win deals from #1, or #15? Certainly you are not failures and you will indeed win deals from your higher ranked competitors, and the buyer’s guide will be an invaluable resource to use when you are in deals against others who you are closely ranked, you will be able to use it to better your selling position in the process and you will indeed win the day if you are well equipped to give honest unbiased analysis to your clients like the information in the guide provides.
Not everyone gets to be the prom queen, the captain of the football team, or the #1 array in the 2010 buyers guide; but here is the secret…..you can still derive a tremendous amount of benefit and close deals using the guide to your sales advantage.
We have sold a good number of copies of the guide to those who are using it to win deals this summer AGAINST YOU! You need to reconsider some of the position you may have on not being the top rated vendor and realize that you are competing in a large arena and that you will need something that is objective analysis of your product and more importantly how your product stacks up against other arrays.
The DCIG Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide is just that…..a totally non biased assessment of the playing field at the time we gathered the data. The feedback that we have gotten from end users is astronomical and is essentially this “We are looking for a new mid range array, this clarified the search and we are eternally grateful” that comment came from someone who was not even looking at the top 3 providers, and was able to cut to the chase on other offerings based solely on our guide.
So just remember this, 2nd place is not a bad place to be….you can still be very successful in business, life, sports, film and DCIG is here to help you in any way we can.