When you are making a considerably large investment in business software for your company, you need to be sure that you are making this purchase from a reputable vendor that will be there to support you in the long run. How can you be so sure? One thing that goes a long way toward giving you peace of mind is obtaining and checking references.
Getting a small list of happy customers that your vendor has helped – in other words, some references – is an integral part of the buying process for most companies. There is, however, a good way to check references and a bad way to do it.
Are you checking references the right way? In other words, are you getting the data you really need to make this critical purchasing decision? Or are you talking to one of the vendor's own employees who is simply pretending to be a happy customer? You may think that sounds pretty far-fetched, but as a CEO with years of experience in the software industry, I can tell you that it is not necessarily a ridiculous notion.
Why Check References Anyway?
I actually know of software companies (in fact, one of our own competitors, for example) that are guilty of scamming their potential customers in this way. One of the advantages that the Internet provides for dishonest companies is that it allows them to appear bigger and more successful than they actually are. After all, a professional-looking Web site can be created quickly and easily with little expense. Unfortunately, such a Web site is not necessarily evidence that the company has been in business very long, but few people realize that at first glance.
The purpose of checking references bears repeating: You absolutely must verify that your software vendor has had successful rollouts of their product in the past in order to be certain that they aren’t just selling shelfware that no one ever uses in the end. You also need to ensure that they have helped customers just like you - of your size, in your region and in your industry. Of course, the perfect reference would be if they have a customer similar to your business that is located in your city so that you can actually meet face to face.
Why is this so important? Let’s face it, if the potential software vendor you are considering striking a deal with is willing to lie to you about references, you have to wonder what else they are lying to you about. Discovering dishonesty in this manner will indicate there is no reason to trust the vendor about anything else they're telling you.
The Right Way
So what steps can you go through in order to be certain that you will be learning what you need to learn about the entity you are checking up on? How can you know they are a real reference and not just an employee’s mother?
Okay folks, it's time to don your detective hat and investigate these references!
Eight Simple Steps to Confirm Reference Validity
- Don’t call us, we’ll call you. First of all, if the reference calls you, you should probably be suspicious. Think about it: What kind of executive has time to call someone and give a reference rather than wait to be contacted? If this happens, you should tell the person that you are unavailable at the moment, and schedule a time to call him back when he’s sitting at his desk at his company.
