"Vendors are from Mars, Buyers are from Venus"

Brian Sommer and I will be presenting at MR's Software 2005 conference in Santa Clara on April 27. Brian will talk about common vendor mistakes, and I will cover “Stupid Buyer Tricks”. For those who think I only critique vendors, this should show I am unbiased! The Buying AND Selling of technology is broken. See you there! Session details below…

http://www.sandhill.com/conferences/sw2005_breakouts.php#mars_venus

After 4 decades of software commerce, the buying and selling of software is still chaotic, inefficient and unpredictable. Pricing is out of line with buyer value and vendor cost: 80% discounts on licenses; 90% margins on maintenance. The numbers just do not add up. Buyers continue to use tired practices like making the software salesperson sweat at quarter- end. With ten years of sourcing experience with Gartner and his own sourcing firms, Mr. Mirchandani will draw on a number of buyer experiences and emotions, and vendor mistakes and myths. In this session you can expect humor, political commentary and some good practical advice on how buyers and sellers can get along better with each other.