The choice of software for the client. Requirements collection

“Even the longest journey begins with a small first step.”

Lao Tzu

Not so long ago, I posted an article in which I talked about my business “A business consultant in small and medium-sized businesses. Who is it and why is it needed? ". So I noticed, the topic was quite interesting for readers. In addition, I have already said more than once and am ready to repeat it again: in our country there are very few business consultants who are ready to cooperate with small and medium-sized businesses. And the need for them is growing every day. Companies are faced with crises, some problems arise, which cannot be solved on their own. And then there is a need for professional help, but today it is extremely difficult to find a specialist.

For all those who are interested in the peculiarities of the work of a business consultant in small and medium businesses, as well as for those who wish to try themselves in this field, I have prepared a series of articles in which I will share the secrets of my work.
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First, I want to talk a little bit about how I work with new clients. How to show your best? How to convince the client that you can really solve his problems? How do you yourself understand the work of a new business for you, understand all its features, identify the real problem and choose the best way to get out of the crisis?

Regardless of whether you offer your services yourself or come to a new client on the recommendation, it is very important for you to perform two tasks at the first stage of cooperation:

1. Understand all the important nuances of a particular company
2. Create a benevolent and trusting relationship with the client

A business consultant in small and medium business, as I wrote earlier, must be a generalist, he must understand the work of the business as a whole, as well as be able to solve various tasks, ranging from choosing and implementing a software system of accounting and management that will help find and to optimize the work, and ending with the help in implementing personnel changes and making changes in the work process of the company's problematic departments.

Most often, the cooperation of a business consultant with small and medium-sized businesses begins with the selection of the most suitable software product. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, the consultant himself needs an appropriate tool to find the cause of the problems that a particular business has encountered. Without collecting certain statistics, without analytics, it is very difficult to identify the “weak link”. In this case, the tools that are used by the company for current work, in most cases, are not sufficiently effective.

Secondly, in order to start the main work, you yourself need to understand how a particular business works, to get into all the nuances. Personally, I think the easiest and most convenient method is to study the company's work to select a new, more efficient program.

Third, such a specific task is usually understood by the head of the company. New software will help to optimize the work, improve performance, as well as to obtain additional data necessary for a better understanding of the problematic stages of the workflow.

Let me remind you that cooperation with a business consultant usually begins during a business crisis. In this case, attempts to solve the problem by management methods, most often, have already failed. Therefore, the manager is ready for changes and understands perfectly well that the current software either doesn’t fit at all or does not provide all the necessary information to identify the problem and optimize the work.

Fourth, it is always easier to start cooperation, including psychologically, with small and understandable tasks. That is why the first thing that I usually suggest to a new client is to determine the optimal software solution, in the future, transfer the balances before the introduction of the new system.

Where to start?

Before offering this or that software product, it is very important to get the opportunity to discuss all the nuances directly with the head of the company, i.e. with the person who is the customer of the work and who will accept and pay for this work.

Why do I emphasize this? Many people are familiar with the situation when you come to the company with your offer or even with the solution of a problem upon their request, and you are offered to communicate with a certain contact person appointed by the management. This may be the chief accountant, the head of the sales department, the financial director or any other employee.

What happens when this happens? The employee does not see the problem in a complex, he listened to the authorities, understood some aspects and retells to you what he was able to understand. Often at the same time there is the effect of "spoiled phone". Similarly, with distortions, he retells your ideas to his supervisor. It is clear that the result will also be distorted, and the expectations of the manager may not coincide with reality. Do not allow this situation.

Achieve a personal meeting with the supervisor

In the work of a business consultant, it is very important not to be afraid of difficulties and not to experience excessive excitement before meeting with a big boss. Most likely, the head of the company has allocated a specific contact person for negotiations with you, and is confident that the employee will cope with the task perfectly. In addition, the director can be a very busy person, and adapting to his schedule will not be so easy.

In this case, most likely, the employee who conducts negotiations with you, will dissuade you from communicating with the manager directly, since it is quite difficult, may cause dissatisfaction with the manager, and in general, in the opinion of this employee, there is no need for such a meeting.

Remember that employees most often project their own fears onto you. They do not want to be guilty or seem incompetent. They prefer life according to the well-known principle “away from the authorities”. These are their problems, they do not concern you.

As for time, it can always be reconciled. In the end, you want to sell the service and you need this communication. And that means you will be able to find an opportunity to come when it is convenient for the head of the company. Just as with due perseverance, you will be able to convince the contact person to arrange you a meeting with the management directly.

At the same time, it is important to understand that the head of the company expects from you a specific proposal, clear, clear, concise. Therefore, the style of communication with subordinates and with management should be different. Unlike an employee, he didn’t manage much time. Get ready to talk in advance. Think over what you want to offer, what you want to tell. Be convincing, but express yourself briefly and to the point. Show your own professionalism. The client must trust you and your choice.

What to talk about when you first meet?

So, you got the opportunity to talk with the business owner or director. What do you need to bring to him?

1. Choose the software will be you. And with your help, the company will receive not just a beautiful system, but an effective tool for solving the set tasks. Moreover, unlike vendors of specific software, you are not interested in choosing a particular product, and therefore your choice will be truly objective.
2. Position the client to yourself. Show that you have enough flexibility and are ready for dialogue. Therefore, please note the preferences of the client. If there is any software created specifically for this type of business, be sure to start exploring software products with it. Your client should see that you are an expert in your field. Of course, you may not know all the nuances of his business (after all, you cannot know everything!), And therefore are always ready to listen to the advice and opinion of the relevant specialists. But on the whole, your competence and personal qualities will be enough to sort out even the industry new to you and find the optimal solution to the problem.

Sometimes it happens that the client insists on using a certain software product and is ready to work only with it. Most likely, he is simply a victim of marketing, and in fact, a completely different program is required to solve the set tasks.

Usually I try to convince such a person that I will be able to make a better choice, since in this matter I am a specialist, professional. I remind you that they called me for help because the solutions chosen by the company do not work or work insufficiently effectively. And that everyone should do his own thing. He is in charge, I am helping to optimize the business. But if the client persists, and it is not possible to persuade him, it is best to simply abandon this project.

Once I tried to be led by a client, contrary to the obvious need for completely different tools, I tried to refine what they wanted to the desired option. Nothing good ever came of it. So I came to this conclusion:

If the client is not ready to trust me even in a small, in the choice of a software product, then the prospects for getting results are highly doubtful.

Once again: the client must understand that in choosing software I will be guided solely by the needs of the client’s business. If the solution of the problem will need some of the products 1C, I will implement it. If you need the usual Excel or even Google Docs, I will offer these products. But in order to understand what he needs, I will need time, as well as the opportunity to study the business from the inside.

Therefore, it is necessary to agree not only on the principle of agreement, but also to get the “green light” to communicate with employees of different departments, ask questions, and understand how and what works. Agree on a certain number of hours of interviews with employees, use this opportunity to the fullest, ask maximum questions, delve into the work of each department. It is very important for the choice of the program, and for further cooperation with this client. After all, your at this stage to get as much information as possible.

Collecting information and communication with employees

After meeting with the manager and, possibly, discussing some nuances with the contact person, you can proceed directly to collecting information about the work of the company. Most often it turns out that you are paid 15-20 hours of interviews with employees, but in reality you spend much more time with them. I think this is a normal course of events. Do not look at the clock, communicate with the staff as much as you need to understand all the nuances. All this time you will more than pay back when you carry out other tasks.

Thus, you solve two important tasks at once:

1. With a high-quality study of all the details, you will definitely be able to understand the features of the business and will not make a mistake. Remember that you are an expert, and how accurately you understand all the needs of the company and will be able to choose the right product depends on the client’s trust in you and the possibility of continuing cooperation.
2. You get acquainted with the staff, communicate, you have familiar employees who, in the future, it is quite possible that they will help you more than once in promoting your ideas on the modernization of work.

So, communicate with the maximum number of employees. Study the work of all departments, specify the nuances. And then be sure to discuss the problem directly with the manager. Otherwise, you may find yourself in a situation where the head said you need to increase sales, and the accountant decided that for this you need high-quality warehouse accounting. And you are already focused on cooperation with the warehouse. As a result, you are working, choosing a program, and when you present it to the management, you understand that you have done no work necessary for anyone, and now the reputation of an expert cannot be said.

Do not be afraid to repeat again. The order is as follows:

1. Communication with the contact person.
2. Mandatory communication with the manager (owner of the business).
3. Interviews with a variety of employees, ranging from the contact person and ending with representatives of various departments, shops, warehouses.
4. The choice of software product and presentation of its leadership.

How to choose?

In order to make the right choice, you need to understand well how a business works, and therefore employee surveys end only when you consider that you will not receive more useful information from them.

At this stage, you should have the following data:

• Problem statement by the manager (his vision of the problem that needs to be solved to accomplish the task).
• Business executives preferences for software (wherever possible, consider them)
• Understanding the specifics of a particular company
• Knowledge of the approximate number of users of the future software product, as well as their skills and habits (this should also be taken into account when choosing a program in order to spend as little time as possible later on learning and on overcoming psychological barriers).

If you have all the necessary information, you can go directly to the choice of software. Remember that at this stage the business consultant should be neutral. Forget about the fact that you have been studying 1C for 10 years and, out of habit, estimate the solutions on this platform. Look at a variety of options and choose the one that really can solve the task with minimal investment and modifications (or better without any last).

Personally, I choose like this. After I clearly formulate the task for myself and understand what features of the work it is important to take into account, I first sort out the software products I know. Perhaps there is a solution among them. If not - you have to use the search on the Internet, consider the various offers of off-the-shelf software, study various options. Well, and if this path did not give any result, then you need to write a software solution for the order.

In this case, do not forget about the skills of staff and the preferences of the head. If there is an opportunity to choose a product that not only solves the problem, but also appeals to the client, then it makes sense to choose such a solution. Do not complicate your life and people unnecessarily.

What's next? And then you will need to present your decision to the company management, convince them of your competence and that it is your chosen software product that will be able to solve all the problems as effectively as possible. For this meeting you need to prepare seriously, because you will sell, first of all, not the program, but yourself, your competence, your skills and knowledge. And if at this stage the client starts to trust you, we can assume that the cooperation has taken place, in the future he will also accept your offers without any problems, and your work as a business consultant for this company will be fruitful and mutually beneficial.

The topic of the meeting and the presentation of the product is quite voluminous, and the meeting itself is very important, practically key for your cooperation, and therefore we will talk about it separately in the next article.