11

Jan

Faster Horses … and disruptive technology

Category : Uncategorized

Henry Ford, the great innovator, explained that his invention, the Model T was a transport solution that his customers didn’t know they wanted. Cars were for the rich, not accessible to them, so he came up with a solution, an affordable motorcar.
Sitting around a table a few months ago at the New Frontiers Conference with a dozen other start ups, we had some great advice from one of the group who had originally worked for Google.
The topic of discussion was selling, and I had kicked off saying that I am not a natural Salesman, and while I am passionate about my product’s benefits, I was really a little uncomfortable looking for money.  The advice was that I needed to shift my company’s Paradigm, selling solutions, especially what people now refer to as “a disruptive piece of  technology” is less about selling and more about understanding your customer and finding a new way of  fixing their problems.
When I thought of my sales to date, I realised he was right. Last February at a meeting I mentioned  my  software to a colleague who was setting up a new community training centre: School of Food. His problem was that he had no follow up staff, no systems or processes for this new venture.
When I showed him it’s functionality, without blinking an eye he said it would solve all the issues and agreed to buy the MVP (first version). A few weeks later another colleague from a larger accredited company that I work with, Barrow Training, was showing me the details of the new consultation for Quality Qualification Ireland (QQI). Again the focus on a need for Management of Information and Communications with Learners was apparent and Veri solved the problem.
Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. Ensuring Quality means that we have to be looking all the time. This costs time and money and was the original reason for developing the software.
So three down – three companies using the software and we were just on version 1, then I decided, you know, there is something in this, I need some advice to take it further. The next post.. the huge support available along the way.