“Sorry, but I won’t tell you how much it cost, nor will I start the project right away”: When clients want to close a business but you know it is a bad idea…

When selling, the whole idea is to close the business as fast as you can. But then again, Software industry is not like any other business. If you are interested in building a confidence long term relationship with you client, sometimes closing a deal is more a curse that a blessing.

Custom software is expensive. It requires a lot of effort, translated into many engineer hours, translated into a lot of dollars. Still, if done properly, custom software can solve many client problems and potentiate their business. But if the software does not reflect the real processes, does not allow the users to actually do their job and even make it more difficult then you are just expending money to lose some more money.

Process analysis and optimization is the first step before even talking about building software. Some clients understand it and will contract you analyst team as consultants first. That is always the best way to go. But if the client is new at these, he/she will try to force you into giving a price and time for the development before the processes have been identified or a scope has been defined. Don’t go for it, even if it means losing this particular deal. If you don’t go for it, someone else will, they will mess up and the door of the client will be open for you a few months later.