Site Visits

Last week I was travelling to different Universities to do site evaluations for the different vendors bidding for the Paperless University project that we are running. We hit two different schools in two different states in two days. I have now seen six different vendor demos and site visits for this project, and I have learned a lot of what to do – and not to do – when suggesting a site visit. The following will be a simple list of things NOT to do as a technology vendor during a site visit. Sadly, I got to experience all of these “not to do” points.

1) Do your homework! When you arrange the site visit with the hosting company, make sure that the company is actually using your product the way that you have told your prospective customer. And if you are not sure what the hosting site is doing, err on the side of caution. Nothing irks a prospective customer more than feeling like the time and money spent in going to the site visit has been a waste.

2) Listen to the prospective customer. If the customer tells you what they want to be able to see during a site visit, make sure that they see it, or make sure that they know why they are not going to see it at the site that you have set up for them to tour. If the customer says that they want to see they best that you have to offer, make sure that they see it. This is closely related to Item 1.

3) Don’t Hover. Part of the reason a customer goes on a site visit is to be sure that they get to talk candidly with the staff and administration of the host group. This can’t happen if the vendor has someone minding the conversation at all times. A vendor that will not give its potential clients time to speak freely with the hosting company could lead to the assumption that the vendor does not want candid conversation.

4) Show up! The other side of the coin is sending the potential vendor to the site with no vendor control. It is helpful to have time with the vendor to talk about the product and explain other ways that it can be implemented. One of the biggest disappointments that my travel team had to deal with last week was the vendor paying for lunch, but not sending a rep to mind the time. The result was that the host treated the site visit as an excuse to take a long, fancy lunch – and we got very little value out of the site visit before needing to catch our plane back home. This leads us to the next and final point.

5) Cater food on site. The site visit, for the customer, is about content, not lunch. The potential customer has a limited amount of time in which to get the best idea possible about how the system they are reviewing works. While a catered lunch may not be as sexy as a fancy seafood place, having to take the time to drive to the restaurant and then wait for service is not a good use of time for the prospective customer. Have food catered on site, and plan a lightweight meeting around lunch.