Having a ‘bug free’ product is not enough to guarantee success. In very few markets is there truly only one product which could be used. More often there are a number of smaller options even if the market is dominated by a few players. In this situation, the event that happens before someone downloads, installs and more importantly pays for your software is a convincing that this is the right product for them.

Being ‘bug free’ is certainly part of that convincing process, but there are factors external it as well. Your reputation in the marketplace, your reputation to them, cost, comparability to your competition and support policies all quickly pop into mind.

But there is even another layer deeper than that, and it deals with the optics of how you conduct yourself and your business. Here is a list I’ve been mulling for awhile.

  • Selling a [security] product but being one of your competitions larger installations
  • Talk a lot about making buildings more energy efficient and choose an office with ancient, single-pane windows
  • Don’t eat meat because it is ‘cruel’ but wear leather shoes / belt
  • Providing organic fruit flown in fresh from around the world during sales meeting for a carbon reduction application
  • Not dogfooding your application (whenever possible)

I think the connecting thing through all these is that ‘walk the walk’. If I was in a position to sign a contract for a product or service, I would be looking at these things as part of the decision process.

Think about how you, or your company, fares this sort of scrutiny. Then log bugs against where it falls short.