[Manifold-l] Manifold reference clients

[Dimitri Rotow]

> Dimitri, could Manifold make a specific statement on the 
> issue?  Nice to have client penetration references of 
> "principal GIS" but perfectly all right "verifiably in use if 
> reference checked."
> 

The way to meet people who are using Manifold is to make a posting in this
list and in the forum.  If anyone wants to speak up, they'll do so.  A
careful search of Internet in general, the forum and list discussions will
show there is a very wide variety of organizations, including some very
large ones, using Manifold.

Manifold.net will not under any circumstances disclose the names of any
clients.  I've posted on this at the forum (and, I think in this list) in
the past, so I won't repeat my comments.  A brief summary why could be as
follows:

1. Privacy.  Even if some clients give us permission to discuss their
business it takes a lot of effort to make sure we are not accidentally
disclosing someone who does not want their business discussed.  The least
cost way to be sure that doesn't happen is to never discuss client
information with anyone, period. Not ever. Not under any circumstances.  Not
any information.  I, for one, think that is highly refreshing in an era when
vendors shop their customer information about promiscuously to the highest
bidder, and even banks will whore out their customers' credit card
transaction histories to "carefully selected commercial partners." 

Privacy issues come in all shapes and sizes.  For example, there are many
Manifold consultants who are selling projects for tens of thousands of
dollars built upon a $225 Universal Runtime license.  The last thing they
want is to advertise they are using Manifold, as they are savvy enough to
know that human nature would cause their customers to try to beat them down
on price given such a high "mark up."  

To take another example, the last thing we want to do is expose one of our
larger customers to the sorts of highly inappropriate contacts either adamw
or I get every day as a result of our visibility on Internet.  Reference
customers get all sorts of unwanted contacts, everything from people trying
to sell them things to (what's that guy's name?) requests for technical
assistance.  That's no way to treat a good customer! :-)  My experience is
that big customers value their time and prefer great discretion from their
vendors.

The way to deal with all that is to leave it up to the customer.  If a big
customer wants to get visible on the forum or this list, OK.  That's up to
them.  If we do our job right there will always be more than enough people
who will suggest Manifold.  If not, then we have to do our job better.
Since we still don't advertise or go to trade shows, all this phenomenon is
still being powered by voluntary word of mouth.  That's exactly the way we
want it to be, to keep us and the product honest.

2. Business Efficiency. I have to deal with this delicately because I don't
want to give the impression we are being arrogant when what is really
driving the story is a desire to focus resources on best uses.  I also don't
want to give the impression that we don't value each and every customer who
decides to buy from us.  We do.  

But from a purely technical perspective it is indeed true that some
customers are more profitable or more strategically important than others
for a company.  At manifold.net we are focussed on the product and that is
the core strategy we follow.  We especially want customers who will assist
in that product strategy because those customers give us more than money.
They also give us their intelligence, their advice, their guidance and the
benefit of their experience in making the product better.  We therefore
would prefer to sell to customers who have a product focus, who have the
ability to assess product and who, based on their own skill and expertise
can tell that a given product (hopefully ours) is a good fit to their needs.
If they are highly demanding and have insane expectations for
price/performance that is even better.  Our kind of people! :-)

There is almost a directly inverse relationship between a prospect's own
ability to contribute to product and their interest in getting a product
reference from someone else.  People who really know what they are doing
don't need someone else to tell them it is the right thing.  They take a
close look at Manifold and they immediately realize that if the end is an
issue for anyone, it is for ESRI, not Manifold.

We realize that our approach almost automatically excludes selling to
certain organizations (often bureaucracies) where decisions are made on the
basis of what has been done in years past or on the basis of what is being
done by other similar organizations.  That's OK and pretty much exactly the
way we want it.

Now I must turn to something which inevitably sounds very harsh, but should
nonetheless be said in a "tough love" way.  Reference selling is lazy
selling.  The last refuge of someone who does not know how to make his case
or who cannot (or is unwilling) to educate an inexpert decision maker is to
point at someone else and to say "hey, he does it, so you should, too!"   

I grant you that reference selling can be powerful, because it does play on
fundamental aspects of human nature, such as not wanting to risk being made
a fool by being different, or such as hoping some glory from a bigger player
will rub off by emulating that bigger player. The reference sell can also be
quick, just a single visual in the case of TV commercials, so it may be the
only choice when time is too short to convey understanding.

But as powerful as it may be it is still lazy selling that is not the deep
work of making real bricks and stacking them into powerful new
architectures.  It is harder, much harder, to sell on the basis of content
and deep understanding.  But it is a more lasting sell.  Long after people
forget they impressed that Brad Pitt appeared in a TV commercial holding a
Manifold box they will remember that to get 64-bit power they should choose
Manifold over ESRI.  :-)

Last but not least, let me turn to credibility.  Everyone knows that
reference accounts are hand-picked to say good things.  It is much more
powerful when people volunteer their views and speak for themselves instead
of some company's marketing group looking over the heads of the crowd and
picking out only their friends.  And, as is well-known, Manifold users are
not shy about expressing themselves.  If anything, the ESRI old guard has
referred to Manifold users as having a cult-like zeal in praising the
product.  

Cheers,

Dimitri