Castwide Developer's Resource

Giving the Clients What They Want

by Castwide on 2-12-2009 • Tags: business, development, sales • 15 comments

When selling software or development services, your first instinct might be to agree to any feature the client requests. This can seem like the right thing to do from a sales standpoint, especially if you're trying to land a contract that you expect will lead to more work in the future. In the IT world, however, this approach is often a terrible idea.

It's not uncommon to give prospective clients a few extras to impress them. Unfortunately, adding new features to software is not the same as adding shellac to a hardwood floor. It's not simply a matter of deciding that a long-term relationship with the client will offset the extra cost. In software development, first you have to determine if the new feature is even feasible.

If you need a sales-oriented explanation of why you need to broach new features with caution, here it is. You might think it's bad to say no to a client; but saying yes to a new feature, then having to go back and explain that you won't be able to deliver it after all, is much, much worse.

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