06 Dec 2012 Taulia – a product that speaks for itself
Most software sales people are like ventriloquists. They demonstrate software that looks the part but is often pretty dumb. They make it look clever by presenting it professionally and filling in any gaps in actual functionality with promises and distractions. We’ve all seen it before – software solutions that run best on PowerPoint. But occasionally you get to see a solution that stands up by itself and delivers. It just works.
Earlier this week at the Shared Service Link AP Tech conference, I saw Markus Ament from Taulia perform a brief demo of their dynamic discounting solution – and I mean a brief demo! It was more an elevator pitch to a conference crowd than a demo – yet within the 5 minutes he was given to present, he showed a crowd of skeptics, more interested in the lunch on the other side of the conference room doors, that dynamic discounting delivers.
To understand how remarkable this is you need to understand who Markus is. He is Taulia’s top product person. He’s not a sales guy. He’s a deep technology, product person – a geek – in a good way. He is articulate and he is enthusiastic and he knows his product inside out. He didn’t use sales technique or hypnosis. He just showed how Taulia works. In answer to the audience questions he showed how supplers can claim early payment on invoices using a simple calendar interface. How the buyer makes offers to reflect their working capital requirements and how – payment terms are set in the buyers SAP system. You need to see this to understand it. Suppliers set the payment date in their customers SAP system. They don’t just request early settlement and hope for the best – they actually reach into their customers SAP system and change the payment date.
It would have been no less impressive if he’d taken his hand away from his ventriloquists dummy and it had danced a jig.
If you want your organization to enjoy the benefits of 10-20% return on cash by collaborating with suppliers and you want to know how it’s done, do yourself a favor. Skip the research. Miss out the sales pitch. Go and see a demo of Taulia. It speaks for itself.
Pete Loughlin can be found on twitter @peteloughlin
