Transense: Automotive Sensor IPR for Honeywell, Michelin & The World.

An excellent post Confucius.

The key to success is not developing great technology, it is selling it.

During many years selling high value systems, I formulated a general rule that you needed a 25% advantage in benefits to have a 50:50 chance of replacing an existing technology.

A 50% chance of success means that you should win half of the orders placed on the business that you bid for. But a lot of prospects will just plod on with inefficient and unreliable technology until it, (or the company), finally drops dead. Of those that do update, 50% will update with the technology they know rather than with the better technology they don't know.

A good example of this was ajor manufacturers trying to influence the tread act so that they could carry on using their obsolete technology for estimating tyre pressures by measuring the rotational speed of each wheel. The fact that this could result in the deaths of people in their vehicles was of secondary importance.

Anybody in a major company who initiates change takes a big personal risk if it goes wrong. Their easy answer is to resist change and to keep their job and their pension. The solution for the new technology companies is to employ people who are so expert, and who exude such confidence in their company and the replacement technology, that the individual taking the risk is reassured. If the perceived risk can be eliminated, then the advantages can become the focus of the discussion, and the possibility of a sale arises.

At this point the advantages become the focus of the discussion and the salesman is in with a chance. But even if the salesman gets everything right and agreement is reached, the battle is not yet won.

Just like a child opening a present at Christmas, the new technology will be welcomed with enthusiasm, but just as enthusiasm for a new toy builds up to a peak and then progressively fades, enthusiasm for a new project follows the same course. Which brings me to the second point in Confucius's post, not being ready to deliver quickly.

The easiest time to get an order or sign a contract is when enthusiasm is at its height. Any delay allows time for enthusiasm to fade, and if the delay is too long, another new toy will come along and the first toy is forgotten.

Transense have GOT to be ready to go ahead when when the iron is hot. ALL of the essential pieces have got to be available including the components, the demonstrators, the test reports, the marketing studies, the cost/benefit analysis, the legal requirement studies, and the draft contracts.

The rest is easy. Just get the prospect to write his name on the bottom of the contract.