By Mary McGuire (@Badgerpolo)
In my opinion, there are only two different types of purchases. There are those that you plan to make, and those that you don’t. And the latter is significantly easier than the former. What do I mean by that?
Think about it. Purchases that you plan to make are typically not only larger purchases (e.g. house, car, vacation), but there is a need that you are trying to fill, a problem you are trying to solve. Purchases that you do NOT plan to make, those are easy. You either didn’t realize that you needed to solve a problem, or, more often the case is that you didn’t have a problem that needed to be solved, you just really wanted those shoes 
So let’s focus on the purchases you plan to make. There is usually more than one option on how any particular problem can be solved, making these decisions all the more stressful. Not only are their multiple ways that they can be solved, but there are multiple solutions for each way.
Using an example that’s close to home, look at the Sales productivity space. We work with Sales Enablement professionals every day, helping to solve problems within their organization. There is a split between coming to us because they knew they had a problem, or engaging with us and then realizing that they had yet to identify a particular problem. However, a lot of our time spent with these sales enablement prospects, potential customers and partners, is helping them make sense of not only what problems our solution can solve, but really what the different technologies do – and which ones they should focus on.
Sounds easy, right? Maybe 18 years ago, 10 even, when there were fewer sales technologies than there are today. Take a look at what the sales tech stack looked like back in 2015, and it’s only grown since then. They say that the sale tech space is following the trend of the marketing tech space – if that’s the case, here’s where we are headed. Yikes, huh?
But the way the market looks today, we aren’t making the decision process any easier. Lucky for you, in recent months the market has become aware of how expansive the list of sales technology vendors has become, and has started the process of streamlining technologies to make the decision process a little easier. It’s not only becoming more clear what technologies solve which problems, but through acquisitions and partnerships, the vendors are starting to consolidate, vs expand.
While the market works to consolidate, and make your decisions a little easier – look for tools like our Sales Enablement Buyer’s Guide to make sure you are selecting the right technology for your initiatives. Good luck and happy decision making!
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