Mudslinging
Lately, I have been disappointed in the lack of professionalism and maturity that we have seen from some of our competitors. Our prospective customers and current customers have been hearing a lot of untruths about us from some of these companies. Allow me to directly address some of these myths:
| Myth: | Some competitors claim that they have converted WhatCounts Broadcaster customers to competing solutions. |
| Fact: | WhatCounts has been selling Broadcaster appliances since 2003. To date, every Broadcaster ever sold is still in use by its original owner. |
| Myth: | Two competitors have claimed that they had plans to acquire WhatCounts and another has claimed that their parent company was having acquisition discussions with us. |
| Fact: | Both claims are completely false. To date, WhatCounts has not entertained any acquisition discussions with any potential suitors. We have no current plans to sell our company. |
| Myth: | One competitor claimed that WhatCounts is running out of cash and getting ready to close its doors. |
| Fact: | WhatCounts was bootstrapped by its founders six years ago and has been profitable ever since. The company maintains an impressively healthy cash reserve and we are growing at an unprecedented rate, following up a record Q4 2006 with an even bigger record Q1 2007. Our 2007 projections almost double the growth of 2006, which was a record year. |
| Myth: | Various ASP competitors like to claim that there are inherent challenges that come with appliance-based solutions, such as a lack of deliverability management, reporting capability limitations, deployment speed limitations, supportability, etc. |
| Fact: |
WhatCounts offers both a hosted application (ASP / SaaS) and an installed pre-configured hardware and software solution. We have seen a steady shift in the relative popularity of these solutions as more new customers are choosing the Broadcaster appliance and more ASP customers are transitioning to this hardware and software solution. Deliverability management is exactly the same as our hosted application, reporting capabilities are identical, and deployment speeds are much faster. The Broadcaster requires almost no ongoing maintenance on the part of the customer, and supportability for the ESP is almost identical to running a hosted service. We should know...we do both! |
To the optimist, an increase in mudslinging is a backhanded compliment, as it shows proof of traction and momentum within an industry. But, ethical selling is not supposed to feel like a boxing match between two competitors. It's more like a road race where the runners race as fast as they can and, if they don't get distracted by their competitors, they have a better chance at crossing the finish line first. Evaluating ESP's certainly should not feel like buying a used car but we unfortunately have some competitors who believe it should, and their lack of professionalism negatively impacts the whole market. Of course, it's also a form of slander and/or libel, both of which can lead to a very messy situation for any company that spreads such untruths.
The WhatCounts sales team is comprised almost entirely of people who have used or sold competing solutions during their career. As a result, they have factual reasons why they prefer the WhatCounts e-Communications Suite. Still, the general rule of thumb around here is not to focus on competitors because our solution should speak for itself.
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