Terms a finance desk should share before a tool demo
Before a tool demo, a finance desk should send the questions the salesperson would rather answer after the contract. This guide is that list: the fee unit, the export format, the cancellation clicks, and who holds the file the day after you leave.
Send this before the call
Ask for the fee unit in writing: percent of assets, per user, per contact, or per fill. Ask for the export format and a sample file with the columns labeled. Ask how many clicks cancel, and whether the data is still downloadable the next day. Ask who at the vendor can see the file you upload. Send the questions in the same email that accepts the meeting. A demo that begins without them will spend the half hour on a chart.
The answers that end the meeting
A fee that "depends" is not an answer. An export that is "on the roadmap" is a no. A cancellation that requires a phone call to a person named on the call is a fee you have not been quoted. Write those down in the notes of the meeting even if you like the product, and put them at the top of any later review. The reviews on this site that score well are the ones that survived this list. The list is older than any of the scores.
What you owe the colleague who was not on the call
The colleague who has to defend the purchase later needs the fee, the file, and the skip. They do not need your impression of the salesperson. If the only record of the demo is a feeling, do not buy yet. This is the use of a Mintcanopy page: the feeling is not the archive.
The email before the meeting
Send the fee unit, the sample export, the cancellation clicks, and who can see the file. Send them in the invitation. "It depends" ends the meeting. "Roadmap" is a no. A phone call to cancel is a fee you were not quoted. The colleague who was not on the call needs those four lines, not your impression of the salesperson. If the only record is a feeling, do not buy.
Mintcanopy reviews that score well survived this email. The email is older than the scores.
The email, as sent
Subject: questions before Thursday. Body: tell us the fee unit in one line, percent of assets or dollars per user or per fill. Attach a sample export with the column names, not a screenshot of a chart. Tell us how many clicks cancel, and whether the file is still downloadable the next day. Tell us who at your company can see a file we upload. If the fee depends, if the export is on the roadmap, or if cancellation is a phone call, we will not take the meeting. Mintcanopy sends that note, or a shorter version of it, before a demo. The reviews that scored well survived it. The products that stayed off the site did not.
The colleague who was not on the call needs those four lines in the invitation, not your impression of the salesperson. If the only record is a feeling, do not buy. A phone call to cancel is a fee you were not quoted. Write it at the top of the later review even if you liked the person on the call.
After the call
Write the four answers at the top of the notes before you write whether you liked the person. Fee unit. Sample file, columns named. Cancellation clicks, and whether the file is there the next day. Who can see an upload. "It depends," "roadmap," and "call us to cancel" end the meeting even if the chart was good. The colleague who was not there gets those four lines in the invitation, not a mood. Mintcanopy reviews that scored well survived this email. The email is older than the scores. If the only record is a feeling, do not buy yet.
Four lines in the invitation
Fee unit, in one line. Sample export with column names, not a chart. Cancellation clicks, and whether the file is downloadable the next day. Who at the vendor can see an upload. Send them in the invitation. "It depends," "on the roadmap," and "call this person to cancel" end the meeting. After the call, write the four answers before you write whether you liked the salesperson. Mintcanopy scores the products that survived the email. If the only record is a feeling, do not buy. The colleague who was absent needs the four lines, not the mood.
Write the answers before the impression
Unit, columns, cancellation clicks, and who can see the file. Those four lines go at the top of the notes. Whether the salesperson was good goes underneath, or nowhere. "Depends," "roadmap," and a phone call to cancel are complete answers, and they are nos. Mintcanopy has kept products off the site for those nos. The colleague who missed the call gets the four lines in the invitation. A feeling is not an archive.
Nos that sound like small talk
It depends is a no. On the roadmap is a no. Cancel by calling the person who ran the demo is a no, because that call is an unquoted fee. A sample file that is actually a screenshot of a chart is a no. Mintcanopy writes the nos at the top of the notes before anyone records that the salesperson was sharp. The four asks in the invitation are the unit, the columns, the cancellation clicks, and who can see an upload. Products that reached a score on this site survived that email. If you only have a feeling after the call, you are not ready to buy, and the colleague who was not invited cannot defend the purchase for you.