With Spire — the accounting system I recommend to most of my SBT, ACCPAC Pro and Sage Pro ERP clients — I compete against the biggest names in the ERP market: Sage, SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft, Infor, Acumatica, QuickBooks, etc… None of these worthy competitors defeat me more than the all-time market leader: Do Nothing. Again and again, I examine your requirements, I write the proposal, the numbers pencil out, it looks like a good deal and then … nothing. Do Nothing wins again! I lose more sales to Do Nothing than I do to the others combined.
Why is Do Nothing so tough?
Do Nothing is free while Spire is not. Do Nothing is up and running; Spire must be installed and implemented. Everyone knows Do Nothing while hardly anyone knows Spire. Making the daily Do Nothing decision is easy while making the once-a-decade Spire decision is difficult. No one ever got fired for choosing Do Nothing. Fear, inertia, turmoil, turnover, etc… there are always reasons to do nothing.
Doing nothing is a daily choice. Every day you keep using what you have, you choose to do nothing. But Do Nothing has costs, Do Nothing carries risks and some Do Nothing decisions are fatal.
Do Nothing misses new opportunities. Do nothing runs poorly on newer computers, the web and in the ‘cloud’. Sometimes Do Nothing stops working entirely. Do Nothing has little or no outside support. Do Nothing stunts your growth. Do Nothing is expensive when it breaks. And your competitors – the better ones at least – are doing something or have done something already.
The daily Do Nothing decision is easy to make. You can make the do nothing decision while on vacation or over the weekend. And it certainly makes sense for many, especially those whose business horizon is short. For the rest of you, Do Nothing is a weight that grows heavier each day and a long-term strategic risk.
Consider doing something. Weigh the costs and benefits. I can help with that. If the benefits of doing something outweigh the costs of doing nothing, it is time to do something. Are you there? My guess is many of you got there a long time ago, certainly those of you running 20+ year old software.
Spire is not the only ‘do something’ option. There are many others. Look at the competition. I like to compete against the other, ‘do something’ solutions. In most cases, Spire wins. But not always. Pick the best solution for your company. Almost any ‘do something’ solution is better than my arch nemesis, Do Nothing.
-Matthew Lefkowitz, President
Lefkowitz Systems, Inc.
April 2021.
