Tip #11 — Avoid Paralysis by Analysis
When purchasing a copier, people tend to one of 2 extremes… They either tend to evaluate nothing, or tend to evaluate EVERYTHING (if you are reading this you likely fall into the second group.) So, what can you do to not drive yourself (or your rep) absolutely crazy yet still feel confident you did due diligence?
The best thing you could do is list your priorities in order of importance. An example might be…
- Reliability
- Price
- Functionality
- Ease of Use
- Vendor Support
- Brand Name
If this were your order (it’ll differ for every company for a variety of reasons), then if there seems to be a copier that fits and is not the “preferred brand” … try and keep in mind the order and try and not stress about it if your first choice brand does not meet the other requirements.
I probably see this most in the printer realm. People would list their preferences as above and if I mention a Kyocera over a HP they can seem to buy because they can’t understand why Kyocera is such a better deal. They try every way they can to make HP look better and sometime change the order of the list mid-stream because their is a LOGICAL hierarchy and an EMOTIONAL hierarchy. Often, with technology the EMOTIONAL hierarchy trumps the LOGICAL and when analyzing the decision, it wouldn’t make sense… but it felt right.
The paralysis is only ended when a comfort is acheived. Most likely you will need to come up with both lists and also decide if it is more important to feel comfort (very valid) or if it is “Just the Facts” (also valid)… Normally you’ll have to compromise a bit and satisfy both to a slightly lesser level than either could be if isolated.
