Guts over reason

Bayne says in the long run those salespeople aredoomed. But he admits, "they do OK in the short term." And in thatshort term, customers fall victim to dishonorable sellers. Thesesellers exploit one fact about the buyer above all: When choosingsoftware platforms, such as ERP or CRM, buyers invariably operate onguts, not reason.

Despite possessing sound empirical evidence of what package is best,when the big decisions are made, many executives act instinctually.Without meaning to - and without being able to stop themselves - theycan render the evaluation process moot.

"It's a very emotional process, and the vendors carve into thoseemotions," says Marvin Balliet, CFO of Merrill Lynch's technologydivision in New York City. "When we moved retail [financial services]to the Internet, emotions carried our decisions. That led tosuboptimal technology decisions - which we've since fixed - becauseemotions don't necessarily lead to the most efficient processes ordecisions. And the vendors know this," Balliet says. "They work onthis."

Bayne concedes as much when he says, "Part of [a buyer's] gut instinctis just really good marketing."