This probably sounds elitist to some, but it's a way of doing customer segmentation for cost purposes. A customer who "gets it" is less expensive to work with. A customer who might get it may be worth the extra investment in time and energy. A customer who "just ain't gonna get it" deserves a special warning sign. Relationships with them end up being very expensive with little in the way of return.

So, what is "It?"

The definition seems to vary from vendor to vendor. In far too many cases, "Gets It" is a sly way of saying "too stupid to see through the smoke and mirrors." Many firms, particularly those that understand the game of capitalizing on bureaucratic ineptitude, hunt for customers who are weak but adequately funded. These customers, interestingly, are in the "Doesn't Get It" group for vendors whose tools are fundamentally more useful.

We'll call them the "Don't Getters".

Their Human Capital Acquisition Function is

•   Managed By Someone With Little Or No Recruiting Experience
•   Never Involved In Long Range Planning
•   At The Back End Of Internal Software Development Queues
•   Completely Reactive
•   Upset By The Volume of Work (and the price) Going To 3rd Party Firms
•   Busy Trying To Save Money On Job Postings
•   Failing To Create A Pool Of Interested And Qualified Candidates

Tomorrow, we'll talk about the ones in the "Gets It" group....the Getters.

- John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.