There is this dance that buyers and sellers do, often referred to as “the sales process” by the sellers. It might be the weirdest and most difficult process to evaluate on a rational/logical basis. Investing your hard-earned profits into new potential software solutions is an optimistic process. Most entrepreneurs are optimists. Business owners typically like this part of their job. Looking into the future, projecting their needs, and investing to build/scale their business. In the print business, there is a lot more love for investing in production equipment than there is for investing in software. 

The purchasing of new software is a minefield of challenges. We in some ways put way too much emphasis on the selection of the “perfect solution” and way too little emphasis on the change required of the humans working in your business to adapt to the new software. Software sellers have the advantage of being able to sell a “vision” of your business experiencing the magically full return of potential on the software. They have at least one customer who has reaped the full benefits of the software. The process that customer went through is never told in detail, because it would reveal how much reaching the full potential of software relies on the efforts of the printer themselves.

We want the purchasing of software to solve our business challenges. Purchasing does not solve challenges. Just like purchasing exercise equipment for your home gym does not make you more fit. Purchasing is the easy part. But there are still some very important considerations to consider when purchasing software for your business. I would consider the following three priorities as key to making good print software decisions.