At a recent RKO, we ran a customer panel.
An engineering executive said something that stopped the room.
“I don’t care about cost as much. Obviously I want a fair deal for my company, but cost isn’t the main criteria for my evaluation. Instead, I’m reviewing the proposal with the question of: Will this tool be a success with my team?“
Then she said the best proposals include an adoption plan — something that gives her confidence the tool will get rolled out, enabled, and actually used.
Her reason?
“My problem statement is we have too much churn with tools.”
The Real Problem Buyers Are Solving
Companies buy a lot of software. Surprisingly often, that software ends up sitting on a shelf.
Even when it gets implemented, it’s frequently under-consumed — 100 seats purchased, 30 actually used.
So it’s not surprising that this executive is less worried about how much will this cost and more worried about if I buy this, will my team actually use it.
That’s the real evaluation criteria.
And most proposals don’t address it at all.
What a Good Adoption Plan Looks Like
It varies based on what you sell and who you sell to.
Complex technical product, enterprise: Your adoption plan likely includes professional services, technical account managers, and customer success resources.
Less technical product, SMB/mid-market: Your adoption plan is probably tied to digital onboarding and training.
Anything in between: A balance of both.
The specifics matter less than the signal it sends.
When you include an adoption plan, your buyer sees three things:
- You’re thinking beyond the contract signature
- You have the resources and process to drive adoption
- You’ve already thought about the “what if my team never uses this” risk — and you have an answer
That’s what earns confidence. That’s what moves a deal forward when cost isn’t the deciding factor.
At a recent RKO, we ran a customer panel.
An engineering executive said something that stopped the room.
“I don’t care about cost as much. Obviously I want a fair deal for my company, but cost isn’t the main criteria for my evaluation. Instead, I’m reviewing the proposal with the question of: Will this tool be a success with my team?“
Then she said the best proposals include an adoption plan — something that gives her confidence the tool will get rolled out, enabled, and actually used.
Her reason?
“My problem statement is we have too much churn with tools.”
The Real Problem Buyers Are Solving
Companies buy a lot of software. Surprisingly often, that software ends up sitting on a shelf.
Even when it gets implemented, it’s frequently under-consumed — 100 seats purchased, 30 actually used.
So it’s not surprising that this executive is less worried about how much will this cost and more worried about if I buy this, will my team actually use it.
That’s the real evaluation criteria.
And most proposals don’t address it at all.
What a Good Adoption Plan Looks Like
It varies based on what you sell and who you sell to.
Complex technical product, enterprise: Your adoption plan likely includes professional services, technical account managers, and customer success resources.
Less technical product, SMB/mid-market: Your adoption plan is probably tied to digital onboarding and training.
Anything in between: A balance of both.
The specifics matter less than the signal it sends.
When you include an adoption plan, your buyer sees three things:
- You’re thinking beyond the contract signature
- You have the resources and process to drive adoption
- You’ve already thought about the “what if my team never uses this” risk — and you have an answer
That’s what earns confidence. That’s what moves a deal forward when cost isn’t the deciding factor.
