Why Great Technology Isn't Enough: Understanding How Customers Actually Buy

A pattern I’ve observed over two decades of working with Israeli tech companies pursuing international growth is that many of them invest tremendous effort in understanding their products, their technology, and their competitors. Far fewer invest the same effort in understanding how their prospective customers actually make purchasing decisions.

As a result, companies often approach sales and business development with an incomplete picture of the organization they are trying to sell into.

An assumption made too often is that if the technology is compelling and the value proposition is clear, customers will buy.

In reality, that is rarely how enterprise purchasing decisions work.

Consider what happens inside a typical target organization.

The person experiencing the problem is often not the person approving the budget.

The person approving the budget may not be the final decision-maker.

The final decision-maker may rely heavily on the opinions of technical evaluators, operational managers, procurement professionals, or other stakeholders.

Meanwhile, additional individuals may influence the process behind the scenes without ever participating in a formal sales meeting.

In other words, companies are not selling to an organization.

They are selling to a collection of individuals, each with different responsibilities, priorities, concerns, and definitions of success.

Yet many technology companies approach all of them with essentially the same message.

This becomes even more problematic when companies focus primarily on demonstrating product capabilities.

Israeli startups are often exceptionally good at explaining technology.

They can deliver polished demonstrations, discuss sophisticated architectures, and describe innovative features in great detail.

But customers are not purchasing demonstrations.

They are evaluating change.

They are asking questions such as:

• What business problem does this solve?
• How difficult will implementation be?
• What risks are involved?
• How will success be measured?
• Who inside our organization will be affected?
• Will this initiative help or hurt my career?

Those questions vary significantly depending on who is asking them.

A Chief Financial Officer may focus on financial impact and risk.

A business unit leader may focus on operational efficiency and business outcomes.

A technical evaluator may focus on integration requirements and security.

A procurement professional may focus on vendor stability and contractual terms.

Each individual views the opportunity through a different lens.

This is why one of the most valuable exercises a company can perform is stakeholder mapping.

Before launching outreach efforts, companies should identify:

• Who experiences the problem?
• Who owns the budget?
• Who makes the final decision?
• Who influences the decision-maker?
• Who could become an internal champion?
• Who could become an internal obstacle?

The process should not stop at identifying job titles.

Companies should also seek to understand the individuals themselves.

What are their professional priorities?

What initiatives are they leading?

What challenges are they discussing publicly?

What metrics are they measured against?

What strategic goals has their organization announced?

Today, much of this information is publicly available through company websites, earnings calls, interviews, LinkedIn profiles, conference presentations, podcasts, and other sources.

The more a company understands the people involved in the buying process, the more relevant and effective its conversations become.

This is particularly important for Israeli technology companies entering the U.S. market.

Many executives assume that the greatest challenge is convincing prospects that the technology works.

In many cases, the technology is not the primary obstacle.

The greater challenge is helping multiple stakeholders reach the conclusion that adopting the solution is a safe, valuable, and strategically sound decision.

Great technology remains important.

Strong positioning remains important.

Effective messaging remains important.

But commercial success often depends on something much more fundamental:

Understanding how your customers buy, who influences those decisions, and what matters most to the people involved.

The companies that understand their customers best are often the ones that win - even when they do not have the most advanced technology.

Because customers do not buy products.

People make decisions.

 

Ilan Friedman

Why the 95:5 Rule Doesn't Tell the Whole Story for Israeli Startups

One of the most widely cited concepts in B2B marketing today is the "95:5 Rule."

According to research by Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, as much as 95% of potential B2B buyers are not actively in the market at any given time. In many categories, organizations change providers only every few years, meaning that only a small percentage of buyers are actively evaluating solutions in a given quarter.

At first glance, this insight appears highly relevant to technology companies. It suggests that successful marketing is not only about generating leads today, but also about building awareness and preference among future buyers.

For many Israeli startups, however, the reality is even more challenging.

The problem is not merely that 95% of buyers are not actively shopping.

The problem is that many prospective customers do not yet realize that a solution exists.

The Difference Between "Not Buying" and "Not Knowing"

The 95:5 Rule works particularly well in mature categories.

If a company is evaluating CRM platforms, payroll systems, endpoint security solutions, or ERP software, buyers already understand the category. They know solutions exist. They simply need to choose a vendor.

In these situations, the key question is: "Which provider should we choose?"

Many Israeli startups face a different reality.

They are introducing innovative technologies, new approaches, or entirely new categories of solutions. Their prospects may experience the underlying business problem every day, yet never consider that technology can address it.

The key question is no longer: "Which provider should we choose?"

Instead, it becomes: "Is there even a solution to this problem?"

This distinction is critical.

A prospect who is not currently buying can still be influenced through brand awareness and positioning.

A prospect who does not know a solution exists must first be educated.

Crossing the Chasm: A Lesson Many Startups Still Ignore

More than three decades ago, Geoffrey Moore addressed this challenge in his influential book, "Crossing the Chasm."

Moore argued that innovative technologies often face a significant gap between early adopters and mainstream buyers.

In the early stages of a market, companies are not merely competing against rival vendors.

They are competing against existing habits, manual processes, spreadsheets, internal resistance, and the belief that "this is simply how things are done."

Many Israeli startups underestimate this challenge.

They assume their primary obstacle is convincing buyers that their solution is better.

In reality, their first challenge is helping buyers understand that a different approach is possible at all.

The Israeli Startup Dilemma

Unfortunately, Israeli startups face an additional constraint.

Most operate with limited resources.

They do not have the budgets of large multinational technology companies. They cannot spend millions on analyst relations, global marketing campaigns, industry conferences, content creation, public relations, or category development.

As a result, many startups default to the most accessible activity:

Scheduling meetings.

The thinking is understandable.

"If we can just get in front of the right executive, we can explain the value."

The problem is that the meeting often begins much earlier in the buyer journey than the startup realizes.

The startup enters the conversation prepared to discuss features, competitive advantages, architecture, and differentiation.

The prospect may still be asking:

• Who are you?
• Why should I trust you?
• Is this problem important?
• Does a solution even exist?
• Why should I spend time on this now?

Trying to bridge that gap in a single thirty-minute meeting is extraordinarily difficult.

The Hidden Cost of Skipping Market Development

Many founders believe they are saving money by avoiding marketing investments.

In reality, they are often replacing marketing costs with sales costs.

Instead of investing in market education, thought leadership, partnerships, customer success stories, industry visibility, and positioning, they invest months of founder time pursuing meetings with prospects who are not yet prepared to engage.

The result is a familiar pattern:

• Low response rates.
• Difficulty securing meetings.
• Long sales cycles.
• Repeated objections.
• Limited pipeline growth.

The challenge is not necessarily the quality of the technology.

The challenge is market readiness.

Credibility May Matter More Than Awareness

Even when prospects understand the problem, another obstacle emerges.

Credibility.

Enterprise buyers are constantly approached by unknown vendors.

Before evaluating the solution, they often ask themselves a simple question:

"Why should I take this company seriously?"

This is particularly true in cybersecurity, AI, healthcare technology, fintech, and enterprise software.

In these industries, buyers are making decisions that carry operational, financial, and reputational risk.

A technically superior solution may still lose if the vendor lacks sufficient credibility.

This is why successful startups often accelerate growth through strategic partnerships, analyst validation, reference customers, industry experts, system integrators, and ecosystem relationships.

Borrowed credibility frequently opens doors that cold outreach cannot.

The New Challenge: AI Has Entered the Buying Process

A growing number of technology buyers now use AI tools as part of their research process.

Before speaking with vendors, buyers increasingly ask AI platforms to identify potential solutions, compare categories, summarize vendors, and recommend providers.

This creates a new challenge for startups.

If your company has limited visibility, weak positioning, little thought leadership content, few customer stories, and minimal digital presence, AI may never include you in the initial list of vendors under consideration.

In other words, many buying journeys may now begin before a prospect ever visits your website.

The companies that consistently publish useful content, clearly explain the problems they solve, establish category relevance, and build digital credibility are more likely to appear during these early research stages.

As AI becomes an extension of technology scouting and vendor discovery, visibility and reputation become even more important.

What Israeli Startups Should Do Instead

The answer is not to abandon sales outreach.

Direct engagement remains essential.

However, outreach should be supported by activities that prepare the market.

Even with limited budgets, startups can:

• Develop clear positioning and messaging.
• Publish educational content around the problem they solve.
• Create customer success stories.
• Build strategic partnerships.
• Participate in industry discussions.
• Engage analysts and influencers when possible.
• Strengthen their digital presence.
• Ensure AI systems can easily understand what they do, who they serve, and why they are different.

The objective is not simply to generate awareness.

The objective is to reduce the amount of education required during the first customer conversation.

A Better Framework for Israeli Technology Companies

The traditional interpretation of the 95:5 Rule suggests that most buyers are not ready to purchase today.

For innovative technology companies, a more useful perspective may be:

Most buyers are not actively evaluating vendors today. Some are not even aware that a solution category exists. Others may understand the problem but not trust unfamiliar providers. Increasingly, many will begin their research through AI before ever speaking with a salesperson.

This means that successful market entry requires more than lead generation.

It requires education, positioning, credibility, visibility, and trust.

The startups that recognize this reality early will find that customer conversations become easier, sales cycles become shorter, and market adoption becomes significantly more predictable.

Sources

• John Dawes, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science – The 95:5 Rule

• Geoffrey Moore – Crossing the Chasm

• Research and industry observations regarding AI-assisted buying journeys and vendor discovery

Just Do It

For years, much has been written about the forces behind Israel’s innovation prowess: skillsets honed in the army, a culture of effective teamwork, strong public-private collaboration, immigration waves from the former Soviet Union, and more. All of that is true. But recent geopolitical events have underscored one of the most important - and often overlooked - drivers of Israeli success: the can-do mentality.

Israel’s unwavering determination to dismantle Hamas and bring its hostages home, the bold “beeper” tactic used to outmaneuver Hezbollah, and the stunning success of its preemptive strike against the Iranian regime - all highlight the same underlying truth: Israelis do not wait to be rescued. They take initiative and they deliver results.

But where does this mindset come from? And why is Israel uniquely driven by it? There are many factors, but three stand out:

Moral Clarity

Israeli Jews possess a deep and enduring belief in the moral righteousness of their path. Their historic connection to the Land of Israel, coupled with the right to live in peace and security, fuels their perseverance - even in the face of global delegitimization campaigns. This clarity of purpose forms the foundation for courage, resolve, and an uncompromising pursuit of progress.

Necessity

Nearly every war Israel has fought has reinforced one hard truth: Israel must rely on itself. Whatever sympathy the world briefly offers following an attack is quickly replaced by calls for “restraint,” regardless of context. This has shaped a doctrine of self-reliance, strategic creativity, and constant innovation - whether in the development of breakthrough weapons systems or in the execution of bold and unconventional military operations.

Never Again

No nation has endured more relentless persecution than the Jewish people. The Holocaust - a state-sponsored campaign that murdered six million Jews - left permanent scars on the Jewish psyche. It also cemented a critical lesson: Jewish survival must never again depend on others. That lesson fuels a collective will to build, defend, and control our own destiny, anchored in strength, unity, and self-determination.

Conclusion

Israel’s can-do mentality isn’t accidental. It’s the product of centuries of adversity, decades of pioneering ideology, and a national ethos shaped by necessity. Whether draining swamps, absorbing waves of immigrants, launching satellites, or securing global enterprises against cyber threats, Israelis approach every challenge with the ingrained belief: “If we don’t solve it - no one will.”

This unique blend of ancient tradition and modern urgency is why a tiny country with few natural resources became a global leader in innovation. And it's why doing business with Israelis means tapping into a mindset that doesn’t accept failure, only solutions.

Five Things You Should Know About Israelis

 

Israel is engaged in a relentless war against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, a war that may soon extend to other regions. As a business entity, you might have considered, or may now be considering doing business in Israel, a global epicenter of technological innovation.

Here are five key attributes of Israelis that warrant your attention:

1)      Israeli ingenuity knows no bounds. Israelis possess an innate drive to swiftly, efficiently, and creatively tackle challenges and solve problems.

2)      Israelis are unwavering go-getters. They confront challenges head-on with a clear focus on their objectives.

3)      Passion courses through the veins of Israelis, whether it pertains to their beliefs, rights, families, or virtually anything else.

4)      Israelis are a closely-knit family. While they may engage in spirited debates and occasional criticism, they invariably unite in times of need to do what is right.

5)      Israelis are champions. Despite enduring a series of hardships, they have consistently emerged stronger, turning adversity into triumph.

Though the ongoing conflict may persist for several weeks, its eventual conclusion is inevitable. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad will cease to exist in the Gaza Strip, and the region may undergo significant transformations.

One certainty remains - Israel's resilience will prevail, solidifying its position as a major global player.

For now, I invite you to stand with us as we engage in this crucial battle to eradicate terrorism and ensure the safe return of our kidnapped civilians and soldiers.

Israel's Unyielding Resolve

 

Last night, I journeyed an hour and a half to a quaint farm in southern Israel, where I stood guard throughout the night. Accompanying me were other young men, including two soldiers on leave from active duty near the Gaza strip. These two devout Jewish men had been granted leave to attend the funerals of their fallen comrades, victims of Hamas terrorists. Yet, they chose to guard an Israeli farm on the eve of the funerals instead of spending time with their grieving families. Such is the indomitable spirit of Israelis; the spirit of Zionists.

In recent months, numerous Israeli organizations led protests against the Israeli government and its Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu. Yet today, these same organizations are actively aiding soldiers and civilians affected by the harrowing events of last Saturday. They provide essentials like clothing, baby food, toys, and medicine. Hotel and guesthouse owners have generously offered shelter to those who lost their homes in the onslaught by Hamas terrorists on October 7th. Animal welfare organizations are supplying pet food and rescuing abandoned or injured animals.  The owners of many of these animals were either killed or abducted into Gaza.

The magnitude of this human tragedy is heart-wrenching. Every Holocaust Memorial Day, Israelis mourn the millions of Jews persecuted and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Today, we grieve for a tragedy reminiscent of those dark times. Infants perished in flames, entire families were gunned down in their homes, and young women faced unspeakable horrors. The scale of these atrocities is beyond human comprehension – 1,200 dead.  Between 100-150 kidnapped into Gaza.

In the stillness of the night, I stood vigilant, armed and alert. The distant hum of military aircraft and the subsequent explosions marked Israel's initial steps towards eliminating the Hamas terrorist organization. The night was punctuated by the sounds of gunfire and the sight of Gazan rockets being intercepted - rockets aimed at innocent Israeli civilians. Israel is resolute in its mission to prevent such a tragedy from recurring.

It is imperative for any compassionate individual, irrespective of their stance on the Israeli conflict, to be deeply disturbed by the senseless violence inflicted upon innocent Israelis. Yet, there are those who resort to justifications, comparisons, and accusations. Such rhetoric is akin to suggesting that the six million Jews persecuted by the Nazis were deserving of their fate. This isn't just antisemitism; it's an affront to humanity. If you value human life and dignity, your voice should echo with outrage and sorrow.

My Top Three Factors of Success

 

Just over three years ago I decided, along with my mom and sister, to convert a separate unit of my parents' house into a guesthouse.    

The unit, accessed from the back part of the house, served as my father's workroom.  It was filled with an unfathomable number of books and magazines, tools for his leather work, and small desert animals about which he lectured.  He was a high school biology teacher, a marksman, a leatherworker, an expert on dogs and on desert animals, and an artist.  His office was a mess, as was the entire back yard.  For so many years none of us saw the potential this place had, overlooking the beautiful Negev desert and the Dead Sea in southern Israel.

After my dad had moved into a retirement home, I suggested we turn his workroom into a guesthouse.  I envisioned a high-quality establishment for couples looking for relaxation. 

My thought process began with an evaluation of assets and constraints. 

The unit was small, comprised of three spaces.  Clearly one would become a bedroom and the other a bathroom.  The third could be converted into one of three - a living room, kitchen, or dining area.  The backyard, adjacent to the living unit, was very large and situated on a cliff overlooking the desert. 

I put myself in my guests' shoes.

I tried to imagine what a couple visiting from abroad might want from a place like mine.  For me, the desert was not that special – after all, I grew up in this area.  But for tourists visiting from colder, greener, and wetter areas, the desert would be a major attraction.  So, the backyard with its view of the desert and the Dead Sea had to be fully exploited.  It would become a large wooden deck, filled with amenities such as a swing, a gazebo, and a grill.

The living unit had to be top notch.  Couples traveling from abroad, visiting the hot desert, would want nothing less than perfection.  I therefore invested in a world class bed, a large TV with endless channels, and a comfortable shower with never ending hot water.  As for the third room – I decided to turn it into a fully equipped kitchen.

I wanted to create a memorable experience.

It wasn't just about the comfortable bed or large kitchen.  I had to make my guests feel like they were the center of attention, even if they stayed for just for one night.  I literally put myself in their shoes, thinking of every need I might address.  Band-aids, Q-tips, soymilk, regular milk, water, ice, coffee, tea, salt, pepper, oil…  you get the picture.  I even bought a garlic crusher.     

And of course – uncompromising cleanliness.  Down to the last detail.

Feedback

My guesthouse can be booked through booking.com and AirBnB, which is also where one would find reviews and feedback.  Not surprisingly, the same things I spent so much time thinking about are also those about which most guests comment: the cleanliness, the attention to detail, the comfort, the views, the service.

Conclusion

Much more went into building my business.  There were financial matters, market research, marketing and sales, ongoing maintenance, and more.  But these are the top three elements that contributed to my success: understanding what I have to work with, thinking about the place from my customers' perspective, and doing what it takes to meet their every need.  The feedback speaks for itself.

 

 

 

 

If You Want An Efficient Supply Chain, Don’t Mess With Your Suppliers

We all know the past few years have been challenging as far as supply chain goes, and it doesn’t look like things will improve any time soon.  According to McKinsey, global supply chains suffer from three primary challenges: labor shortages, equipment availability, and the ripple effect of global bottlenecks. 

IndustryWeek magazine adds that suppliers are struggling to maintain capacity, that there are container shortages, and that there are impactful economic factors.  They recommend that organizations, particularly manufacturers that more heavily rely on an efficient supply chain, explore solutions to minimize their risk and exposure.  These include creating a mix of domestic and international suppliers, implementing digitalization strategies and a management operating system that provides better visibility across the supply chain, and improving data capture and integrity.

Manufacturers typically have complex supply chain environments, with processes that are based on agreements and blanket orders with inherent ordering rules and conditions around pricing, shipping, and deliveries, as well as processes with mandated supply chain rules, and special delivery scheduling and conditions. Such environments could involve orders with hundreds of line items, partial shipments per line and multiple receiving and invoices per line, as well as processes that include intermediate warehousing and/or 3PL, QA, MRB, 4WM and returns, import via sea or air freight, and more.

In such environments, enterprises invest a significant amount of time and effort ensuring that suppliers comply with their business rules and policies, following up on order fulfillment, supply chain execution and on-time delivery, validating invoices, handling invoice reconciliation processes, validating payments, handling a significant number of errors and discrepancies, and preventing fraud.  Additionally, complex environments often involve multiple geographies and the associated differing rules, regulations, and cultures, as well as the presence of multiple applications and ERP systems.

In recent discussions with three major industry players, one from the Oil and Gas industry, the other a semiconductors manufacturer, and the third in the aerospace industry, common themes emerged.  All three used to suffer from inefficient supply chains, which resulted from bad supplier relations.  Bad supplier relations developed because of an inefficient invoice management mechanism, and it was digitalization, visibility, and data capture and integrity that made a difference.

When suppliers are in the dark about the status of their invoices, and find themselves repeatedly inquiring about the payment date, that’s bad news for their customers.  If weeks go by before finding out that the invoice was incorrect or has some other issue that prevents its payment, that’s even worse.  Bad supplier relations resulting from inefficient invoice management systems could lead to supply chain gaps that negatively impact production lines, which is bad for business.  That’s precisely what these three companies used to suffer from.

All that changed once these three leading corporations implemented an automation system that provided suppliers with invoice submission guidance aligned with corporate business rules and policies, efficiently validated each invoice for accuracy, and created complete transparency into invoice status and payment date.  Knowing right away that an invoice is approved or rejected and being able to plan their cash flow has had a tremendous impact on these suppliers, reducing uncertainty, and freeing them from having to manually inquire about invoice and payment status.

For these buyers, the impact was clear: supplier relations improved, errors were removed, paperwork disappeared, and most importantly – their supply chain became more efficient and reliable.

The automation system that these companies implemented addresses source-to-pay activities across direct and indirect spend, utilizing hundreds of software bots and relying on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to provide sophisticated document review and validation within context of the entire workflow.  Because of the value it delivers to suppliers, over 90% of them fully participate in the process, which covers close to 100% of invoices and over 90% of spend.

While a source-to-pay process automation tool may not address all supply chain challenges, it could have a significant impact on production lines and on the competitive nature of both buyers and suppliers and is an important factor contributing to improved buyer-supplier relations.  So, if you want an efficient supply chain – don’t mess with your suppliers, collaborate with them!