How do you stop us buying something we do not need?

A prospect asked me this almost as a challenge, and it was a fair one. Every supplier has an incentive to sell you more.

What I actually do

I quantify before I quote. If we cannot put a rough number on what the problem costs annually, we should not be talking about a build. That number is yours, taken from your own figures, not one I produced.

I ask which three you would miss. Given any list of features, which three would you actually notice missing on the Monday? The rest go to a later phase, which usually means never, and that is fine.

I tell you when the answer is off the shelf. This costs me work regularly. It is also the reason I get referrals.

What you can do

• Ask your supplier what they would remove from their own proposal. If the answer is nothing, they have not thought about it.
• Ask for the smallest version that would still be useful on its own.
• Ask what happens if you do nothing for six months. A supplier who cannot answer that honestly is selling urgency rather than value.

The honest limit

I am not neutral. I make money when you build things. The best protection is not my integrity — it is a discovery document you could take to another supplier, and a first phase small enough that being wrong is survivable.

Structure beats trust. Ask for both.