In product management, especially those oriented to business (B2B), there is a profile that appears at any time without prior notice: the RHiNO, or , a new really high-value opportunity (Really High-value New Opportunity).
It is usually a salesperson of the organization with a new agreement already agreed with a client, which the organization is not prepared to assume.
When a RHiNO enters the scene, all previously researched and analyzed plans are thrown into disarray, as resources are quickly reallocated to build whatever the RHiNO has agreed to with the client.
how they originate
They usually appear in the relationship with businesses (B2B) since with individuals there is a marked list of products, characteristics, packages, rates, and no room for maneuver. Sellers can only sell what is available "in the catalog".
Trying to imagine that a particular customer enters a consumer goods store and tries to buy a service or product that is not on the list is impossible. No matter how much the seller wants to close the deal, they just can't get out of the bounds of what's set for them.
But in negotiations with clients of the legal type (companies, institutions, NGOs, administration, etc.), these limits either do not exist or, what usually happens, the client acquisition teams conveniently ignore them towards their interests of meeting objectives.
Sellers will do whatever it takes to close the deal with the customer, and if that means having to "interpret" whatever is in the catalog of supported products or services, or even provide something completely new, then they will do it.
This is more prevalent in organizations more accustomed to selling services and solutions, that is, creating unique solutions based on a single customer's requirements, rather than selling scalable and repeatable products.
The director usually has a background in sales, and will tend to allow this practice as long as revenue and profit are generated. To a certain extent, this is correct, as long as the company organizationally assumes the impacts on equipment caused by a RHiNO.
If the organization does not contemplate the existence of a work team for individual client solutions, with special skills and abilities, despite being able to close one or several large agreements with some of the most important clients, it has a transversal impact on all support teams. with an opportunity cost that delays other lines of work for the entire market. It is difficult to quantify, but it is still real.
What are two options if there is no special solutions team, or the agreements agreed with the client by the RHiNO are not viable:
- Repel the RHiNO: provide arguments against the closing of the agreement with the client.
- Is the opportunity cost of diverting resources to this particular new request too great compared to the value it brings? Strong evidence of current customer demand for features in the current roadmap is needed to argue this point. If the CEO intervenes, he may prefer the guaranteed income of the RHiNO over the income of less certain futures. Always keep in mind that RHiNO is persistent. Defend your short-term business goals
- Taming the RHiNO: is usually the best option. How to carry it out?
- First a quick insight into the details of the specific customer requirements.
- Discover features that have been planned naturally in the roadmap. Or better requirements or specific characteristics that have been prioritized and finally rejected.
- Leverage new customer engagement with revenue to get the business case when needed.
- The most important thing is to take advantage of the solution made for RHiNO to create in a scalable and repeatable way, which is applicable to another client. If it is necessary to dedicate resources from the standard roadmap, at least try to ensure that it serves to do grow the income statement of the organization not only with this client. So the RHiNO will be satisfied, at least until the next request arrives...
In any case, this does not prevent that, in organizations properly prepared to attend to new customer habits and customizations, there may be times when it makes sense to get something fast and tactical for a RHiNO and that does not have to be ultimately scalable and repeatable.
If it's a unique product that doesn't fit what other customers want and doesn't cost much to support, it can be built, billed, maintain the right operating team and control measures, as long as it's backed up with a quantitative or qualitative benefit. .
You have to be prepared for new companies whose objective is to create unique solutions for large clients with a combination of custom development and market-standard elements of technology, operations and service.
