"The licenses cost more than we pay today."
Fair. Are we comparing license to license, or including maintenance, servers, admin time and rework?
Do not attack perpetual licensing. Buyers feel they already paid for those seats.
The objections, discovery questions and competitor answers that come up when you sell PLM and CAD. Read them free. Or load them into Ghost and have the right one on your screen the moment the buyer says it.
What Ghost shows on your screen during a PLM and CAD call. The buyer never sees it.
The objections PLM and CAD buyers raise most, what to say in the next ten seconds, and what not to promise.
"The licenses cost more than we pay today."
Fair. Are we comparing license to license, or including maintenance, servers, admin time and rework?
Do not attack perpetual licensing. Buyers feel they already paid for those seats.
"Migrating decades of CAD data is not happening."
Which data do you truly need in the new system, and what could stay in the old vault as read only?
Do not promise lossless migration of features and history without a pilot on their data.
"We built our own system for that."
That makes sense. Who maintains it, and what happens when they retire or move on?
Do not belittle the internal tool. The person who built it may be your champion.
"Not during this program. We cannot disrupt engineering."
Understood. When does the program hit a quiet stretch, and could we plan a pilot on a smaller team then?
Do not push a rollout into a critical program phase. Agree on a specific next step instead.
"Our IP and export-controlled data cannot go to the cloud."
What does security and export control require today, and is any of your data ITAR or customer controlled?
Do not claim ITAR or other compliance you have not confirmed in writing. Never guess on export control.
"We are a SOLIDWORKS shop and that is not changing."
Got it. What works well about it for your team, and what do you do outside it?
Do not run down the incumbent CAD tool. Do not claim integrations you have not tested.
Every one of these is a deal that slips a quarter if you fumble it. Ghost puts the answer on your screen while the buyer is still talking.
Give them credit, then ask whether that vendor's strength matters to this buyer.
Siemens has one of the broadest portfolios, from NX and Teamcenter to manufacturing software. Do you need that full suite, or is there one part of the process to fix first?
Dassault is known for CATIA and SOLIDWORKS and its 3DEXPERIENCE platform. How do your engineers feel about moving work onto that platform?
PTC is known for Creo, Windchill and a strong push into SaaS with Onshape. Is your priority the CAD tool, the PLM, or connecting the two?
Autodesk is everywhere in design, from AutoCAD to Fusion and Inventor. Which Autodesk tools does your team use today, and where are the gaps?
Ansys is a leader in engineering simulation, and it is now part of Synopsys. How central is simulation to the way you validate designs?
Aras is known for flexible, open PLM that companies shape to their own processes. How much does your team want to configure PLM versus take it as is?
Bentley is a major name in infrastructure engineering. Is your work closer to infrastructure and plants or to discrete products?
Hexagon is strong where design meets the shop floor, with CAM, metrology and simulation. How much of your challenge is in manufacturing rather than design?
Altium is well known for PCB and electronics design. How tightly do your electrical and mechanical teams need to work together?
Cadence is a leader in electronic design and system analysis. Is your challenge on the electronics side, or the mechanical and product data side?
Propel is known for cloud PLM built on Salesforce that ties product data to sales and service. Does product data need to reach commercial teams for you?
Ask these on the first call. Then dig into the pain when they say it out loud.
Software engineers use to design, simulate and manage physical products. CAD tools create the 3D models and drawings, CAE tools test designs in software, and PLM systems manage parts, bills of materials, documents and engineering changes from concept to end of life. Much of it is still sold as perpetual or term licenses and run on-prem, alongside a growing set of cloud and SaaS products.
The most common are: "The licenses cost more than we pay today", "Migrating decades of CAD data is not happening", "We built our own system for that", "Not during this program. We cannot disrupt engineering", "Our IP and export-controlled data cannot go to the cloud" and "We are a SOLIDWORKS shop and that is not changing". Each one above has a line to say back and what to avoid.
Start with: Can you walk me through the last part or product you released, from first sketch to manufacturing? Which tools did it touch? If I asked your engineers what wastes their week, what would they say? When the shop floor or a supplier builds from the wrong revision, what does that cost and who hears about it? What changed that made this a project this year?
Buyers most often compare Siemens, Dassault Systèmes, PTC, Autodesk, Ansys, Aras, Bentley Systems, Hexagon, Altium, Cadence and Propel.
Economic buyer: VP Engineering, CTO or a business unit leader. Enterprise PLM decisions often include the CIO and sometimes the COO.
Pick the PLM and CAD market pack in Ghost's setup and every card on this page loads into Ghost. When a buyer raises one of these objections or names one of these competitors on a live call, Ghost shows you what to say on your screen, hidden from screen shares and recordings.
Free to start. Pick PLM and CAD in setup and Ghost loads every card on this page.