“Moving would mean rebuilding everything”
Analytics Engineering Lead · Data and analytics
An Analytics Engineering Lead who would have to rebuild every model and report sees months of work and risk for little visible gain. They're right to weigh it. Separate the move from the value: ask which reports they'd move first, and which could stay where they are.
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What the buyer says
Moving would mean rebuilding every model and report we have. It's not worth the disruption.
How to handle it
Listen
Hear "every model and report". The objection is the size and risk of the migration, not the product itself.
Acknowledge
Agree that rebuilding everything at once would be disruptive, and that a migration has to be worth the effort.
Explore
Ask which models and reports cause the most pain today: slow, fragile or constantly changing. Ask which ones are rarely used and could be retired. Ask what a sensible first step would look like to them.
Respond
Propose a phased approach: start with the reports that hurt most, leave the stable ones where they are, and be specific about what your product does to reduce rebuilding work, if anything.
Say this
“That's fair. Rebuilding everything at once would be a big job.”
Say this
“Which models or reports cause your team the most pain today?”
Say this
“Which could stay exactly where they are?”
Variations
- Head of Data Engineering: “We've got years of logic in our current tool. Moving it is a project in itself.”
- BI Developer: “I'd spend six months recreating reports that already work.”
Questions people ask
How do you respond when a data team says moving would mean rebuilding everything?
Agree that a full rebuild is disruptive. Ask which reports cause the most pain and which could stay, then propose a phased move starting with the painful ones, and be honest about how much rebuilding your product actually requires.
How do you reduce the risk of migrating analytics tools?
Move in phases, starting with the reports that cause the most pain, retire ones nobody uses, and run old and new side by side until the numbers match.
More objections in Data and analytics
- “Our budget is going on AI, not analytics”
- “We've just standardised on one BI platform”
- “People still make decisions in spreadsheets”
- “Data projects never change anything”
Practise it before the real call
Free to start. No credit card.