That's a poignant quote, and also one of the biggest pain points in selling to enterprise / federal customers. The less spoken, easier way around is to target

That's a poignant quote, and also one of the biggest pain points in selling to enterprise / federal customers. The less spoken, easier way around is to target smaller companies. The people making the decisions have more direct influence on the purchase, and are also a lot more likely to be involved in the actual use of the software. This has worked out well for FogCreek, 37Signals, et al.