Why Answer for a What Question

I have noticed several times how some of us answer a What question with a Why answer. 

The Customer IT Director asks ‘Will you be doing this integration testing from onsite or offshore?’. 

That is a simple question - either this or that. Simple, isn't it? 

Not, it would seem, for some people. 

Our Account Manager clears his throat and responds  ‘We decide where to do a specific activity based on various factors and in this case we have proposed to do the integration testing from offshore because it is easier to integrate the code from offshore…. If we don’t do it that way, and do it from onsite instead, it can cause challenges….However, if you would like us to do it from onsite, we are surely flexible enough to work with that; do you have a preference? ‘

Customer IT Director replies: ‘No...just wanted to know, that is all’.

Here the Account Manager gets needlessly paranoid and continues once more with a glance at the customer buyer for moral support: ‘You see, offshore is not the best location for System Testing since it is based on the URD which you guys know best being the users of the software. But, there are customers for whom we have done it from onsite since they insisted on it. If you insist, we are ready to do it for you at onsite!!!’

Here, the purchasing guy shoots in his goal into the empty net 'I assume this wont push the price up in any way’ 

forcing our account manager to blurt out 'No...but we have to come back to you on this...'

The Customer IT Director does not say anything for about twenty seconds,  but our Account Manager cannot take the pregnant silence any longer and feels obliged to fill the silence with some words.

He clears his throat and blurts out 

‘Yeah, it will cost more to do it onsite but considering that you want it that way and considering the spirit of our partnership, we are willing to pick up that additional cost’ 

Then, not realizing the extent of damage he has already done, he turns around and asks the customer IT Director once more ‘So, why are you suggesting we should do it onsite? Is it because you feel more comfortable that way?’

The customer IT director shakes his head in frustration and replies after a brief pause…’I am thinking…’

So, what is the IT director thinking right then? He is thinking about why he is wasting his time with this vendor. He is thinking about why this account manager cannot listen. Why he can’t seem to understand simple English. He is thinking about how bad the software engineers to come would be when this Account Manager (with a fancy title on his card and a flashy Versace tie to boot) cannot seem to understand a simple either-or question. He is even wondering why the account manager tried to put words into his mouth insinuating that he asked for the activity to be done onsite? 

He is indeed thinking ‘why is the purchasing guy who does not understand any of this technical stuff look at me as if I am the culprit’…

We know what he is definitely NOT thinking…’Oh, how much I want to give this project to this vendor…’