The issue here is whether or not the customer truly understands the need to define in detail the requirements for the software solution ahead of time.
To a great extent, this determination is based on the size and importance of the project. Customers, who want a large custom software project implemented, will assign individuals on their side who have a great deal of understanding and experience in such projects. This may very well include people with advanced degrees in computer science.
For smaller projects, this is not always the case.
Software – especially the custom variety - is still a new enough product that many customers, especially smaller ones, are not very sophisticated about what is needed in order to provide a proper solution. They have a tendency to believe that custom software solutions are not very much different from standard solutions. You buy Microsoft Word if you want to write letters. You buy a different type of standard solution – customized appropriately – if you want to, for example, have an automated manufacturing system.
I once worked with a customer who knew that off-the-shelf software (products such as MS Word) could be purchased for just a few hundred dollars. That customer asked why custom software should cost thousands of dollars.
Most customers aren't that unsophisticated. Hopefully the sales staff will have answered questions such as that before the technical people get in touch with them.
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