Why I talk to sales people

A warning to you services people

[hannamyluv]

I just got off the phone with a company pitching a site redesign to me. I probably wouldn't hire them, as they don't know anything about sites beyond whipping them up in flash, but these sale pitches do serve a useful purpose. They solve my problems for me.

Some sales guy calls up, I say, yeah, but what about this? He gets his programmers on the phone because he has no clue and boom, nine out of ten times they say "Oh, yeah, we could fix that. We just need to do this, this and this. Want a quote?"

I say I'll think about it, hang up and wander on down to my programmer and explain what I need done and how he can do it.

Let this be a warning. Think about what you are telling a potential client. Give away the farm, and they won't need you.

[txbakers]

I used to love the old Macintosh commercials where the young team was pitching the big company. the requirements were for all kinds of items, but they couldn't subcontract.

The boss was amazed at the proposal saying "How could you all this without subcontracting, etc.?"

And the answer was..... hire us and we'll show you.

Great advice.

I've picked all kinds of great tips that way too.

I was ready to spend big bucks to develop an ActiveX control for something, and one phone call pointed me in a better direction. He showed me his approach, and I built on that and made it better.

But that's part of the openness of the web.