#Altimira Composer?
Maybe you're going off on the wrong tack. I'm not pushing
other equipment merely because it's what I have available to sell,
but I hope I am providing information that indicates whether a
product provides a good value and actually applies to the customer's
expressed needs.
FYI, the forum has not been a source of customers for me. My comments
were in part based on my dislike of sales people (we're techies here
– sales is something we've never been too good at), and in part on a
Genesis lyric: "Never trust a man who shouts what he's found. There's
no need to preach if you're homeward bound." I prefer to evaluate a
vendor's, product's, or person's behavior based on what they do, not
what they say – sort of a teaching by example.
Essentially, CSA operates under the following principles (taken from
our sales manual):
TAKING MONEY If somebody wants to give us money, for God's sakes,
don't get in their way. Make it as easy as possible. Make them feel
good about spending money.
SELLING THINGS TO CUSTOMERS This is our reason for being here. The
fact that we have been around for over eight years says that we've
had some success doing it. But a few words about preferred selling
style are in order.
We are basically a reverse selling establishment. That is, we want
to make sure that people realize the implications of their purchases
before they walk out of the door. This minimizes buyer's remorse and
prompts people to come back. That is the key. We want people to
come back. We ask them to come back. A regular clientele is the key
to our success.
What this means is that you'll spend about half your sales time
building a product up and the other half tearing it down. People
need to know the drawbacks as well as the advantages of a package and
we need to honestly portray those. We need to disabuse people of
unrealistic expectations about a product. Nobody should buy a
package thinking that it does something that it doesn't do.
Sometimes you have to anticipate people's questions, that is, answer
them even if they don't know enough to ask them. This frequently
happens with new computer users and those people who have machines
that are available in various configurations (Yes, Sir, you do have 8
megabytes of memory, don't you?).
One of the best ways to help people discover what they are looking for
is to ask them questions. These should be designed to find out a
person's perceived needs and what is important to them in software or
hardware features. Is it ease of use, low price, or maximum
capability that they seek? You should seek to develop a set of
questions for various applications that discovers the customer's
needs and makes them aware of the options available to them. We make
people aware of tradeoffs and help them make a decision.
TALKING TO CUSTOMERS Part of our success is that we have human beings
to talk to. There is nothing more important than maintaining a good
relationship with customers.
Hopefully, none of the above will seem to others to represent too
cutthroat an organization. Personally, I feel it's why a we have
survived and prospered through a couple of California recessions,
while competitors come and go. It's certainly not because of our
capitalization – we started this business w/$4,000 ($1200 of which
went for incorporation).