Comments on: Five FREE Ways to Stand Out From Other IT Salespeople

By: Mark McClure Coaching

Mark McClure Coaching — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:52:24 +0000

@Asif – Yes , I hear you loud and clear re sycophantic behaviour. Never suffer fools gladly!

Slightly OT but still relevant – it can be a good idea to keep in touch with account reps that you have worked with as a customer e.g. get them into your LinkedIn network.

The good ones often have big contact lists and if you know them well, they may be able to introduce you to relevant folks on their list. Very, very useful if you are job searching in the current tough biz climate.

By: Asif Shah

Asif Shah — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:08:03 +0000

@Mark : i like your point Mark. I hadn’t thought about that. If we are treated badly before we give a supplier money then what can we expect afterwards. There is another side though, however we are traeted it needs to be with integrity, and not with sychophantic behavior. I hate that. Honesty is the best for me. If the best SEs are overseas then it is best for the supplier to use them

By: Mark McClure Coaching

Mark McClure Coaching — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:29:10 +0000

@Asif – In that case I meant SEs in the same business day time zone as me, the customer It must’ve been embarrassing for the account rep to have to punt qs after qs with “I’ll have to get back to ya”… especially when his competitors brought their SE into the physical meeting room and others had tech folks on a bridge line as backup.

My rule of thumb these days is:

“If they treat us like that before we give them any money, what level of service are we going to get after payment?”

Might sound a little harsh and I know that pre and post sales teams (and entire divisions) can be worlds apart in how they provide customer service. However, that old adage still applies – “first impressions count”!

(I am really a softie at heart.)

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:37:57 +0000

@Asif – I think it does mean extra cost for suppliers to have local SEs. This cost must be balanced by the extra potential sales by providing a better service doesn’t it? Ultimately, the vendors with the best product, service and sales process will be the ones that win out, yes?

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:34:36 +0000

@Mark – good point Mark because many of us have probably been let down by the latency caused by accessing knowledge from a supplier. Particularly when working in non-US regions!

By: Asif Shah

Asif Shah — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:33:08 +0000

@Mark : do you think it is better then to have SEs in your local sales region? Is this vey expensive though? I know what you mean about SEs who are remote though as you do not always get their points very well.

By: Mark McClure Coaching

Mark McClure Coaching — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:49:43 +0000

#3 is a good one – I cannot recall any Sales person EVER alluding to the values of any company I worked at. (Perhaps they were so good I was already put in a buying trance by that point haha!)

One thing from a techies point of view. I have dealt with many WAN carriers as the technical lead and business point of contact. I didn’t make the buying decision but I did have an internal vote in recommending a preferred solution or supplier.

Those Carrier Account Reps who had a Pre-Sales SE easily available by phone or email always made a much better impression on me than the ones who had to (or chose to..) escalate through 2 levels of command and multiple timezones before giving a reply to my questions.

Aim to make life (a little) easier for your customer or prospect.