Bozzlife: One of the reasons I hate sales people
I don't know about most of you, but in my line of work I have to deal with a lot of sales people. I think on a daily basis I get at least fifteen emails from vendors who want me to look at their product because they are offering something I Just need to have.
On rare occasions, I actually seek sales people out on my own to try and get information about a specific product. That was the case yesterday and while most of the outcomes happened as expected, there was one that left me quite surprised.
My business is currently using Google Sites for our webpage. It isn't the prettiest thing out there, but the price is right (free), and it offers some very granular permissions settings per page due to us being a Google Workspaces customer.
Anyway, in a short time Google is going to be shutting down the old sites and moving everything to the new sites. My biggest issue with the new sites is that you can't edit the html code directly like you can with old sites. I don't do a lot of manual coding, but when I need to, I like that option. This has me looking at third party vendors to host our site and provide us with a CMS (content management system).
How my Tuesday went
Actually, before we even get to Tuesday, the first thing I did was reach out to my collogues in other school districts to see what they are using for their websites. Based on those responses, I had narrowed the list down to four candidates.
At this point on Tuesday I was just on a fact finding mission. I wanted to get a very rough idea of pricing to see if this is even something we can work into the budget. Less than $10,000 I can probably talk the business director into getting on board. More than $10,000 and I need to start looking at other options.
So I reach out to each of the four vendors yesterday and tell them what I am looking for, that I am not interested in seeing a demo at this time and asking if they can just email me a quick ballpark figure. I even provided them my current url so they could check out our site to see how difficult the migration might be.
As predicted, I immediately got a reply from three of the four vendors asking to have a phone call with me so they can talk about their product and maybe do a demo for me. The fourth vendor (who I have worked with before) promptly replied with the requested ballpark quote (score one for him).
I replied to the other three vendors and explained to each of them that I was not interested in wasting my time or theirs talking to them about something that may never happen. Until I had the ballpark numbers to compare and see the price range I might be looking at any further conversation would be pointless.
Two of the three vendors were more than happy to comply with my request. I think the one took another email exchange to finally get the quote to me though.
I should add a disclaimer here that I don't actually hate sales people. I just don't understand why they can't follow simple directions. If I ask to be contacted via email, don't call me. That is great that they love talking to people, but I personally despise it. Especially over the phone, I have never enjoyed it. I like being particular and meticulous about what I say and I can't do that over the phone like I can in an email. I understand each of their products has special features that are exclusive to them and they want to show them off, but I feel like I was pretty clear that demo's would come at a later time.
This is where it gets crazy
Anyway, then we have the fourth vendor...
Him
"I heard you reached out about pricing for your website. We obviously build websites but our platform typically includes a couple of other elements as well. I'd be happy to fill you in and walk through pricing on a quick call (no demo).
I have time at 1:30 and 2:30 this afternoon - let me know if that works!"
Me
"I am sorry, unfortunately I do not. I was hoping to get these three other ballpark quotes reviewed so I can see if this is something we want to move forward with before I start wasting people's time with phone calls and Demo's."
Him
"Gotcha -- I don't think the pricing will make much sense without knowing what you're getting for it. Let me know if you want to chat about it at some point in the future!"
(Funny, the other three vendors weren't worried about me being confused by their pricing)
Me
"Okay, no problem. We will probably just move forward with one of the other three companies that provided information."
(This is where I thought I would scare him into sending me a quote, afraid he might lose a sale)
Him
"Sounds good! Thanks for reaching out!"
Okay then, guess you don't want our business after all.... I am actually quite surprised they are willing to risk a sale simply because I am not ready to watch their dog and pony show. Thankfully, our board policy only requires us to have three quotes when making a purchase this large, but it would have been nice to have that fourth for extra measure.
I am just glad this vendor wasn't one of my front-runners.
Really though, how hard is it to just listen to the customer and follow directions?
End Rant
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@eos.detroit Staff Writer/BOID Team Leader
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