Looked at our site or downloaded our software? Then allow us to harass you!

One of our sales engineers was assisting a customer during a trial last week. The customer was a typical IT geek (it takes one to know one), the kind we know and love and continuously try to amaze and impress with our expertise, attention to detail and service. This customer, let’s call him Fred, was evaluating a few other email security solutions. Fred was quite pleased with the progress of the trial. In fact, he was doing the trial on a live email stream (ahem, Fred, we don’t recommend this), and his users were extremely happy with the difference they experienced. As the end of the trial approached, they did not want to switch back to the old system. (We’re used to that – it happens a lot.)

Fred, however, is a straight up guy who follows a process when making a decision (we really like that!). His approach was to study the email security market (a crowded market, for sure), narrow his choices down to 2 – 3 based on his specific requirements, trial them all, and choose. As the conclusion of the trial of our product approached, and despite the requests from his users, Fred went ahead and downloaded a white paper from a competitor. He sent the white paper to the printer, grabbing a coffee to sit down and read it. As page 2 was printing, his phone rang. Guess who was on the other end? Yes, SalesGuy from the competitor. You’re thinking, ‘Wow, pretty responsive.’ Well, maybe. It turns out that SalesGuy is rather persistent. He called Fred every single day during the trial, and bombarded him with emails, white papers, case studies, and other documents. SalesGuy lambasted the competition, including our company. (Sorry, I despise when companies do that, it just makes the whole industry look bad.) As the trial progressed and Fred needed help with issues that arose, SalesGuy became less available. He handed Fred over to SupportGuy . However, SupportGuy, since this was not yet a customer, was not so responsive to Fred’s inquiries on how to get this competitor’s product to work effectively. Well, it sounds like Fred will be ending the trial a little earlier than expected (no complaints here).

Our approach is a little different. See, it turns out that Fred, like all his friends who buy mission-critical software, tends to be on the bright side. He likes to think things through, to work with people who know their stuff, to share information and talk shop, and to get the facts – straight. (No pitches please!) He doesn’t like to be pressured, wants to make the decision on his own and wants to be sure that you will be there when he needs you. So, we try to cater to Fred as much as we can. The person at the other end of the line – as early as the first call – is someone technical, who knows the product inside and out. But the truth is they are not there to talk about it, yet (well, unless Fred really wants to!). Our sales engineer is trying to figure out what Fred needs and whether we can help. We are not talking about a one time sale here, we tend to enter into long term relationships with our customers, and I _mean_ long term. Our goal is not just to get Fred comfortable with our product and solution, but to get Fred comfortable with us. Seeing as we plan on serving him for the next 5 to 10 years (or more), it’s pretty important that what we provide meets his specific needs.

Have you had a negative experience from an aggressive salesperson who didn’t know their product and was just pushing the sale, ignoring your needs? (By the way, one of our product managers recently received a call from a company right after she looked at their website, without ever entering any information in a form: talk about intrusive.)

On the other hand, what are your expectations from a technology company when you are doing a trial of their product?