Sale Strategy

[Mike Schwartz]

> How do you guys manage to sale filePro today?
> 
> $349 per seat is a price tag and then some ... I am one that believes that
> 
> So, how about some tips on "filePro sale pitch" to win those ever present
> battles!!!
> --
> Jose D. Lerebours

     It is odd that a customer pays a few thousand dollars for a system,
runs it for 15 years as the "heart and life-blood" of their business, then
complains about paying another couple of thousand dollars that will probably
carry the system forward another 15 years.  I bet they don't get 15 years of
dependable life out of their delivery trucks or their office furniture...

     Since they are happy with their old SCO operating system, why switch
that to Linux?  I'm sure you can find hardware that will still run the SCO
operating system.  Bill Campbell and others here on the list can probably
assist you in virtualizing their old SCO server, if they simply want to
virtualize.  

     Business decisions are ultimately ALL about payback.  So, when trying
to sell a customer on upgrades, normally I emphasize the "quick payback"
that they will get with the new reports or new filePro features.  However,
since this is a "lateral" move to Linux and if they are not interested in
having you do more programming to make use of the new filePro features, they
won't get a quick payback on their investment.     

     So, the only payback they will get  is that the "heart and life-blood"
of their business will have been overhauled; similar to buying all brand new
delivery trucks.  

     It is probably worth mentioning the new filepro features to them.  For
example, maybe they will want you to add filePro's direct PDF printing to
their system.  

     Remind them that there is a heavy cost to switch software.  Just the
function of SEARCHING for a new software package will probably  consume a
LOT of man-hours.  They have to look at things like training and buying a
LOT faster server and hardware system than their old filePro system
requires.  Windows apps have their uses, but Windows systems are not always
the best option for database systems, even if their users do not type 100
WPM.

     For example, a few years ago I had a large insurance brokerage who
spent more than $350,000.00 to "upgrade" to a "canned" MS-Windows insurance
database system.  After almost 3 years of testing and adding more and more
Windows servers, they tried to go "live" on the new system.  Unfortunately,
they never could get things to balance on the new system and found it took a
LOT longer (like 10 times as long) to enter insurance policy info into their
new system as compared to filepro.  Also, they just could not get the same
"sort and select" reporting flexibility that their old filePro system had.

     Finally all of their managers confronted the bosses and told them they
were going to QUIT unless they went BACK to their old filePro system.  So I
had to scramble for a couple of weeks to get them a couple of new servers
and upgraded filePro system so that they could cut back over to their old
filePro system! 

     One of my favorite sales phrases is:  "Every time a user has to take
their hands off of their keyboard and move to their mouse, then scroll
around a page and position the mouse to the next data field, they have lost
a LOT of time."   

      So, in this case, I advise: 

1)  Do NOT move off of SCO (Xinous) Openserver.  There's probably no valid
reason to spend the money to do that.

2)  Think long and hard about considering moving to any new software
package.  It will probably end up costing a LOT more than you thought it
would.

3)  Non-GUI database applications are NOT dead.  They are typically more
cost effective than GUI Windows based apps are.  
 
Hope that helps...

Mike Schwartz