Sale Strategy

[Fairlight]

On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 04:08:43PM -0400, Jose Lerebours via Filepro-list thus spoke:
> How do you guys manage to sale filePro today?
> 
> A company based out of GA contacted me after more than 15 years
> since I last spoke to them ... they want to migrate from SCO to
> Linux but when I told them projected cost (straight out of
> fptech.com no markup), they figured they may be better off buying an
> entirely new application + server + gain GUI and all the gadgets
> that were not available back them (mobile access, ecommerce, social
> media, etc.).
> 
> $349 per seat is a price tag and then some ... I am one that
> believes that filePro, at that price, only makes sense to those
> company that have so much vested in it that cannot simply drop it
> (very customized application with high 6+ figures in it).

This is always simultaneously annoying and comical to me.  Companies
will pay a premium for Dell hardware and whatnot, but their software,
programming, and administration they expect to be dirt cheap.  It's so
short-sighted, it's not funny.

I -used- to think $349/seat was ridiculously expensive.  On an individual,
personal basis, it is.  HOWEVER...  Having done numerous payment gateway
integrations for companies, I can say I no longer feel that way.  

Look, the software sits there and runs the heart of their enterprise (or
in the case of payment gateway software, at least the core of their A/R
ability) 24/7/365.  The software vendor and/or programmer get -one- shot
at making anything off of that continued income, in general.  Profit is
made indefinitely off of that one investment, and well outstrips the cost.
Companies should be considering the fact that they're making profit from a
properly functioning system -years- after the last time it's ever touched.
If it's truly being used in an enterprise capacity, and performs as such,
nobody should have a legitimate complaint about paying a bit up-front.

Let's just ignore for a second the whole subscription plan fP Tech has
introduced.  In general, $349/seat is nothing when amortised over the cost
of one year.  That's $30/mo per user.  Amortise it over ten years; that's
$3/mo per user.  They've gone what?  Fifteen years?  They've more than
gotten their money's worth out of the last solution.  They pay more than
that -per week- in matching taxes for each employee.  Both are the cost of
having employees in the first place.

For me, this is very simple:  They're either a serious ongoing business
concern, and -will- afford it, or they're not even serious, in which case
who cares what they do?  Buying the required software is simply a cost of
doing business.  Nobody wants to spend money, but it's not optional.  If
you want the software, you pay the money.  Expecting not to is like
expecting to run a trucking company without buying trucks.  Trucks don't
have an infinite lifespan, and need to be replaced after so much wear.
Companies buying software instead of trucks have it -easy-, comparatively.

> A college tells me how he uses the "mouse" vs "keyboard" scenario
> but lets face it, fewer and fewer people type 100+ wpm these days
> (unless it is on a cell phone).

>From a former office temp, I can tell you that this is correct at -any-
typing speed.  Whether you type at 114wpm or 35wpm, every time you have to
shift from keyboard to mouse and back again, you've just lost entry time.
That time adds up, and costs someone money.

Additionally, Mike's $350k number is on the low side of switching to
something else.  I've heard a few stories which resulted in both north of
$1.5m -and- failure to seal the deal, with a need to revert in the end.

Don't lowball it for them, unless you personally have zero options.
They're either serious about doing business, and are willing and able to
pay properly, or they're not worth anyone's time Ä yours -or- the next
person/company they try to victimise.

And if they decide to move something else, fail to finalise it, then come
crawling back, it should suddenly be a reasonable amount more expensive for
you to help them out of the mess they've created.  They're the ones who
screwed with the status quo, so I'd feel no sympathy.

mark->
-- 
Audio panton, cogito singularis.