L’Amour on a Different View

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

–Louis L’Amour (1908–1988)

American writer

A couple bright sides to remember…

  1. Those gatekeepers keeping you from your prospects… You’ll love them once you’re on the other side and your competition comes calling. (Just be sure you’re continually qualifying your prospects – investing your effort only with the best possibilities… Get JustSell’s quick guide on qualifying).
  2. That deal you lose to a low-cost provider… Sometimes it can be more valuable in the long run. When the lowest priced product or service doesn’t meet the expectations of a customer, a deeper appreciation of the price/ value relationship is developed. This can create a new sales opportunity from what was initially lost – an opportunity for a much stronger business relationship than otherwise may have existed. (Make sure you keep your cool & kindness so you’re called if it happens.)

Here are 4 points to bouncing back.

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Bradstreet on The Bright Side

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

–Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672)
British-American poet

Sales negotiation…

What can you do for me on the price?

A fantastic question when you’re buying. An inevitable inquiry when you’re selling.

How would you and your team respond at this moment?

Many people will respond to the question by immediately giving or implying the possibility of a discounted price. Again – great when you’re buying, a margin killer when you’re selling.

Here are the 2 hard-dollar points to better negotiating (and several sample responses).

Managers: How much more revenue could you add each year by helping your team avoid the immediate jump to a discount?

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Do you have your copy of “A Message to Garcia“? One of our favorites for inspiring initiative and responsibility (and required reading for Marine Corps recruits and at the Naval Academy).

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No going through the motions in 2011… Register for one of this week’s short webinars with Sam (co-founder of JustSell).

The Dirty Little Secret About Esri’s EDN at Version 10

I’m sure all Esri EDN users are running in to the same problems I am with the product, licensing. At WeoGeo, I’m testing our new toolbar on many platforms and OS versions so that we know it works with ArcGIS 10. The problem is that the ArcView license included in EDN only allows you to install ArcView twice. Every time I need to switch from one VM to the other, I’ve got to go through this crazy unregister/register process just to use ArcMap. And you’d better believe I’m headed to a point where I won’t be able to install ArcView anymore because I’ve hit the install ceiling (which I’ve heard is at 999 installs).

So don’t assume that an EDN is licensed per developer because it sure isn’t. Makes you question the value of the product where licensing keeps kicking you in the shins. I have no will to fire up ArcGIS 10 anymore because of Esri licensing mess. This wasn’t a problem at 9 and I can only assume licensing was tightened at 10 so we’d all pay up. But EDN is supposed to be licensed for developers, not production and you’d think Esri would encourage me to make sure my toolbar runs on 32/64 bit XP/Vista/7. Time to cue the Price is Right losing horn…