How my pants got wet and it turned into a Lotus Foundations sale
Tags :Domino 8 Lotus Foundations
As I sat on the flight, the guy next to me states he own his own distribution company when he introduced himself. We didn't talk much more until he managed to spill an entire glass of water on my lap, with ice. Well from there anyone would fall into natural discussion. One because he was apologizing over and over. Two, because it is polite to make sure I am not going to find some way to retaliate when I get my drink.
He opened his Macbook Pro and I was happy to see Lotus Notes open. So as I padded my ass with towels from the flight attendants we struck up the old "when are you going to upgrade" discussion. He quickly answered he knew there was a new version, since all software seems to never stop putting out new features. I was happy to show him 8.5 and all the changes. We did a quick walkthrough (offline of course) and was was shocked to know why anyone would want instant messaging in there.
To make it short, he was unsure why anyone would want half of it. After listening to what he really did, it was clear. He was old school business. He preferred face to face meetings. He preferred the phone as a last result and the impersonalization of email was a sin. Why instant message when he could go meet them or call. His email was just product information and other silliness. He didn't use the calendar. His welcome page was mail and a sole database.
Here the conversation turned back to me. He was a cold hard salesman. A business owner since the 70's. He had seen it all and sold disposable cups to manufacturers of drinking glasses. He was in the Air Force. he had hear every and given every pitch known to man to make a deal close. What was I going to come back with in disconnected mode? Simple. I fired up designer (in VMWare duh since no Mac version), duplicated his V3 looking database and created a view widget first. I checked my Day at a glance, showed where the latest status from my contacts were, via Epilio's free Jessie plug-in and showed where awareness would be in my mailfile.
The sales pitch was a nothing. Small business? All of this? I walked him through an upgrade coupled with Lotus Foundations Branch Office. They had a small server, some file and print and no VPN or anything else. All connected via a business DSL line. His final words after eating his biscuit smothered in grape jelly? When can we have a face to face meeting? I will be going by after I get back in town and he is done fishing in Alaska for vacation.
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On Monday, June 15th, 2009 by Chris Miller
