Re: question about product license and support

From: Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu>
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2004 10:45:29 -0700
Message-ID: <1091900769.375769@yasure>

Comments in-line.

Hans Forbrich wrote:

> Daniel Morgan wrote:
>
>

>>Not bound ... but from my experience salespeople have flexibility and
>>will use it to close sales. It may not be final ... but you'll be better
>>off than you were at the web site.
>>

>
>
>
> A few final thoughts, some are not related to Oracle's sales force:
>
> 1) the sales people have a small flexibility, but it reflects in their
> commission.
>
> A rep will use that flexibility to provide rewards, eg: for loyalty. But,
> depending on the org and the rep, that could be less than 1%

Your experience is not my experience. Perhaps once again the penalty you pay for being Canadian. ;-)

BTW: I'm moving some of my assets into Alberta so this should not be interpreted to be demeaning toward those north of the border.

> 2) any aggressive sales organization is quota driven.
>
> If the rep doesn't make quota, the position is up for review. A certain
> urgency to attain quota is seen and some additional discounting is usually
> permitted. Decision to go to, and approve non-standard approval requests,
> is a balance between keeping the job and keeping the commission.

Sort of the same urgency felt by used car salesmen me thinks.

> 3) Non-standard approval depends on the business case (to the sales org)
>
> To get approval from upper management requires a business case attached to
> the non-standard request. The rep MUST gather the info for, and write up,
> the case.
>
> It happens that many such business cases are easier to achieve at end of
> quarter or year, simply because the approver is swamped. Not always,
> though!

Amazingly that also corresponds with when Oracle salespeople have a sudden urge toward generosity.

> 4) unless the agreement is in writing, it is not final.

And worthless.

> 5) the MSRP and posted discounts are always a good starting point for budget
> and negotiation.
>
> Based on many years experience supporting both the buyer and the seller
> side, I do _not_ support assuming a non-standard discount at the budget
> cycle. I _do_ support intelligently and aggressively negotiating - at the
> right time.
>
> ---------
>
> I still don't understand how you can professionally advocate guesswork and
> dreams as the basis for budgetting. Anything other than standard discount
> and price list is guesswork, dreaming - and hoping that the stars line up
> right when the NSAR request goes in.
>
> However, I see no sense in debating further.
> /Hans

Not guessword and dreamwork. But quoting $60K/cpu for Enterprise Edition with RAC is not just unrealistic ... but likely to kill a project that would be cost effective if quoted at a more realistic price.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)

Received on Sat Aug 07 2004 - 12:45:29 CDT