Hi,
Ahhh... this old chestnut.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, so please take it as constructive criticism, although I'm reliably informed my posts have a certain 'tone' to them... ;) (That right Pete?)
Anyway,as I'm sure any other salepeople here can tell you, you're going about it the wrong way round.Slipping into the vernacular for a moment.... 'bollox to the acs'... it doesn't matter if its the top-crack bit of tech at the moment or not.The kind of sales situation your in calls for a 'consultative' approach...
You are immediately doing your potential customers a disservive by pushing the technology into the discussion.By doing so you are not finding out what 'they' want but rather trying to persuade them to adopt what 'you' want. I accept that you are doing it from the best of motives (i.e. ensuring they have good software), but ultimately your still 'pushing' a product.
and lets face, no matter how well presented, polite and thoughful, no one likes a pushy salesman.
Yes, the OpenACS is fantastic.. that's almost self evident. So why are you pushing it at them? Try listening to what the customers real (or perceived) problems are. They are looking to you to help solve these.. Not find them.. there is an important distinction.
Instead of pushing the technology, why not benefit from the fact that you have a product that can solve their problems. This should give *you* confidence and allow you to present with confidence your understanding and ability to help them. This is how good consultative sales works.
People by solutions not software. I duno how many times thats been said but its soooooo true...
The best advice I can give you is to let the 'geeks' (unpleasant term that) bang on about the technology (its their job after all and they enjoy it) and focus instead on how you can do a good job for your clients..
Lets face it if you secure the sale they're going to benefit from the OpenACS anyway... which will in turn build their confidence in you.. and viola! you have repeat business and a loyal customer (and its 6 times easier to get business from existing cutomers)...
If you're resorting to tech to sell at that early stage, your already saying to your customer 'I want you to do this' instead of 'You want to do that and I can help you effectively'.
Hope that helps (beleive me I've learnt this the hard way)
