General Consultant Discussion

Do you respond to users who are not customers, not on maintenance - and call with current urgent problem? I'm finding that aside from wasting my time asking me to explain 3x over (they never get it the first time so it becomes 20 questions) why there would be a fee associated with me solving their problem - generally there is absolutely no intent to pay anything other than maybe $20 for your time.

$20 for 30 minutes seems fair. Why our last partner only charged $90 per hour. By the way, he gave us a bid for an upgrade. Would you mind telling me how much you would charge me? I'll let you get in and investigate our set up for a few hours as part of your sales process. Or you can come onsite. Not a problem.

As soon as you hear ""I'm on version 3.x "" -- nope right out of that call... It's exceedingly rare to encounter a user that far off maintenance who is willing to pay anything unless they have to generate the records for an IRS audit the next day.

We don't have the same mass of calls like this that you do. I would talk to them but I would certainly work within some barriers: one explanation of the release/support schedule, listen for issues, collect credit card information.

The only exception to Wayne's rule I make is if the new Controller calls. Change in management can change the way they handle it. Of course, if the Controller is any good, he'd be using the situation to start an ERP replacement effort, not just upgrade from 3.x ...