General Consultant Discussion

How do you handle a direct sale by Sage that now requires your attention to clean up? Overview: A customer aligned to us (we are the ROR) contacted Sage a few months ago because they needed help with registration information for their MAS 90 v3.71 system. The customer was off plan so Sage told them to contact the ROR. They called us, and long story short, we got them upgraded to v2014 and on a one-user financials bundle on-premises subscription plan. A new CFO came in recently, and he called Sage to find out about multi-company consolidated reporting. Sage sold him Sage Intelligence on subscription. Today, I receive a phone call from Cameron Murphy at Sage and this information is shared during the call. Initially, Cameron tells me that one of our customers is asking if there are any local partners because they are having trouble getting Sage Intelligence implemented. I ask him, ""when did they purchase SI?"", and he tells me how the customer told Sage they did not want to get the Sage partner involved and that they were capable of implementing SI on their own. Apparently, they purchased it a week or two ago, and they are struggling with getting it implemented. Surprise, surprise. Cameron asked the new CFO if he would speak with his current Sage partner, and the CFO said he would. Cameron forwarded me the email he received from the new CFO so that I could contact the new CFO directly. I'm curious how others would handle this. There is no chance I will get any part of the SI subscription margin or even tier credit since Sage sold it directly. Shame on Sage. But now, I also have to be concerned about my current margin and tier on the one-user on-premises subscription I sold only a few months ago. There is always two sides to every story, and it is possible that Sage simply sold it directly and the new CFO didn't know he could work through us. If the new CFO did bypass us intentionally, then I guess he is getting what he deserves. Unfortunately, that doesn't help anyone involved. Any ""sage"" advice folks?

Call the CFO and give him/her the options for training and support. If he/she needs the financial statements implemented soon he/she will want to pay your fee to come on site and train / help produce the statements. I emphasize go on site. On site will help you prove your skills (worth) and to develop a trust relationship with the new CFO. He/She may then be more willing to call you directly in the future before contacting Sage.

Of course, you better know SI cold before offering your services.

I don't lose sleep over the people who ""call around"" us. Quote it high. Can schedule within xx days from RECEIPT OF PAYMENT. And hope you never hear from them again (in all likelihood you won't). Just my experience with these types of things.

Obviously we cannot control what Sage does. So long as we remain partners, we're subject to the way they treat our customers and our organizations. If you think there's a chance that the new CFO was swindled by Sage, you need to get that out on the table. If it turns out that they were intentionally trying to work without you, both Wayne (quote high) and you (they get what they deserve) are correct.

@WayneSchulz If the CFO is new he/she may not know the relationship between Sage, the customer, and the partner. @BrianRice I would call the CFO, explain the relationship and find out what happened. Sometimes a seemingly frog of a customer can turn into a princess. Don't be too quick to dismiss the customer as not worth your time.

..."" and he tells me how the customer told Sage they did not want to get the Sage partner involved and that they were capable of implementing SI on their own.

You can trust Sage as far as you can throw their collective bodies. I would take the time to talk to the new CFO. You can't believe anything Cameron has said and you have the opportunity to contrast yourself against Sage putting you on the same side of the table as the customer.

It may have been Sage that told the CFO that the software is easy to install and learn... no need to spend extra and get the partner involved... ""now, which credit card did you wish to use to pay for it?""..... ""Sure, it's easy to install. It's a wizard. Just follow the prompts."".

All of the cautionary advice here is certainly valid. However, it is a NEW CFO, even after the upgrade. IMO the only time a customer changes the way it uses its ERP is when there is a new Controller/CFO/CEO. It's worth checking with that attitude, pretend it's a completely positive/trainable situation. Pitch your annual agreement as an opportunity to finally get the value from their Sage investment they'e been missing. If he doesn't swing at your pitch, you can take the exit knowing you've done all that's reasonable.

I've wasted more time fantasizing that a customer misunderstood and really needs me (aka will pay). 1Money talks. Bullshit walks. Sorry to come off as flip or hardened but I have found this to be true - especially in the past few years. Even more so with web leads (the bulk of whom don't want to pay anyone and who are looking for free tips on how to right their sinking ship - emphasis on free). You can waste a lot of time on people who have no intention of paying you a dime and will allow you to keep coming to see them so long as they aren't taking any dimes out of their wallet. Cut to the chase quickly unless you have free time on your hands and don't mind providing free consulting.

I agree with Wayne. If the customer wants your expertise, they should pay for it. If the customer did not know, they should realize now that they need to pay for it or they are just jerking a chain to see if the light will come on.

Thanks for the input everyone! I am actually embarrassed to admit this, but then again, I am also not surprised. Apparently, I was thinking of the customer I mentioned above and it is actually a completely different customer. Oops! Of course, the customer that it actually is does not have an active business care plan for Sage 100 ERP, and yet, Sage allowed the purchase of the SI subscription. Hmmm...I didn't think that was allowed. Anyway, I will update everyone once I figure out what is really going on here.

Wayne is the Poster Boy for the Dark Side of effective marketing: he gets lots and lots of leads, but not many of them are qualified. His % of qualified is probably at least as high as ours, but his volume is much higher, so he has a much bigger, more obvious version of the problem that we all have. He can essentially paint the problem and solution with broad strokes and bold colors, which does help the rest of us understand how we should deal with our own situations. The Parieto Rule applies here, except it is more in the range 95:5, chaff:wheat. The ONLY way to separate them is to offer the opportunity to pay first. In the case of an off-plan 3.71 user where you are ROR, they will NOT pay you anything unless the call is essentially triggered by a change of executive management. Even then, they must pay something, even if it's just for an Initial Assessment (remote access, you define the timing, and price >=$1200) to see how much trouble they are in. If you want, you can offer that 1/2 of the fee will applied to the final proposal. An Annual Agreement is an even better thing to require. Make the offer in email after a brief discussion on the phone, and don't bother to follow up. They know where you live, and you must underscore the sense that you have plenty to do without them. In a way, this is a virtual-world version of ""Wayne's Bathroom Test"" which tests whether the ownership respects its employees and vendors.