General Consultant Discussion

I did a Sage 100 demo last week. The prospect sent an email today: ""Does Sage offer any kind of demo software that we could mess around with? "" I am reasonably certain the answer is no. What is a good response? I considered giving them remote access to my test system, but I think people need training or they could become frustrated if they cant immediately find what they are looking for.. ""This isn't very intuitive."" Thought?

Tough question. How **INTELLIGENT** are they? What are they using now? QuickBooks? What is your level of confidence that they will actually buy as opposed to using this session as a reason not to. I personally would offer a morning session where you let them drive and ask you questions. Otherwise, it will be a quick exit from frustration....

The answer regarding Sage is a definite No and not to expect it, because no one seems to understand how valuable that would be. The current Sage website says it all - a prospect cannot gain sufficient information about any product without filling out a form and having someone call them. I don't believe in that type of marketing. I believe that if someone wants to download a whitepaper I put on my site and they find value in it, they may eventually contact us. Or if I have a way to signup for regular e-mails or newsletters, then they will do that. At a minimum, they know who we are, have a positive attitude about us, and may tell others. Overall, in my opinion, the Sage Marketing function is a mess, and it embarrasses me. We have struggled with the demo system availability for years. We have both demo and test systems in our office, so at least we don't need to give prospects access to our test systems. We have been somewhat successful in giving access to our demo systems. Sometimes they even log in, but most of the time they do not. Because they really are not knowledgeable enough to know what to do with the demo system, we are working on some minimal background material and a script to lead them through basic operations. It's not finished yet, but that would be ideal. More importantly, I would visit them and spend a half hour reviewing how to access our server, the background materials and the script so they feel comfortable with all of that. They can still not touch it, but they will know we made an effort and can't complain about it. Our ultimate plan is to move all of our test and demo systems to I-BN, primarily because it is consistently administered, unlike the part time support we get from our internal IT staff. It's not their fault - they have to support a CPA firm!

Get them to pay something for your help with piloting. (Getting that idea from @JohnShaver I think provided instant ROI on 90 Minds membership in perpetuity.) xTuple offers a free single user trial in their cloud, and I have used that with a couple of customers, $5-7k to show them it will work and determine what customizations might be wanted/needed, then they have proof of concept and a fixed price for licenses and a full implementation.

We provide limited test environments for customers where the scope is limited and we require them to go through a short trainng on the specific functions that they

are provided access to and typically we observe when they are online in our hosted environment. We typically only do this if we know we can meet their requirements and then do not charge for the service but use it as a closing technique. If they do not login within a few days we turn it off.

Thank you for the input. These are all great ideas. I am going to offer a supervised test drive. I have given preliminary budget numbers and I believe this is a good fit. They are still interested.

Good luck. Bring the tequila in late February for the second annual song fest. Will celebrate with you.

Thanks. I'll bring all the tequila you can handle bro.

What about trying to have them visit with a client instead? The demo won't provide any real world feedback for them whereas a customer successfully using the product will provide the ""warm and fuzzies"" which is their real objective in asking for a demo copy.

Sometimes when we have converted some sample data and configured for the particular business requirements in a demo, the test system is really a test of whether they are serious. Very rarely does a prospect actually login more than 3-6 times and when ""supervised"" it is yet another selling opportunity in a controlled environment.

Patrn??? I drink like a reseller!!!

Si, Patron or Don Julio. Pick your poison.