General Consultant Discussion

Spotted this via a press release. I like what this company has done in terms of separating out the ""demo"" and making it a business process review. I'm fairly certain they charge for each piece that they display (scroll down to the botton of their home page which pretty clearly outlines the process). What I like here is that customers (prospects) who find them online are led directly through the process. While it does not talk $$ it certainly should setup prospects to expect that there's a fee for each stage. In essence -- these folks took demos off the menu. They do business process reviews.

Just to be clear - I believe the process that is outlined on their web site IS the direction that we will all need to follow. There will always be an avenue for VARS who enjoy giving away the majority of their services however as margins continue to shrink VARS will be forced to develop a more cogent sales process -- and charge appropriately for EACH step. The free demo will be gone.

I commented on facebook already but ... how do you make the leap that they are charging for demos? Yes, they have a process but ... I think it's a big leap to assume ""process"" = ""no free demo"". It is a Monday morning and my brain is still asleep so ... what did I miss?

He wants to believe they are, hence they are.

That's kind of what I'm gathering. I can imagine a lot of things but charging for a demo isn't one of them. If anything, I see demos becoming homogenized via self-running demos and then reaching out to consultants for more information to address particular concerns. As a customer, would I pay a car salesperson to let me have a trial drive or to describe the car to me? Unlikely.

You can see they have pretty extensive self running demo's on their site. Given you can do so little customization with Netsuite, I don't see much more need. Cloud buyers remind me of that ""I want an iphone"" spoof cartoon on youtube. ""I want the cloud""....

Yes the free demos are on the web site. I am sure they have a process for someone who self diagnosed to waive any consulting and the VAR likely disclaims any responsibility for the outcome. If you think though - just a one and done sale is not a sustainable business model. It is and always has been about creating and growing your recurring revenue. Those vars who have gone out of business have been trapped by lack of a business model. Sage stopped selling ""pay as you want them"" upgrades years and years ago. You have no choice in obtaining upgrades or software but enroll in a recurring maintenance plan.