General Consultant Discussion

Talk about a competitive market. These types of leads (see attached) seem to be typical of what companies are searching for online. I'm never entirely sure whether the budget (in this case $10,000) applies to both software and services. I think the company doing the purchasing assumes that the $10k is ""all in"" while the VAR buying these leads probably thinks the $10k is just the starting point. My feeling is that these lead services are either producing a lot of unhappy buyers or they're just the worlds greatest source of free third bids for companies that really have no intention of buying from you but just need to keep their vendor of choice honest.

Are you paying for these leads? Or only if you accept them?

They send out these lead sheets periodically to people even when they're not members. I think the theory probably is that if they cannot sell them to members why not sell them on the open market. I've no doubt that there are people who close these deals. They just don't seem all that profitable and the customers probably aren't all that loyal after the software and services are purchased.

The old ""there's always someone willing to go out of business faster than you"" concept!

I can see why firms would do this. There's intense pressure to close new blood deals -- even when the fit is iffy. I'm just guessing but figure that I'm not too far off to think that most of these deals are break evens at best. (And that's not to say there are not some homeruns in there - just as some people who go to the casino and put a penny in the slot machine walk home with $100,000 jackpots).

Located in Europe, 80-100 miles from Hartford CT.