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Only take a NO from someone who can say YES

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40hz:
^You raise several excellent points.

One thing we insist on is speaking to the users before we finalize our proposal. We've caught tons of mis-spec'ed details and avoided several hundred headaches this way.

We always tell management that our experience has taught us that end-users make some of the best systems analysts - because they know their jobs cold.

We've only occasionally had a problem with being allowed to do that. And in the three or four cases where we were not granted access, we took a big deep breath and declined to offer a proposal.

The reason we do this is because very early in the history of our company, we made the mistake of letting a company with major labor relation issues dictate to us how we should accomplish our job. That project turned out to be a total nightmare in terms of financial and personal costs. It was the only project failure my company had in over 20 years of business. And we have no intention of repeating such a mistake.

In retrospect, the single most valuable sales "skill" you can acquire is the ability (or permission  - if you work for someone else) to walk away from a bad sale. Like the old song says, you gotta know when to hold, when to fold, and when to just walk away.

Learning to say "no" to a potential customer is much more important than learning how to avoid getting a "no" from them.
 :Thmbsup:
  

steeladept:
Sounds like you work for a great company that many should learn from.  :Thmbsup:

40hz:
^Don't know if it's that great.

But it tries very hard to operate ethically, as well as in a logical and consistent manner.

And it is my own...so any failings it has are my direct reponsibility. 

Note: It's also not spectacularly profitable. (we have definitely felt the pinch from the recent economic downturn in the market sector we're in.)  But our clients love us. And people seem to like working for us.

So I'd consider it a success.  

Feel free to draw what lessons and conclusions you will from that.  ;D

steeladept:
And it is my own...
-40hz (June 21, 2010, 12:37 PM)
--- End quote ---
So therefore it has got to be great, right  :P :Thmbsup:

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