4 ms·

Its interesting to know that you have to do a webex demo for your products. I assumed that for Saas, demos are a thing of the past. Other people have experience

Its interesting to know that you have to do a webex demo for your products. I assumed that for Saas, demos are a thing of the past. Other people have experienced the same too?

paraschopra 16y ago
Yes, big companies usually need webex demo. I'd be curious to know if other people experience the same (or VWO is an exception).
- mahmud 16y ago
  Yes, webex is par for the course, but it helps you negotiate better $. Charge a "pain premium".
  - paraschopra 16y ago
    Excellent point. However, we have transparent per-visitor pricing (also displayed on website) so it is impossible to negotiate better $ since it is linked to traffic customer wants to test.
    - mmelin 16y ago
      Perhaps you could modify your offering to be either "Self-serve" with transparent pricing but no demos or "Hands on" with Webex demo, dedicated support etc. In my experience customers that insist on Webex demos make up for the pain in price insensitivity once convinced, but you need to be able to exploit that somehow.
      - patio11 16y ago
        One interesting thing about this customer type: they will pay you just to promise to do things that you were going to do anyway. (Like, say, respond to all inquiries within 24 hours.) They will also pay you to promise not to do things you have no intention of doing. (Like, say, closing in the next twelve months.) You can charge through the nose for things like that. (A week of my time costs $X. Two consecutive weeks costs a little less than $2X. A week of my time now and a week of guaranteed availability in Q4 costs about $8X, because if you need that particular combo you can find $6X in your sofa.)
        paraschopra 16y ago
        Patrick, I think I need to learn about this from you. Right now: all I say is that tell me your traffic requirement and we will give a quote. No strings attached!
robinwarren 16y ago
The company I work for does not only web demos but face to face demos involving a sales guy travelling to the customer site, sometimes multiple times. This is for a SaaS app. I think some organisations are stuck in a certain way of purchasing software. One recently apparently had a half day meeting with a team of 12 'architects' to discuss implementing the software. To be clear, we're a pretty regular SaaS vendor although it is thick client there's very little they need to worry about. Certainly the questions they were asking seemed to be more relevant to a software product we install on their servers. Although the old saying says 'no one got sacked for buying IBM' possibly when people are prepared to suggest not buying IBM (or the equivalent) there still not prepared to suggest changing how the solution is bought.

Its interesting to know that you have to do a webex demo for your products. I assumed that for Saas, demos are a thing of the past. Other people have experienced the same too?

paraschopra 16y ago

Yes, big companies usually need webex demo. I'd be curious to know if other people experience the same (or VWO is an exception).

mahmud 16y ago
Yes, webex is par for the course, but it helps you negotiate better $. Charge a "pain premium".
- paraschopra 16y ago
  Excellent point. However, we have transparent per-visitor pricing (also displayed on website) so it is impossible to negotiate better $ since it is linked to traffic customer wants to test.
  - mmelin 16y ago
    Perhaps you could modify your offering to be either "Self-serve" with transparent pricing but no demos or "Hands on" with Webex demo, dedicated support etc. In my experience customers that insist on Webex demos make up for the pain in price insensitivity once convinced, but you need to be able to exploit that somehow.
    - patio11 16y ago
      One interesting thing about this customer type: they will pay you just to promise to do things that you were going to do anyway. (Like, say, respond to all inquiries within 24 hours.) They will also pay you to promise not to do things you have no intention of doing. (Like, say, closing in the next twelve months.) You can charge through the nose for things like that. (A week of my time costs $X. Two consecutive weeks costs a little less than $2X. A week of my time now and a week of guaranteed availability in Q4 costs about $8X, because if you need that particular combo you can find $6X in your sofa.)
      - paraschopra 16y ago
        Patrick, I think I need to learn about this from you. Right now: all I say is that tell me your traffic requirement and we will give a quote. No strings attached!

robinwarren 16y ago

The company I work for does not only web demos but face to face demos involving a sales guy travelling to the customer site, sometimes multiple times. This is for a SaaS app. I think some organisations are stuck in a certain way of purchasing software. One recently apparently had a half day meeting with a team of 12 'architects' to discuss implementing the software. To be clear, we're a pretty regular SaaS vendor although it is thick client there's very little they need to worry about. Certainly the questions they were asking seemed to be more relevant to a software product we install on their servers. Although the old saying says 'no one got sacked for buying IBM' possibly when people are prepared to suggest not buying IBM (or the equivalent) there still not prepared to suggest changing how the solution is bought.