4 ms·

How about not selling to these guys, period. I just have this feeling that once you take money from a Fortune company, you are their employee. Same goes for the

How about not selling to these guys, period. I just have this feeling that once you take money from a Fortune company, you are their employee. Same goes for the government.

patio11 12y ago
Why, specifically? You might be under the impression that they get something radically different than the standard SaaS app. In most cases, they just get the standard SaaS app. It looks quite similar to the SaaS app that you can buy for $500, except with a few knobs tweaked. Customer/vendor is a very different relationship than employer/employee, even for consultants to say nothing of SaaS vendors. You don't have to run your vacation plans past them, you can moonlight at 10 jobs simultaneously without of running out of hours or having any of the jobs think this is odd, you can hire people to do the delivery in a way an employee cannot, you can sell your relationship, etc etc. No lie: occasionally more stressful than working for W-2, and you largely don't get the option to just focus on delivery, but it's a very different beast.
cykho 12y ago
The cashflow amazing. A recurring license with a large enterprise means thousands of per-seat fees rolling in on a consistent basis. And larger enterprises are less likely to churn since they are more stable businesses and take longer to change either way. This creates a solid revenue stream which can be the backbone of your company's revenue.
ropman76 12y ago
I worked frontline customer support for a small software company that sold to county governments. The sales process was just as bad as described in this article. Most of the goverment workers and elected officials were very pleasant to work with. I had a few who were royal pains to deal but most of the people I dealt with on a regular basis were by far easier than my support at a insurance company.
rokhayakebe 12y ago
Thanks all for the feedback, but I still prefer to not sell to the government. You may be right that it is less scary than it looks, hence a lost opportunity, but I prefer to never deal with them as a customer.
- eru 12y ago
  And that might even be the right thing for you. Not everyone has to sell to anyone.
  - cykho 12y ago
    Noone should sell to everyone :)
tonyedgecombe 12y ago
Some customers do seem to suck all of the pleasure out of doing business, I'm dealing with a large pharmaceutical company at the moment and am getting pretty close to walking away.
mcguire 12y ago
The scariest part is probably the SLA business. I wouldn't imagine[1] it's too much fun getting a phone call at 8am (that's 6am your time) saying a SEV-1 has been registered with your service and you have 4 hours to fix it or there will be a (weirdly unspecified) penalty. Oh, and they've already used 2 hours tracking it to your software.[2] [1] Never been in that position; have been in the "Oh, good, you're finally here. THE SKY IS FALLING!!!11!" position, though. [2] Actually the clocks don't work that way. But I don't understand them anyway.

How about not selling to these guys, period. I just have this feeling that once you take money from a Fortune company, you are their employee. Same goes for the government.

patio11 12y ago

Why, specifically? You might be under the impression that they get something radically different than the standard SaaS app. In most cases, they just get the standard SaaS app. It looks quite similar to the SaaS app that you can buy for $500, except with a few knobs tweaked. Customer/vendor is a very different relationship than employer/employee, even for consultants to say nothing of SaaS vendors. You don't have to run your vacation plans past them, you can moonlight at 10 jobs simultaneously without of running out of hours or having any of the jobs think this is odd, you can hire people to do the delivery in a way an employee cannot, you can sell your relationship, etc etc. No lie: occasionally more stressful than working for W-2, and you largely don't get the option to just focus on delivery, but it's a very different beast.

cykho 12y ago

The cashflow amazing. A recurring license with a large enterprise means thousands of per-seat fees rolling in on a consistent basis. And larger enterprises are less likely to churn since they are more stable businesses and take longer to change either way. This creates a solid revenue stream which can be the backbone of your company's revenue.

ropman76 12y ago

I worked frontline customer support for a small software company that sold to county governments. The sales process was just as bad as described in this article. Most of the goverment workers and elected officials were very pleasant to work with. I had a few who were royal pains to deal but most of the people I dealt with on a regular basis were by far easier than my support at a insurance company.

rokhayakebe 12y ago

Thanks all for the feedback, but I still prefer to not sell to the government. You may be right that it is less scary than it looks, hence a lost opportunity, but I prefer to never deal with them as a customer.

eru 12y ago
And that might even be the right thing for you. Not everyone has to sell to anyone.
- cykho 12y ago
  Noone should sell to everyone :)

tonyedgecombe 12y ago

Some customers do seem to suck all of the pleasure out of doing business, I'm dealing with a large pharmaceutical company at the moment and am getting pretty close to walking away.

mcguire 12y ago

The scariest part is probably the SLA business. I wouldn't imagine[1] it's too much fun getting a phone call at 8am (that's 6am your time) saying a SEV-1 has been registered with your service and you have 4 hours to fix it or there will be a (weirdly unspecified) penalty. Oh, and they've already used 2 hours tracking it to your software.[2] [1] Never been in that position; have been in the "Oh, good, you're finally here. THE SKY IS FALLING!!!11!" position, though. [2] Actually the clocks don't work that way. But I don't understand them anyway.