Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 09:21:54 -0500 From: "Mike Avery" <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PCWeek article by Anne Chen -- Comments Message-ID: <199905061430.JAA01645@hostigos.otherwhen.com> In-Reply-To: <7727176F15A5.AAA3312@po02.wxs.nl>
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On 6 May 99, at 9:55, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai wrote:
>> Absolutely. And since marketing needs HOURS (communicating with
>> humans is MUCH more time-consuming than coding), there also needs to
>> be a financial incentive, at least for the primary marketers.
> I do not doubt that marketing costs time, but to put off coders
> like that is being as worse as people putting down PR
> activity...
> Coding take less time? Heh, I wonder if Matthew Dillon, Peter
> Wemm, Doug Rabson, David O'Brien and the likes all think that's
> correct...
It's probably an open-ended question. Marketing, like most
activities, can happen at the wholesale and retail level. At the
wholesale level you are trying to interest lots of people in a product
- a big media blitz, gaining "mindshare" (a disgusting buzz word... I
hope it's on it's way out). At the retail level, you are trying to
convince a small number of people that they can't live without your
product.
While working for a state agency, I saw the retail level as a vendor
spend three years working with (or on) us before getting his first
sale. We hated the jerk. He was always there, always had a
suggestion, always bidding on things, always trying to get his foot in
the damn door. He won our "sleaziest vendor" award twice and won
second place several times. We'd go out of our way to miss
meetings with him - so he'd corner us in the hall.
Coding is you and the machine. It responds quickly, it doesn't lie to
you, and it responds as quickly as it can. If you need faster
response, you can upgrade to a faster machine.
People will lie to you. They aren't under your control, so they can
just not talk to you... or schedule other meetings. At their best,
people are slow, and it's hard to change their minds. A lot of the
time consuming activities are damn near pointless and often
frustrating.
In the end, he got a small server contract, which went well and led
to a good sized server contract (around 200, if memory serves). His
were better than the ones we had been buying. That led to a good
sized PC order - around 5,000, I think. Persistence does pay....
But.... he spent a lot of time with us over a 3 year period to get
those sales. He had other profitable accounts, so he could afford
the marketing time.
So.... marketing can take LOTS of time. And often you have nothing
to show for your efforts - sometimes for years - other than people
who will let you buy 'em a drink and otherwise shun you.
The guy has since moved on to become a regional Microsoft
marketing manager. Which confirmed our feelings about him. And
reminds us that marketeers go where they think the money is.
Mike
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Mike Avery MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com
(409)-842-2942 (work)
ICQ: 16241692
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A Randomly Selected Thought For The Day:
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