Question

[Elky]

I know you are all extremely busy and usually inundated with suppliers trying to contact you in one way or another, either phone, email, post etc.

 

My question to you all is...

 

What is the best way to contact you if a supplier is canvassing for new business?

 

Obviously IT resellers are always looking to add to their existing customer base but with so many of us out there, it's understandable that you guys can get annoyed!

 

We adopt a few different approaches. We send a small brochure 3 times a year to most schools in the country. We also send a weekly e-mail with special offers on and also call potential customers for a chat to try and win the customer over for a chance to quote. We also get a lot of our new customers coming to us because they have been recommended by an existing customer.

 

Do any of the above options annoy you and which would you say is best for us to avoid?

 

Your comments would be appreciated.

 

Regards

 

 

Dan Whittaker

SCL Online

[mrforgetful]

Not by posting on a Forum?

 

Actually I'll be more helpful.

 

If a supplier contact me I'm immediately not interested. I'll not now ever go to the link in your signature.

 

If I need that's completely new and different or something I'll look for it on Google etc.

 

If it's something similar to what I've had before I'll go to my regular suppliers first, I know they'll be cheap for me and are nearly all local with fast delivery times.

 

I'm not bothered about saving the odd couple of pounds searching or trying anywhere when I'm satisfied with the prices and service I already receive. It's just not worth the effort when I already have trusted cheap people anyway.

[Netman]

Cold calls always seem to interupt me at a bad time so not usually a good idea from my point of view... email or letter is always fair enough as long as there is an unsubscribe facility....

The problem being that most suppliers seems to think they offer the best price/service but in reality the prices are usually very similar and if you have had no issues with your current suppliers then what reason is there to change and/or try another one?

The only time I use a new supplier is if they are extremely competitive on price or they have stock I can't get from my usual places... both of which hardly ever happen.

[Netman]

Not my posting on a Forum?

I disagree - I think it's a valid place and a good question to ask.... if more suppliers did this sort of research into thier potential customer base they'd get more respect from me....

[plexer]

I'm quite open to using other suplpiers however ones that ring me every week really annoy me especially if I've asked them not too.

 

Email is good so I can read it and reply to it when I want.

 

If a supplier contact me I'm immediately not interested. I'll not now ever go to the link in your signature.

 

You could say that he didn't contact you directly and you didn't have to read the post so I think your comment was a bit harsh.

 

Ben

[Vegas]

Get a box at Man Utd and then give me an invite a couple of time a year and I may do business with you!

[Elky]

Thanks guys, your comments are useful. We aren't in the business of trying to annoy people so forgive me if you aren't happy with my post. We just want to gauge the best way to win new business without annoying people like yourselves.

 

All comments and suggestions are always welcome

 

Regards

 

Dan

[Elky]

Get a box at Man Utd and then give me an invite a couple of time a year and I may do business with you!

 

Will a seat in the Milton End at Fratton Park do? 8O

 

ps. We have your boys at the weekend. I hope I am on here on Monday to gloat.

[plexer]

Evesham supposedly have a box or something at Rockingham.

 

Ben

[Netman]

I'm holding out for tickets to the US Masters at Augusta...

[webman]

Don't call school's asking for the "IT people", "IT manager" or "IT purchaser" - we turn these down immediately and our receptionist helps with this. Send us information via fax or post and we'll look at it.

 

We also get asked a lot if we have any big projects in the near future where we're likely to spend money. This answer is always no - if and when we do, we will research options ourselves - sometimes ones that are sent via fax or post

[MkII]

Makes me wanna puke to be honest - your question and your sig - in fact I think that's a cheap way to tout for business.

[bossman]

I have to say mark that i find your tone towards outside manafacturers and suppliers seems a little to be desired, i know that these people who annoy us at times can be a preverbial but I have to admire the mans tack he has approached our profession the best way he can and that is to ask us. I think you probably owe the young man an apology for your seemingly lack of courtesy, what do you say mark?

[Sylv3r]

I always prefer to find my own companies myself in the past as generally the day to day sales pitches are no better then companies I reguarly use. As has already been said, the pushier the sales caller is the less likely I am to use them even with the offer of super duper high specification everlasting free toners.

 

If I am in need for something and my regular supplier is unable to source it I would rather do the research and find a company that can. In my opinion theres too many shoddy companies out there who I understand they are just earning a living but at the end of the day they are cheating themselves as its their taxes that are going on either a bad service or overly priced equipment.

[bossman]

Sylv3r: I fully agree with what you say and there are shoddy companies out there but to treat someone with a lack of professional respect shows us that we are no better than them.

Are we ourselves not above this kind of treatment to other people?, are we not intelligent enough to winkle out the good from the bad and then use the good suppliers. In this way the pushy underhand suppliers get a raw deal but i thought that Dan Whittaker came across as polite in his manner so should we not afford him the same courtesy?

[pete]

We have existing business relationships with a small selection of suppliers who are reliable, cost-effective and deliver on time. Until they foul something up badly, or we need something they can't provide I don't go looking.

 

New suppliers are chosen based upon recommendations from people I know and trust. While your (correctly targetted and succinct) sales literature may make me aware of you as a contender, it (and you) will not be a major deciding factor.

 

Don't chase me. Ever. Don't make follow-up calls. If I'm interested or want further info, I will contact you.

 

NEVER chase the headmaster if I'm not available - you will lose all future and any current sales.

 

I am never not busy.

 

If I say I'm busy, don't stay on the phone for long.

 

If I say why I'm busy, it generally means that if you had any clue, you would realise now is a Bad Time and apologise and hand up immediately

[GrumbleDook]

First of 2 posts from me tonight on this matter ... first is a personal comment ... later there will be a general comment about good practice for suppliers on the forums.

 

Personally I like to have a list of suppliers ... I rarely turn a contact down. There comes a health warning with this. It is a buyers' market and I pick and choose who I ask. If I say call me back in 4 months that does not mean call me back in a month and double check.

 

For major projects I will tend to go directly to manufacturers and ask them for their preferred reseller in my area. This is my usual approach for HP / Toshiba / etc ...

 

The comment that goes with this is usually that I explain the the Edu team of a company that I don't care who we go with as long as it is the best deal at the time and should we find that we are being stitched we will not only fail to use that reseller in future we will disregard the manufacturer for all projects for one year. This has been very successful.

 

With minor purchases (printers, scanner, cameras, etc) I create a shopping list and send that to 5 suppliers and ask for prices ... I usually go with the lowest overall unless there are a few high cost items that vary in price widely.

 

For onsumables we do the same ... we purchase very term in bulk and we sometimes split them toner and ink but more often than not they are combined.

 

We only accept the first price offered. If a company lowers their prices to get the business and then puts them up next time round they lose ... but we win.

 

If a supplier contats me I will ask for their details and then say whether we have anything on the go ... and when to ring back.

 

They only speak to one of 3 people ... they may speak to me, but that is increasingly rare ... they may speak to my NM ... because I am lazy and make im do the work ... or they may speak to the website manager as she is kind enough to do chunks of the paperwork for our orders. If they try and approach the Head he will pass them on. If they keep contacting him then he tells them to bugger off as he has no purchasing power on the IT budget :-D That is the remit of my and the Business Manager. If he hears of a good deal from another school or a flyer he will always pass them on and leave it to us to decide.

 

We do have a few preferred companies ... but these are usually from tenders we have put out. We do this every year for the desktops and laptops ... we did a big one for the network infrastructure 18 months ago. This does not mean we are tied in, and if prices go up we shop around ...

 

The whole emphasis is that we are happy to have people contact us, but not hassle. We are happy to work long term but not when it is abused. Most of all we are happy when companies try not to tell us that we are not doing it right or that they can sort *all* our problems when they have not even set foot in the school.

 

There are a few companies I will not touch due to very bad experiences of myself, other staff on the team or NMs I know and trust. These are very few and I tend not to publically mention them as just because I have had bad experiences it does not mean everyone will.

 

I like helpful companies that will research things for you ... you say that you want to do x, y & z ... and you want product a to do it ... I like companies that give me the details of product a, but also suggest product b ... as long as they give us product a as well ... to make comparisons and make up our own mind.

 

I don't like bribes ... I don't like hidden charges (delivery etc) ... I don't like being told that a 7 day quote is really valid for 30 days ... only to find it isn't.

 

And most of all ... I don't like suppliers that use the school name without our consent to try to sell to other schools.

[Elky]

Many thanks for all of your replies so far, they are very helpful. For those that arent happy with my topic or posts, I apologise. We are looking in to ways to advertise on this site but I see at the moment, the advertising module isnt quite ready. Once this is available, we will look in to paying EduGeek to advertise on this site.

 

I hope you don't think this topic is a cheeky way to get your attention and to try and draw you to our website - it is not. It's just a genuine attempt to find out the best way for us to go about our marketing and trying to bring in new business. I will remove the logo and the web address from my profile and hope this topic can be continued as your views are very useful.

 

Thanks again

 

Dan Whittaker

[john]

I echo a few of the responces here, I don't mind getting prices for inks etc as its useful for various reasons already mentioned such as price comparison, alternatives. Offers can interest me, but none of these so called super lasting Toners and inks etc, they don't interest me. Genuine Real Free Samples of Inks and Toners are good, I don't mind them, and are good especially with inks and colour toners, I am always honest to the supplier if they are willing to give me a couple of colour inks or a set of colour toners I will be honest on the quality, output, page count etc and if the are good and the price is right for future ones then they will get the business but I am not always up for changing from my regular brand because yours are 8p cheaper, as I have been here before.

 

As has been said, when I say I am really rather busy, please get off the phone as quick as possible. I am probably sure that if I can hear on the phone the phones rinigng in your offices and people talking you have half a chance of hearing the other phones in my office rining, and the hammering on the door of children / staff needing attention and when you detect I am trying to multi-conversation with a student or colleague whilst on the phone to you hurry up with your paper shuffling etc as it means time is ticking on.

 

Anyway thats my instant thoughts. I will no doubt think of more later but that will do me for now.

[Elky]

It sounds like a lot of companies out there are selling consumables - remind me not to join this market, haha!

[john]

Its a huge thing, many firms ring up with that, even when its a side line for them when really they want to sell me some Dat tapes, hardware etc....

[GrumbleDook]

And here is the second post of the evening.

 

There has been a recent increase in the number of suppliers joining EduGeek and whilst this is a positive thing there are a few areas that need commenting on. We do have a number of requests for form 'partnerships' and we are waiting for Sir Alan to come along and offer to buy the site as a going concern for a cool £1m (only kidding) but until then we would like to pass on this message that we are atarting to send to suppliers who would like to do more within the forums.

 

"Thank you for your contact. It is good to hear that EduGeek.net is being mentioned more and more (hopefully in a nice way, but we know we can't please everyone). We are very keen to work with suppliers and as part of this EduGeek.net staff are working on an advertising module for the site. This has had a few delays recently and we hope to get it up and running shortly. Innitially we are asking suppliers that are interested to use this as a method of advertising within EduGeek.net. The contact details for this are [email protected].

 

Other methods of raising the profile of your company include having a few of your key staff become members and take part in discussions, offering snippets of advice, help and ideas ... the good point on this is that you can include company details within a reasonably sized signature. If people like what you say they will contact you.

 

We would say that there are a number of caveats with this method. We do ask those suppliers that take part to limit their answers to generic solutions rather than, "give us a call as we can sell you this kit or you can pay us to set it up." As with most other groups of people we prefer recommendations from other network managers and technicians. This usually takes the form of, "we did this by doing x, y &z and had help from company A to do it ... if you are interested here are their details." This important thing is giving advice how to complete a task (or a taster of it).

 

We are keen to give plenty of opportunities to suppliers to raise their profile with EduGeek members and one method is sponsoring or assisting at regional EduGeek.net events. We are looking for partners to assist on the Technical Help Point at BETT 2007 and this may be an opportunity for not only EduGeek members but other schools to become aware of your company.

 

If you are interested in assisting at BETT or advertising in general please let feel free to let the Site Admins know.

 

If you would like to have more of an informal chat please feel free to drop one of the Site Admins a PM."

 

I hope this clarifies a few points and helps prevented discussions getting too heated on the forum, but we want to promote a positive atmosphere on the site.

[Sylv3r]

i thought that Dan Whittaker came across as polite in his manner so should we not afford him the same courtesy?

 

bossman, you must of read my message wrongly. :?

 

In no way was my post having a go at what Dan posted, infact I agree that he did the right thing as a company to gauge exactly how people in our postition feel about the number of phone calls we receive in a week. My post was generally intended to have a go at the companies that are not interested in hearing the views of the customer or having the customers interest at the forefront of a discussion but those that are happy to line their pockets with money that is available in education. More so these last couple of years then ever the number of cold callers has increased due to more money being made available in education for ICT.

[MkII]

I hope you don't think this topic is a cheeky way to get your attention and to try and draw you to our website - it is not. It's just a genuine attempt to find out the best way for us to go about our marketing and trying to bring in new business. I will remove the logo and the web address from my profile and hope this topic can be continued as your views are very useful.

 

Dan

 

Now I feel I can take your question seriously Dan. Thanks for updating your profile. It did feel like you were slightly overstepping the mark. Whilst I welcome suppliers etc onto the forums, this thread treads the line IMO.

 

Sales is a funny business isn't it. I've always regarded the proffession as somewhere below a snakes belly in the general order of things - just so's you know where i'm coming from.

 

Seems it's an in-built weakness, to get philosophical, as children we're stimulated by adult encouragement to sway our likes, must be for some natural defense mechanism, then the sales profession seems to feed off that.

 

Personally, i'm always swayed by what seems to be an honest aproach. Any whiff of BS - and I recon I have a good nose for it - and I'm either outta there or taking the P badly. Not to say I don't build up a good relationship with some sales ppl., just it's all part of the game innit??

 

How about starting another thread on sales techniques and how best to avoid the obvious pitfalls. You employ any tactic possible to get as much cash out of us as you can - that's the nature of your job.

 

Oh yeah. What I always want from any technical sales rep is sound technical knowledge. Those ppl seem few and far between, and a gift if you find one. I want YOU to tell ME what the best deals are at any given time, not ME do all the legwork for you. That's sadly all too often the case.

[webman]

Sylv3r, I don't think Bossman's comment was aimed at you.