Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!cbosgd!cbdkc1!gwe
From: gwe@cbdkc1.ATT.COM (George Erhart)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Salesmen and Manufacturer's responsibility.
Message-ID: <2606@cbdkc1.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Dec 87 12:47:52 GMT
References: <306@fairlight.oz> <2895@okstate.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwe@cbdkc1.UUCP ( George Erhart x4021 CB 3E373 CIN )
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 41

In article <2895@okstate.UUCP> ericc@a.cs.okstate.edu (Eric Cloninger) writes:
>This last spring and summer, I was a computer salesman at a mid-sized retail
>computer store (8 salesmen, 6 technical, 4 management people) dealing in Apple,
>IBM, and PC clones.  I would like to throw my $0.02 in regarding sales training

   ... text deleted ...

>What was worse was to see someone say they paid $1200 for a used Apple II+ 
>with a used Epson printer (or similar equipment) and now they needed help 
>using it.  From the store's viewpoint, they were on their own since they didn't

This type of rip off is common in the area of small business computer systems
too. I have a friend who is an independent consultant for small business
computer systems and he has told me some real horror stories. For example,
the owner of a small automotive parts rebuilding company (40 employees)
wanted to purchase a computer to replace their paper bookkeeping system.
The first person sold them an HP system for $80,000. It had ~4 terminals
and 40 Meg of disk ... and no software that fit their way of doing
business. After a while, they got disgusted with it and had it taken out.

After working through their needs, and understanding what they wanted
to do, he showed them a Mac with a tailor made set of spreadsheet
templates on top of EXCEL (or one of those spreadsheets). He was able
to teach them how to use it in a few hours. The final system was
4 mac+, 4 40 meg drives, 1 40 meg tape, 1 laserwriter, and TOPS for
network software. The total price was well under the original $80,000
and they have since learned to adapt and setup their own spreadsheet
and other software. The biggest plus in this story is that the Mac
was so easy to use, that they were instantly seeing uses for the machine
and software in their business. With the HP system, they could not
see how the software was going to help them. 

[ Note, my friend does recommend non-mac machines for cases that warrent
them. But he has found that for completely computer illiterate customers,
the Mac is the easiest to teach (train) people for, even if another
machine has a slightly more applicable software package. It is best
to get them hooked on how easy it is to use the computer without
frustrating them with software that is difficult to understand. ]
-- 
George Erhart at AT&T Bell Laboratories Columbus, Ohio 
614-860-4021 {ihnp4,cbosgd}!cbdkc1!gwe