1

You can only pick 3 things. Would love to hear what you say?

Ken

52 Spice ups
2
  1. No cold calls.
  2. No cold emails.
  3. Free stuff (lunch, swag, hugs)

EDIT: I wrote a thing about it if you wanted to read it.

28 Spice ups
3
  1. Available (call whenever and get a quick answer)
  2. Price (fair price and does not try to upsell/coldcall/etc)
  3. Needs to send goodies on Christmas and holidays
14 Spice ups
4
  1. They understand that I want to contact them first.
  2. Their information is easy to find without asking them for more.
  3. My rep is a real person, that is easy to communicate with.
17 Spice ups
5

  1. Availability. I don’t get a lot of lead time very often, so when I call or e-mail, I need a response and the order placed quickly.

  2. A good web interface so that I can check on previous orders/invoices, product lists, etc… when I see a discrepancy in my inventory or billing.

  3. Flexible and fair pricing on shipping. Most of the things we as IT purchase, we aren’t going to see massive pricing differences on hardware, but if my only option is UPS ground from Maine to Arizona and it’s a third of the price of the product I’m ordering, I’m not a happy camper.

3 Spice ups
6

In no particular order:

1- No cold calls/emails
2- Excellent communicatons (includes fast response, follow ups, little to no language barrier, etc)
3- Pricing

3 Spice ups
7
  1. Being respectful of the company’s needs.
  2. Offering services at a reasonable price.
  3. Know how to talk to technical and non-technical staff.
4 Spice ups
8

Swag, come on, you want me to like you.

9 Spice ups
9

1.BOGO

2.Partnership

  1. 24/7/365
2 Spice ups
10

1 Price

2 No Cold Calls

3 Human

1 Spice up
11
  1. No cold calls or emails (especially repeated ones, grrr)
  2. Good documentation and support (I like being able to easily find information on my own)
  3. Something that will give me warm fuzzies and make me think kind thoughts about you (one of our service vendors sent us a box of four different varieties of locally roasted coffee beans for Christmas, thanks United Mail!)
3 Spice ups
12

  1. Good Communication (be responsive and no bull sh!t)

  2. Give me the best price upfront

  3. Quick/cheap shipping (Midwest warehouse so ground shipping shows up next day)

I’d gladly pay more for these qualities.

5 Spice ups
13

  1. No cold calls

  2. Can actually remember my name (I alway thought Rob was a simple name…)

  3. Know when to turn on/off the salesman/woman voice

2 Spice ups
14

  1. Let me call you… I’m the one interested in the product. If I need it right then I will reach out to you, if I don’t please don’t keep calling me twice every day. I promise I haven’t forgotten about you.

  2. Pricing… I’m searching for the cheapest price I can. If I haven’t gotten back to you I have either: Found it cheaper, no longer need it as of right now, I was just browsing, we don’t have the budget as of right now, or it’s something we’ve got plans for later on.

  3. Finding a rep that’s not specifically there for a paycheck. I understand this is what you’re getting payed for, but the cold reading script you’re reciting is putting me to sleep. Please act a little interested… After all, this is my money that you’ll be receiving.

Free swag never hurts… :wink:

3 Spice ups
15

  1. Personable, they don’t bother me, dont waste my time, but when they do call/email I don’t want to bash my face in. Promo emails/calls are part of their job, don’t waste my time with tons of them every week when you know I am not purchasing.

  2. Good prices, not always the lowest but always competitive.

  3. Easy, easy to order, easy to return, easy to work with/get support when needed.

4 Spice ups
16
  1. Wanting to understand my specific needs, rather than throwing products at me.
  2. Competitive pricing
  3. Realizing that our company doesn’t make decisions in a day, so weekly follow-up calls are more a nuisance than helpful.
2 Spice ups
17

Is there an echo in here???

  1. No cold calls outside of “Hey, I know you mentioned you were going to do this project this year, just letting you know we’re running a deal on widgets until next week”

  2. Ability to take a semi-generic order and bring me options back.

  3. Vague understand of my budgetary limitations. If I say give me the cheapest computer you have with a Pro license I don’t mean a low-end EliteDesk…I mean you’re not sure if this is stolen or not and it’s got a bunch of spreadsheets on it for meth lab equipment cheap.

Had one vendor woman who would cold call and I’d say cordially how nope, don’t need anything, I don’t care how you can get me a free Meraki endpoint, my time is more valuable. Then she’d proceed to tell me how awesome of a salesperson she is and how much business she does with non profits. Nope.

Had a very good relationship with a vendor at PCConnection but, alas, he left. His replacement is solid, but you never forget your first vendor love…sent me a big swag bag of random loot and home made cookies at Christmas last year.

5 Spice ups
18

No repeat calls. Had one, said the right things that at the end of the Cold-call, I was actually interested - prices seemed good, but we don’t buy every day and I explained we had exhausted our budget for the quarter… Next week, another call. I nicely said same thing, I will quote with you the next time we buy something, but it’s going to be a couple months… Next week ANOTHER call - I ignored it, so he emailed me twice within an hour, “So, do you need anything, can I quote you on something???”

I had to send a nasty email to get him to stop. I really am not sure if I want to do business with him now, I don’t want to get back on his call list.

But Booze. Booze makes all problems go away :slight_smile:

2 Spice ups
19

  1. Actually listen to what I’m wanting to buy. I’ve had several calls with vendors then they turn around and either give me a quote for a product that is way over the price point that I have given them, has extra features that I don’t want or need, or they come back with a product that will not work for what I was needing.

  2. Price. I have to budget about the same every year. It really doesn’t work for me when a piece of software I bought last year rockets up exponentially and I have to bargain again to get it back where it was the year before.

  3. Notification when we receive a new rep. I have a couple of vendors that are good at this and some that aren’t. Some as soon as a rep is preparing to leave will reach out and let us know we have a new one. Other companies I never no we have a new rep until i try to put in an order. Usually in these cases I get bounced around until they figure out who should be handling our account.

1 Spice up
20

There’s only one reason why I like a vendor. They don’t contact me. I contact them if I need something.

2 Spice ups