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We’re at the end of our process for choosing a vendor to bring in their security product into our environment. Throughout the process, one vendor has been much more aggressive in terms of trying to sell the product, make sure we have everything we need, etc. which is great but it has gotten to the point where it’s overwhelming/smothering at times. I’m at the point where I want to tell them to get lost, simply because I don’t like the brash, cocky attitudes of a few of their people.

So, I’m looking to see how everyone else handles situations like these? My gut tells me to tell them “We’ll contact you when we’ve made a decision so please leave me alone” - nicely of course.

Thoughts or guidance?

10 Spice ups
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What you need to keep in mind is you are going to start a long term relationship with this vendor.
If they are aggressive now what are they going to be like once they have got you in a contract.

The value in a product can so very easly destroyed by the vendor.
remember that.

if your not 100% happy walk away.

i also tend to link over aggressive sales people with a lack of faith in their product.

10 Spice ups
3

Just be blunt, state what you want.

Could you stop doing … please?

Yes remain nice and professional but as the buyer, if they are making you annoyed/uncomfortable/overwhelmed, tell them your wishes, if they ignore the instruction, drop them as a vendor. They might just have an over-eager rep who is desperately trying to close his first sale.

How the rep responds to your request, decides where the relationship goes from there.

Just remember that the product needs to be supported, from buying upgrades/renewals to dealing with their support team when it goes wrong, so treat this as a sign of what is to come down the line.

3 Spice ups
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Realize that you are dealing mostly with sales people who will do or say just about anything to get your business. Assess every product to see if it indeed meets your needs and select the product you feel most comfortable with.

As far as the pushy sales team, tell then to back off. Take control of the situation, it’s not like they are going to fire you. You hold ALL the cards here so play them.

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5

Transfer to voicemail. Personally, I’m always a little leery of real aggressive sales tactics. If you have a good product, you don’t have to be aggressive. I’ve been in sales, on and off, for twenty five years.

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I can answer that. You’ll never hear from them again. If they’re all about the sale, my experience has been that they have nothing in support to back it up.

11 Spice ups
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I will normally tell them to back off, that we are evaluating and that if we need anything, we’ll be in touch.

If they don’t get the hint then they get dropped.

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8

“Don’t call me, I’ll call you…sales monkey”

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Let them know they’re smothering you, and if they don’t stop they’ll lose the sale. If they don’t learn their lesson, escalate the issue or walk away. It’s not going to get better by ignoring the problem.

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I was talking to a guy that that works for a relatively new player in the local ISP market. They are pulling fiber as fast as they can and migrating people off of broadband. Love, LOVE, the competition (hey Charter, next time I have a problem how about you take me seriously?). Anyway, he used to work for a telecommunications company based out of Wisconsin that I can’t stand. In fact, I hate them so much I didn’t even want to talk to this guy because he used to work there. But, I was interested in the fiber so have forged a relationship with him and the company. I was chatting with him about the slime he used to work for and he told me he was forbidden to talk to a client after the contract had been signed. Forbidden. Oh, and those contracts? Forged in steel, and auto-renewing.

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Unless your CFO listens to you and puts a rider on the contract that it is month to month after some date, which eliminates $8K in ETF’s when you switch your landlines to fiber…heheheh…took them 4 MONTHS to suck it up and capitulate, hope it gave them gas.

OP - tell the sales rep you want a new one who won’t bug you, you’re not immediately excluding a possible vendor but you are giving them notice their behavior is inappropriate.

2 Spice ups
12

Thanks everyone - really great responses and advice.

It’s obvious to me that I need get firm, yet stay professional. No magic to that but it’s great to hear how everyone would handle it.

Keep the replies coming!

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Sales probably won’t give a shit once you’re purchased, the real test is how responsive support are if you have any issues.

I always try to manufacture an incident when trialling something so I can see how their support does respond.

I’d love to say “go away” with a few vendors with pushy sales folks, but sometimes the product is good enough to put up with it, but if they’re getting irritating I wouldn’t hesitate to politely tell them to back off.

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Wasn’t I supposed to be stalking you ?

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We had that once when we were looking at document imaging software. The sales guy for the company that we use as our back end was so cokey, he flat out told us that it doesn’t matter whom we use, we still have to buy a 2k module for it to work with their software, so they will still get our money.

When we didn’t go with them, and they asked why, we flat out told them we didn’t like your sales guy. Don’t think he works for them anymore.

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Ten foot barge pole for that kind of sales tactic.

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Try not to burn bridges with anyone as you may run into them at another organization down the road…

I’d be up front- say you are looking at other options and you will get back to them if and when their solution is being considered in the future.

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18

I had a situation like that when I was looking into Sophos UTM. The guy irritated me so bad, I told them we went with another product. Then he followed up and told me that he was “sorry he didn’t have the opportunity to fully put their hat in the ring”

We gave them the same amount of time as all of the other vendors, asked the same questions, but a few of the times that they made their daily harassment, I mean follow-up, calls, I was unavailable and unwilling to speak with them.

I then sent the “apology” letter to the supervisor listed in the signature with a note about how that level of arrogance and condescension was the reason I wouldn’t be looking at that company for anything in the near future.

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You are the one in the driver seat. Politely tell them - I have the information I need to make a decision, I will let you know once we are done evaluating all the options. Remember as mountainbiker said you may need to deal with these folks down the road. And also salespeople are not always what the corporate culture is like. They are representatives but you will probably deal with other personnel.

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If you’re not working well with him now chances are you never will. Cut the cord on this one.

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