Comments on: 3 Bars | 3 Questions: SoftLayer Sales http://blog.softlayer.com/2011/3-bars-3-questions-softlayer-sales/ A Behind the Scenes Look at the Best Hosting Provider in the World Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:20:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Kevin Hazard http://blog.softlayer.com/2011/3-bars-3-questions-softlayer-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-18473 Kevin Hazard Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:55:48 +0000 http://blog.softlayer.com/2011/#comment-18473 The "Good Customer" dilemma is a nice problem to have, and the sales department is set up to help you when you have questions like this. When you have a chance, open a ticket on your account requesting that our sales department adjust your pricing to be more in line with the current rates on your server. To enable our customers to take advantage of the newest technologies and the best deals available, every server on the SoftLayer platform is on a month-to-month contract, and you're not locked into one rate or server (any more than the work it takes to migrate to a new server, at least). The sales rep responding to your ticket may have a little more insight into what factors play into the price adjustment process, but given the fact that you're a "Good Customer" with a long history with SoftLayer, we'll generally be able to work something out quickly. If that ticket isn't handled the way you expect in our system, please let me know and I'll get it in front of the right people here to be sure we're handling the "Good Customer" dilemma the right way: khazard@softlayer.com The “Good Customer” dilemma is a nice problem to have, and the sales department is set up to help you when you have questions like this. When you have a chance, open a ticket on your account requesting that our sales department adjust your pricing to be more in line with the current rates on your server.

To enable our customers to take advantage of the newest technologies and the best deals available, every server on the SoftLayer platform is on a month-to-month contract, and you’re not locked into one rate or server (any more than the work it takes to migrate to a new server, at least). The sales rep responding to your ticket may have a little more insight into what factors play into the price adjustment process, but given the fact that you’re a “Good Customer” with a long history with SoftLayer, we’ll generally be able to work something out quickly.

If that ticket isn’t handled the way you expect in our system, please let me know and I’ll get it in front of the right people here to be sure we’re handling the “Good Customer” dilemma the right way: khazard@softlayer.com

]]> By: Charles http://blog.softlayer.com/2011/3-bars-3-questions-softlayer-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-18399 Charles Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:54:48 +0000 http://blog.softlayer.com/2011/#comment-18399 This is all well and good, but I'd love to see your thoughts about how to deal with a common sales problem - "The Good Customer". I'm one of those. I've been with SL for a bit over two years. I pay a premium for RAID and a few other options on my hardware, I pay on-time or for a year in advance, I don't use your support, and I use less than 10% of my alloted bandwidth. I am a high profit customer that brings in money without hassle. I am worth more than the average customer that you "pay" to acquire. At this point, I'm all profit for you - hardware's paid, bandwidth usage is hard to even measure. But the "Good Customer" dilemma is this - I "bought" this server more than 2 years ago, and at that time, in that market, $250/month for what was a decent piece of hardware was an OK deal. Now I'm reviewing expenses and that $250 isn't so good. I can go to the SL homepage, look at the specials and find something for $179 that offers more CPU horsepower, more RAM, and of course, for reliability concerns, hardware with less hours on it. Now any random Joe can order this. He may be a good customer or he may be a pain in your ass. You don't know. You may have even had to pay to acquire him. He is an unknown quantity with no previous business relationship with you. He may not pay his bills. He might be a spammer. He might use all the bandwidth his plan allows. You don't know... You do however know me, but I can't have the $179 deal. That sir, is the "Good Customer" problem. This is all well and good, but I’d love to see your thoughts about how to deal with a common sales problem – “The Good Customer”. I’m one of those. I’ve been with SL for a bit over two years. I pay a premium for RAID and a few other options on my hardware, I pay on-time or for a year in advance, I don’t use your support, and I use less than 10% of my alloted bandwidth. I am a high profit customer that brings in money without hassle. I am worth more than the average customer that you “pay” to acquire. At this point, I’m all profit for you – hardware’s paid, bandwidth usage is hard to even measure.

But the “Good Customer” dilemma is this – I “bought” this server more than 2 years ago, and at that time, in that market, $250/month for what was a decent piece of hardware was an OK deal.

Now I’m reviewing expenses and that $250 isn’t so good. I can go to the SL homepage, look at the specials and find something for $179 that offers more CPU horsepower, more RAM, and of course, for reliability concerns, hardware with less hours on it.

Now any random Joe can order this. He may be a good customer or he may be a pain in your ass. You don’t know. You may have even had to pay to acquire him. He is an unknown quantity with no previous business relationship with you. He may not pay his bills. He might be a spammer. He might use all the bandwidth his plan allows. You don’t know…

You do however know me, but I can’t have the $179 deal.

That sir, is the “Good Customer” problem.

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