This continues my periodic series of things sales folks say during pitches. Earlier ones are here and here.
a) "You are trying to commoditize us" - a common statement during negotiations. Excuse me, most of corporate America makes 10 to 30% gross margins. Even the offshore vendors are close to 50% gross margin and the bigger software companies all make 70% plus. If there was a Wal-Mart like channel, tech vendors would understand what commodity pricing meant
b) "We want to be a partner, not a vendor". OK, in that case we want a board seat and some equity....
c) "Gartner (or Forrester) puts us in the top right of their magic quadrant". Gartner has many, many quadrants and they change at least twice a year. In a recent deal, three SIs had different quadrants in which they were magically all in the top right quadrant...
More to come...
