Where's My Big Piece of Chicken?

Ah the sale. Man I miss that sometimes. The chase, perceptions destroyed and new ones created. Today was fun, I went to an Inventor customer today and went old school freestyle. I didn't have anything planned to show them, just wanted to listen. Grandpa always likes to remind me that we have two ears, two eyes and one mouth; use proportionally. 

So that's just what I did - sales call without the sales guy (sales guy set it up, give him props there) those trips are easy. Our sales guys kick ass, I'm not trying to say anything but to point out how sometimes customers really seem to loosen up when the guy getting the commission check isn't in the room. It's a sense from the customer that we don't have an alternative motive, just there to listen, learn, and make suggestions. When you have a number tied to you, no matter your intentions - that perception is there and props to our sales guys for working through that and proving that we genuinely care about the success of our customers. Ok, CYA part of blog done. Sales is king, nobody pisses off the king... [grin] 

This customer was interested in having a peek at Inventor Publisher. Same story as any other manufacturer, tech pubs is always behind. They used digital pictures pasted into a Word document for assembly and packaging instructions. Needless to say, a physical prototype has to exist before you can photograph something. Engineering was done with the model weeks ago, yet no tech pubs..? To quote the parlance of our times: "Prez is all WTF, yo why u trippin' " The Big Lebowski is one of the best movies ever, I will not debate you on that. Very un-dude of me, right? 

Another example they gave me was the change order process, the epitome of a catch 22. Tech pubs has to sign off on the ECO, yet they can't update the tech pubs without the new physical prototype, shop can't build the prototype until the ECO is signed off by tech pubs... Sound familiar to any of you? Yep, you the one that's laughing. And you thought you were the only ones. 

So alright, clearly these guys needed Inventor Publisher. But why show them my guitar hero set or my race car disc brake? Nah, they have Inventor, throw something on a memory stick for me while I setup the projector. "Really?" the customer seemed a little surprised. Why not... No sales guy in here right now, nobody to have a heart attack for jumping without a net, so what the H. E. double hockey sticks. 

And of course, dude brings me a big 'ol honkin' dataset. Not huge, but bigger than anything I've loaded into Publisher. Side note: I have never actually demonstrated Publisher on a customer call before today. (sales guy reading this is now breathing into a brown paper bag) But here's the deal. If you know how to work a mouse and you have any semblance of a tech pub creation or design background, you can use Publisher. I whipped up a couple of snapshops, changed backgrounds, added callouts, then the big one... Auto-Explode! This is the point where Evil Knevil is standing in front of the jump... He knows he "can" do it, but will he succeed? Because if not, he's gonna feel it in the morning, right? This was a completely untested never do this in a demo dataset that I had never seen, on a first version software app. A little inside scoop - that's a big no no in the software biz people. (sales guy reading this has passed out) 

Sure as schnapps the whole thing exploded. Took a minute or two, but that's when I heard it: "Ha! Cut that man a check!". Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner! I then commenced to dazzle them by animating the re-assembly as well as opening and closing the door, ghosting out parts so you could see them and see the working parts behind the sheet metal. Money. All this happened in a span of 35 minutes or so, explanation of problem to solution. I spent the rest of the trip on a plant tour, chomping on a cup full of never touched by humans ice pellets straight out of one of their machines. Anyone else grossed out by fast food kid carrying the bucket of ice to the soda dispenser? None of that with these guys! Man that ice is the shizzle. 

-Rob 

P.S. Thanks sales guys for letting me (even though I didn't ask...) To let you be the butt of my poorly written jokes. You can buy next time... every time, anytime.

 

Comments

[SR]

You read as well as you demo. Freestyle is the only way to demo. If it is planned out too completely it looks too staged. A good a/e with mouse in hand is a very powerful force.

BTW Did the ice taste like chicken?

[Rob Cohee]

"I read as well as I demo..?" Hmmm, can't tell if that is a compliment or a jab. [grin]

No, the ice tasted like frozen Evian, it was glorious.