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We sell quite a few software packages to schools and governments. These are places with purchasing departments, layers of bureaucracy, and inflexible rules regarding vendors.
Things we have to do for this sort of customer that we don't have to do for others are:
-send written and signed quotations, verbal doesn't work
-accept purchase orders
-sign a contract that we will deliver the goods as specified
-explain that we are NOT the sole source and cannot certify ourselves as such
-give names of two resellers so they can solicit the minimum number of bids for other sources
-fill out tax ID forms
-fill out forms certifying whether we employ and/or are owned by minorities/women/disabled folks/etc.
-fill out forms to get onto the agency/school vendor list.
All this is a pain in the neck, but arguing about the rules with a purchasing agent who is far removed from those who make the rules is much harder. So we comply.
Up to a point.
I have a theory that making us vendors jump through so many hoops to get a sale has warped reality for some of these government agencies. They are letting it get to their head that we'll do ANYTHING for a sale.
Not quite.
First one state tried to make us sign a contract making a warranty according to THEIR terms or they didn't have to pay. Our software did not and could not meet those terms. Thus, we wisely refused to sign anything guaranteeing that it would.
They wanted it anyway and found a way to buy it without their warranty.
But the best of all came when another state wanted to place an order. They called and mentioned they couldn't generate a PO until we were on their "approved vendor list." We had sold to them before, so we were confused a bit.
The caller explained that they were creating a new list from scratch; would we mind filling out the forms again?
We did mind, but we said we didn't and gave the caller our fax number to send the forms.
We got the forms off the fax machine. They were pretty standard until we got to the final page.
This particular state realized that somebody needs to PAY for all the people who spend time faxing, reading and filing all these vendor approval forms and who better than the vendors?
In order to get on the approved vendor list for that state, we were expected to pay a $300 processing fee.
After we stopped laughing, we informed them that we weren't going to pay money to get on the list of approved vendors; perhaps there was another way? They insisted they couldn't buy from us otherwise.
We gave them sincere regrets that we couldn't do business with them any more.
Their reaction of shocked suprise was quite amusing.*
We do understand that having customers is our lifeblood and we treat them as such, but do they seriously expect us to PAY THEM to grace us with their presence?
*Note: To be nice, we did let them know the names a few resellers in their state who might be on the approved vendor list.
Things we have to do for this sort of customer that we don't have to do for others are:
-send written and signed quotations, verbal doesn't work
-accept purchase orders
-sign a contract that we will deliver the goods as specified
-explain that we are NOT the sole source and cannot certify ourselves as such
-give names of two resellers so they can solicit the minimum number of bids for other sources
-fill out tax ID forms
-fill out forms certifying whether we employ and/or are owned by minorities/women/disabled folks/etc.
-fill out forms to get onto the agency/school vendor list.
All this is a pain in the neck, but arguing about the rules with a purchasing agent who is far removed from those who make the rules is much harder. So we comply.
Up to a point.
I have a theory that making us vendors jump through so many hoops to get a sale has warped reality for some of these government agencies. They are letting it get to their head that we'll do ANYTHING for a sale.
Not quite.
First one state tried to make us sign a contract making a warranty according to THEIR terms or they didn't have to pay. Our software did not and could not meet those terms. Thus, we wisely refused to sign anything guaranteeing that it would.
They wanted it anyway and found a way to buy it without their warranty.
But the best of all came when another state wanted to place an order. They called and mentioned they couldn't generate a PO until we were on their "approved vendor list." We had sold to them before, so we were confused a bit.
The caller explained that they were creating a new list from scratch; would we mind filling out the forms again?
We did mind, but we said we didn't and gave the caller our fax number to send the forms.
We got the forms off the fax machine. They were pretty standard until we got to the final page.
This particular state realized that somebody needs to PAY for all the people who spend time faxing, reading and filing all these vendor approval forms and who better than the vendors?
In order to get on the approved vendor list for that state, we were expected to pay a $300 processing fee.
After we stopped laughing, we informed them that we weren't going to pay money to get on the list of approved vendors; perhaps there was another way? They insisted they couldn't buy from us otherwise.
We gave them sincere regrets that we couldn't do business with them any more.
Their reaction of shocked suprise was quite amusing.*
We do understand that having customers is our lifeblood and we treat them as such, but do they seriously expect us to PAY THEM to grace us with their presence?
*Note: To be nice, we did let them know the names a few resellers in their state who might be on the approved vendor list.
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