What Ted said
By Linda King, G2G3
I was very recently called up by an over-eager sales professional (lets call him Ted to protect his real identity) who had made his goal in life (or for those 10 minutes anyway) persuading me to sign G2G3 up to participate in a brand new Service Management Virtual exhibition.
I have to admit, it did sound interesting to start with - his reasoning was sound, citing the economic climate, vendors attending less events due cost restrictions, travel bans etc. Oh - and itSMF were apparently supporting this event. And then he told me the cost. This completely unknown virtual event would cost us 8 times more than the largest face-to-face event in the year that we attend!
My shock was apparent - and his surprise at my shock even more so. I suggested this was too expensive for a small vendor like us, and asked him if there was a tiered costing system - as we certainly don't have the large marketing budget that many of the bigger vendors do. "No Madam (blood boiling by this point, I hate being called Madam), this unique event will create a level playing field for all vendors". Meaning the big vendors would pay exactly the same as us little ones. How ridiculous. We're not on a level playing field, so why make the smaller vendors pay the price? And thanks to policies like these, some virtual events may be over-representing the major vendors and not giving the smaller vendors an opportunity to showcase at all.
Ted then proceeded to give me an impromptu IT service management lecture, throwing lines at me such as "Do you appreciate the importance of IT service management in this economic climate Madam? (ggrrr)". Ok, I'm a Marketeer, but I'm also an ISO 20000 consultant with many years experience in this industry - so please don't insult me. He then put the icing on the cake with a short marketing lecture which included "Oh come on, you have to speculate to accumulate".
I'd like to say I was speechless, but I managed to find the right words.
So we won't be at that virtual event. And I don't think Ted will be calling me back in the near future....
I was very recently called up by an over-eager sales professional (lets call him Ted to protect his real identity) who had made his goal in life (or for those 10 minutes anyway) persuading me to sign G2G3 up to participate in a brand new Service Management Virtual exhibition.
I have to admit, it did sound interesting to start with - his reasoning was sound, citing the economic climate, vendors attending less events due cost restrictions, travel bans etc. Oh - and itSMF were apparently supporting this event. And then he told me the cost. This completely unknown virtual event would cost us 8 times more than the largest face-to-face event in the year that we attend!
My shock was apparent - and his surprise at my shock even more so. I suggested this was too expensive for a small vendor like us, and asked him if there was a tiered costing system - as we certainly don't have the large marketing budget that many of the bigger vendors do. "No Madam (blood boiling by this point, I hate being called Madam), this unique event will create a level playing field for all vendors". Meaning the big vendors would pay exactly the same as us little ones. How ridiculous. We're not on a level playing field, so why make the smaller vendors pay the price? And thanks to policies like these, some virtual events may be over-representing the major vendors and not giving the smaller vendors an opportunity to showcase at all.
Ted then proceeded to give me an impromptu IT service management lecture, throwing lines at me such as "Do you appreciate the importance of IT service management in this economic climate Madam? (ggrrr)". Ok, I'm a Marketeer, but I'm also an ISO 20000 consultant with many years experience in this industry - so please don't insult me. He then put the icing on the cake with a short marketing lecture which included "Oh come on, you have to speculate to accumulate".
I'd like to say I was speechless, but I managed to find the right words.
So we won't be at that virtual event. And I don't think Ted will be calling me back in the near future....
posted by G2G3 Blog at
14:10
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