Skip to main content

The Salesman End Run Around IT

In my 15 years as CIO, I've experienced a gamut of sales techniques - the "end of quarter deal never to be repeated", the "we're your partner and you always get our best price", and the selling of products that don't yet exist.

However, today I experienced one of the most reprehensible - The Salesman End Run Around IT.

Don't like the answer IT is giving you?  Go to the CFO and try to convince financial leadership that IT leadership is squandering budgets.

Here's the redacted email that the salesman sent the CFO.

"From: Storage Sales Specialist at a large company
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 9:00 AM
To:  BIDMC Chief Financial Officer
Subject: Lower Storage Costs

I am the Storage Sales rep for the Caregroup hospitals.  We have been working with healthcare organizations that are typically XXX shops and saving them $500,000+ in storage cost and associated resources. We will guarantee that we migrate your current environment to 50% or less storage.  The industry leading analyst group Gartner has named our storage as the leader.

Why am I reaching out to you?  I met with IT a few weeks ago and they told me they didn’t have the time or the resources to evaluate new technology and they were happy with XXX.  I know healthcare organization have to think smarter and get more value out of the IT dollar.  Our storage is easier to manage (we have customers who reduce admin by 90%+ with our storage), our storage is faster, highly available (ability to have five 9’s reliability for critical applications) and has superior service/support.

Can I schedule some time with you next week to go into detail on how our storage can make your IT budget go further and give your stakeholders the best experience they deserve?  Please let me know a time that fits your calendar.

Best Regards,

Storage Sales Specialist at a large company"

I completely respect the challenges of commissioned salespeople and the difficulty that large companies face in a lackluster economy.   However, there is no better way to sour a long term relationship than to bypass the usual lines of hierarchy in an organization via an end run.

This salesperson works at a company I respect a great deal, so I believe this is an example of rogue behavior.  However, I welcome your comments and feedback - have you experienced the end run and how have you responded to it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

clip on magnetic sunglasses visit here

Save with prescription glasses and sunglasses. Prescription eyeglasses with magnetic clip on sunglasses. A wide selection of colors and styles for every budget! -GlassesPoint. Prescription eyeglasses with magnetic clip on sunglasses. A wide selection of colors and styles for every budget! Free magnetic clip on with every pair of glasses.  The operator should contact lens Plano glasses a few days of Sun and Rx on the other person. Many people choose single vision lenses, designed for a specific use, such as prescription sunglasses. Clip-ons magnetic magnetic clip ons often come with their prescription glasses frames. Prescription glasses Goggles4u dollars from 29.99 with free shipping. Takumi neodium magnet glass features recipes that are light, strong and in. The combination of some normal prescription glasses and a pair of polarized glasses that glare-resistant to outdoor activities. clip on magnetic sunglasses visit here
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tragedy of Underfunded Mental Health Care

Today’s Managing Health Care Costs Indicator is   19,900 The NY Times  on Friday had a deeply disturbing article on a murder that stunned the mental health community here in Massachusetts.    A long-term schizophrenic man, off his medicine and spiraling into incoherence, killed a young female counselor who was the sole worker at a group home in a Boston suburb.   His mother, who works at a Boston teaching hospital, was frantic with worry as her adult son, who had been arrested for assault multiple times, was becoming more psychotic.    It was hard for her to get anyone’s attention. The counselor was the first in her family to get a college degree, and had just decided to go to nursing school.    Now she’s dead – and her family had trouble scraping together the resources for a burial.   The schizophrenic will be imprisoned for the rest of his life – which ironically could be the best chance for him to get appropriate medical care. Both...
Post a Comment
Read more

How a Well-Intended FDA Policy on Colchicine is Harming Patients

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The FDA has reaffirmed the truth of this aphorism with its policy about Colchicine. Here's the story: I recently spoke with a friend who has a family member suffering from Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), an auto-inflammatory disorder, most commonly seen in eastern Mediterranean populations. The condition is characterized by recurrent painful inflammation of the abdomen, chest and joints, accompanied by fever. FMF is associated with mutation of a gene on chromosome 16 involved with regulating Pyrin, a protein that is part of the inflammatory response. There is no specific test for the disease. Diagnosis is made on the basis of symptoms, family history, and ruling out other conditions. Since the 1960s, Colchicine, a plant extract first used for treatment of gout two thousand years ago, has been used for treating FMF. As an ancient treatment widely used prior to formation of the FDA, Colchicine did not require FDA approval as a new ...
Post a Comment
Read more