NW,
All this discussion about CPQ pushing sales has inspired me to suggest... what about CPQ developing a plan to offer to shareholders with technical and sales interests? If CPQ would like to penetrate the market deeper, they need someone way to introduce "friendly" computers to neophytes, something much better than stumbling around in a computer store or dabbling with a kiosk.
So... how about:
1. Compaq collects and provides over an 800 phone line the name and number of a local shareholder/techie/salesperson who will come to your house and demo a computer (laptop? small desktop?)
2. Shareholder ties into the net, goes to the CPQ site, among other places, demos email, etc., and if/when the person is interested, go to the web site again (kiosk on the web) and assist in ordering the right configuration.
3. Customer can pay online or take an order number and call an 800 number later to confirm and pay by card, or arrange COD.
4. Shareholder getrs paid $50-75 for 1-2 hours of show and tell, and can offer additional instruction, setup, etc., for some nominal fee or hourly rate based on what works in the local market.
5. Selling shareholders can form relationships with local dealers to act as on call additional sales help, instructors, repair and service personnel, etc.
With 1.5 billion shares outstanding and 50 million folks on the web, there might be a possibility of increasing the sales staff by a million or two!
Doug |
