Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Vantive Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: seth thomas who wrote (1857)	4/17/1998 12:00:00 PM
From: Melissa McAuliffe	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 3033

<<. I'd win virtually 100% of the deals that I spent time on and wasted zero time on the deals that I wasn't gonna win anyway.>>So what you're saying is that if in the first 15 minutes the people weren't excited enough for you that you refused to compete because it only took 15 minutes to know you weren't going to win. You definitely sound like one of those sales reps who thrived on competition. I'm sure your bosses loved you too. You should write a book on this technique. That's very interesting. Let me ask you this. Did you ever hit your quota??? I always thought sales people were managed on quotas, not win ratios. You could compete in only 2 deals a year based on your criteria and have a 100% win ratio. But the good news is your cost of sales was probably the lowest in the company. <<Why do you think that VNTV does not impact SEBL? If VNTV tanked, for say a bad revenue quarter, don't you would think it would have a sector impact?>> It might have a sector impact on anyone else but don't you think everyone would think sebl must have won all the deals?? Even Amsterdam yesterday in one of his posts said that vntv might become somewhat dependent on sales to its installed base. IBD said sebl's definitely in first place. So what else would people think happened?? Melissa

To: seth thomas who wrote (1857)	4/17/1998 1:42:00 PM
From: 45bday	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3033

Steve: Now that you have everyone's attention why don't you tell them about the great opportunity they are missing by not looking at INFR! Good bounce back yesterday.

To: seth thomas who wrote (1857)	4/21/1998 1:46:00 PM
From: Clam Clam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3033

Steve, I was backreading (word?) a few of the posts I missed and wanted to throw something at you for kicks. Regarding: "Either the people I met with were really excited by what I had to say - and we'd get moving together on the sales cycle, or they were not. I'd figure this out in the first 15 minutes (literally), cut my losses, and move on. It worked spectacularly well for me. I'd win virtually 100% of the deals that I spent time on and wasted zero time on the deals that I wasn't gonna win anyway. Maybe there was a deal or two in there that I would have won at the end of the year, but since I wasn't spending any time on those, I had time to go after 10 more deals that were a sure thing." This strategy is quite rational and sounds like what I would do. The question wasn't whether the customer actually could use the software you were selling, the question was whether you thought you could sell them software or not. This strategy implies you had very little in the way of preconceived notions when entering the door at a customer site and that you would 'cut your loss' if information came along to change your mind (they didn't seem interested). Relating this to the stock market, I agree with you that you have to have conviction (being 'opinionated') in your investment ideas or else you will get scared out of them at the wrong time. However, being objective (as you did in your sales calls) reflected the reality that preconceived notions should be tossed out if convincing information comes along to make you believe that the sale might not be made (the customer and you weren't "moving together on the sales cycle"). While I believe Melissa might lack a little in the way of conviction (I am expecting a response out of you too Melissa so don't disappoint me), you might be investing with a different strategy than what treated you so well when you were in the trenches of application software sales. What do you think?