Being a Bad Salesperson, By Choice
https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/05/02/being-a-bad-salesperson-by-choice/
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@stefano It was late 1991, on a Friday. I was still in the office late afternoon when two men came in and asked for my boss. I said that he had already left and asked if I could be of help.
The two men told me that they were from a children's hospital in Hamburg and came here to buy NeXT computers for the hospital (well, consider buying), and wanted to check these out. At that time, we were one of the very few NeXT resellers, and the only distributor.
Anyhow, I asked them to explain their needs and such (so that I could present the machines better), but then realized that we couldn't meet most of their needs in the hospital. They both were big fans of NeXT, and they were really into it, but still, I couldn't sell them something that's make them unhappy.
Long story short, I suggested them not to buy NeXT computers for the hospital because most of what they needed could be done with a PC with DOS and, and the rest was nor doable on NeXT computers either.
They left, slightly on the down note.
The week after they called my boss, told him that originally they were thinking of buying some 15 (or so) NeXTstations for the hospital, ordered two(!) NeXTcubes, one each, privately, and told my boss to give me a raise or a bonus because I consulted them so honestly.
I guess I am really a bad sales person because I always tried to find what is best for the customer, not necessarily what makes most money for me (my company). I assume this is one reason why I am still not a billionaire 😂😂
@stefano This reminded me of my first year at work, when I faced with The Consultant. At that time I had installed an OpenBSD firewall on a spare PC. People were fascinated by tons of buzzwords and “the man with the tie” took the opportunity to sell new hardware and a bunch of licenses. I tried to explain the risk, but they ended up receiving frequent visits from The Consultant to update and fix things. I was frustrated, and one day, as I walked past the server room, he said: “soon or later, you’ll end up on this side too”. Over my dead body!
I'm curious what the "an open-source platform for years" in the article is referring to as far as sales/ecommerce stuff goes?
I'm friends with the author of belugajs (a libre/free/open source ecommerce/online shopping thingamajig) and while Binx [the author] is awesome, when I went to try installing it locally to test with I frowned at the Node.js stuff upon which it was built.
I've administered systems on WooCommerce too (which claims it is "open source" as well, but my experiences with it left a lot to be desired it felt much more like shareware masquerading as open source) but I still don't think I have encountered a system that seems as if it checks the right boxes, for me at least.
Admittedly, I thankfully am not selling anything personally! But still, when it comes to helping others who do sell things, I wish I had better suggestions and would love to know what others have used that they may be happy recommending.
I'm curious what the "an open-source platform for years" in the article is referring to as far as sales/ecommerce stuff goes?
I'm friends with the author of belugajs (a libre/free/open source ecommerce/online shopping thingamajig) and while Binx [the author] is awesome, when I went to try installing it locally to test with I frowned at the Node.js stuff upon which it was built.
I've administered systems on WooCommerce too (which claims it is "open source" as well, but my experiences with it left a lot to be desired it felt much more like shareware masquerading as open source) but I still don't think I have encountered a system that seems as if it checks the right boxes, for me at least.
Admittedly, I thankfully am not selling anything personally! But still, when it comes to helping others who do sell things, I wish I had better suggestions and would love to know what others have used that they may be happy recommending.
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