Lora has a nice writeup on Microsoft Windows Anywhere (MWA) for Day 3 and 4. You can search her blog for entries on the other days. These comments from Lora are nice to read but you can see something hiding in her words. She's being nice but a skeptical eye will catch that she's hinting the OEMs are being stupid (my words and not hers).

I'm a bit frustrated at the moment so you'll have to pardon my lack of courtesy skills. So, if you want finesse then Loren says it well in his comments that some OEMs are just looking at niche markets. To be fair, Loren points out that Electrovaya, Motion and TabletKiosk are doing the best job. They deserve our praise. But the other idiots should be taken out back and whipped.

It may insult some people and I'm sorry, but I have to laugh at these so called sales people from OEMs. They seem to see what they want to see. In fact, tt's funny how we always manage to fool ourselves and find what it is that we expect. These companies are expecting small sales and getting them. Well, I say duh.

Sadly I've wasted time listening to these smucks. Over these past few months I can tell you that they bore me to death. Who cares to be talked down to or worse ignored? Not me.

The first step in sales is qualifying a customer. Each and every prospective purchaser of a Tablet PC should be qualified and not pushed away. However, the right qualification question must be asked. In the case of the OEMs, their question strips out 95% of the actual market!

There in lies the problem for OEMs. They are asking a qualifying question and receiving an objection as a reply. Since they don't know how to handle the objection they immediately push the person away and move to the next person in line. They are not being sales professionals but rather order takers. Blah. Fire em.

Now maybe these tactics have worked in the past and the sales person is racking up numbers to get a bonus but they are certainly not being a professional. A professional would respond to the objection with follow up questions - and NOT excuses and statements that the Tablet PC is a niche market.

Once more, it's funny how these OEM sales people don't see that long line of people wanting to buy a Tablet PC. It's a huge market and not a niche.

So now you are asking me what is the real qualifying quesiton? It's fairly straight forward and I can't figure out why more sales pros aren't using it.

Have you seen what a Tablet PC can do for you?

Ah - it is such an easy question! It isn't a marketing pitch. It's not pushy. It's just a simple question. And everyone has an answer!

Answer is Yes
If the person says yes then you can follow up with a question as to whether they own one. Oh! You own two ! Great. Have you seen our model?

Answer is No
Since the answer is no then the sales professional asks a follow up with whether the person ever jots notes down on a napkin during a dinner conversation, doodled during a meeting, or wished they could capture better lecture notes. Ask them if they've ever talked to someone and then tried later to remember what was said. After asking questions then tailor the presentation. You can show a short demo of whatever the client states - and inspire them to purchase that Tablet PC.

You see, Tablet PCs don't sell themselves. They never will because they are usually locked down or unavailable. Sales people must actually use their skills to promote the sales. Don't just be an order taker; be a professional sales person.

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Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

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A long time ago, Lora wrote a list of objections as a joke. Slashdot linked to it and people yammered all day about it.

Here are some good objections and the way to overcome them.

Objection: I hear they aren't selling well.
Answer: Hey, I keep hearing that all day too. Isn't that funny how so many people talk about it? It sure is a hot topic! In fact, the number one search term for google is 'Tablet PC'. That speaks to me in a huge way. Lots of people are interested and they just have to find the best one to buy. So, here, take a look at this model and tell me what you think.

Objection: This costs too much.
Answer: Yes, cost is higher because you get more for your money. You can't carry a desktop with you. You can't scribble notes in a notebook/laptop. You can't easily record lectures with most of the products on the market. See? You get more for your money.

Objection: Dell doesn't sell one.
Answer: Hey. I used to think that too. Maybe you haven't seen it on their site but Dell does offer a Tablet PC. Here, let me give you the link. Give them the link and follow up. Now, let's compare their model to ours.

Maybe you can come up with better answers to these objections.

__________________
Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

Please do not send private messages requesting technical support. Place your request in the proper forum and hopefully someone can help you.

Computer Sites
Tablet PC Blogs | Technology Questions | Tablet PC Post | Windows Vista | What Is New

Prelaunch
Insane Politics