THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Vendor:  noun:  one that sells something

Customer:  noun:  One that buys goods or services.

Salesperson:  noun:  A person employed to sell merchandise 

VAR/VAP:  Value Added Reseller/Provider

Value:   noun:  quality considered worthwhile or desirable

Added:  verb:  To join or unite so as to increase in.... scope

I looked up the definitions of these tonight for a reason.  On a community listserve the topic came up regarding “should vendors be allowed on a peer resource list who's charter states that it's designed to discuss issues around the marketing, sales and development of small business IT consultants for those IT consultants servicing small to medium businesses“ and it just made me think a bit.  Especially when some of these “customers“ of vendors are obviously, vendors themselves.. I would think that people who are themselves vendors would want to try to bridge the gap between customers and vendors.  The concern was that the “vendors“ on the list would turn on the “sales and marketing“ mode and the real truth would get overwhelmed by the advertisements and offers. 

I too, am sometimes guilty of talking about “marketing” as the dark side.  But here 's the dumb thing... it's doesn't have to be.  Sometimes the best marketing is just being honest.    Jackie Huba today in the Church of the Customer [there's that word customer, again] talks about a disturbing trend in marketing. “Stealth Marketing” as they call it.  And included in the post is a very interesting discussion of “ethics in marketing”.  [Okay, I'll admit that I've never quite thought of that phrase quite like that before].

In an email thread that I was on today, someone wrote that they didn't trust a company to have their [the customer's] best interest at heart.  I find that statement a bit odd since it would seem to me that any company would want to have their customer's best interest at heart because without that customer, they wouldn't BE a viable company.

Jackie talks about that there's a “growing demand of transparency and credibility”. There is isn't there?  Too often I see it time and time again that when the “salesman” says “Oh we can do that” and totally overpromises what the item or software or technology can do and all that ends up happening in the long run is an unhappy customer.  If there is one thing that I could say to any company wanting to bridge the gap between vendor and customer is to just BE HONEST.  I don't expect a firm to say “oh we totally screwed up when we promised you the moon”, but I do expect more of an honest “we can't do that now, but we're working on it for the future”. 

In reality, even though over time I've turned into this hybrid of a wacko SBS customer that is turning into a Windows Software Patching ebook author and newsletter author, I still feel a lot like just a customer around here making sure that the SBS customer gets a fair deal.   I don't like it when a SBS customer doesn't get the installation experience he or she deserves.  I don't like it when consultants don't take the time or the energy to learn the SBS platfom and install it and support it the right way. 

It drives me crazy when people constantly hang onto the myths surrounding the platform.  I was on a security listserve where the topic of having Internet Information Services on a domain controller and here's little ol' wacko SBSer me piping up and saying that these days I wasn't worrying about my domain controller and IIS6 on there but rather freaking out about controlling my workstations.  In the ensuing back and forth threads it was very obvious that people still had stuck in their minds the steroetype of SBS.  “Limitations“ was definitely in their mindset.  Once again the myths of SBS surrounding the backup domain controller, the lack of expandability in their minds.... [hello?]  Don't people know that once you hit the 75 limit there is a transition pack that allows you to grow past 75 and split off the parts to separate boxes if that is truly your heart's desire?

Instead I don't see limits at all... I see possibilities.  Already a couple of folks at my office are thinkin' ...hey with this remote web workplace.... I don't have to come into the office all the time to do my work... I can do it from home!   That's right.  And my boss already asked about email on the cell phone that he saw some other Attorney receiving and responding to.  As I told him, you want it?  Say the word as we can set it up!  [He declined because he said the Attorney was constantly emailing on his phone].  But the point is that seeing technology truly in action, honestly, and credibly had done far more to “sell“ my boss on technology than any glossy ad had done.  He saw it working in real life and asked me about the technology.

The “Build your business“ ad campaign is my FAVORITE ad.  To me it so much showcases when the Vendors and the VARs and the VAPs and customers all come together and synergy is made what possibilities you can have.