Thank you for helping me, again

September 5 2008

An IBM sales rep just pinged me and let me know that her customer is going to stop a pending decision to migrate to Microsoft and instead convert over 1000 of their users to Lotus Notes.  Yay!

While we regularly win decisions at customers, based on providing the best solution for their needs, it's always good to hear about it.  This one is even better because an advocate for IBM Lotus within the customer felt like the IBM side of the story wasn't getting heard -- and did something about it.  They posted on the developerWorks Lotus Notes/Domino forum, where someone else suggested that the customer contact me.  Once he did, I looked up the right salesperson and got in contact with them.  Introductions were made, meetings were held, and our story was heard.

I don't want to draw attention to the individual post or people involved.  It's not important.  What matters is that this community, time and again, demonstrates how willing you are to help one another... or help IBM.  For that, I thank you.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [6]

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  1. 1  Karl-Henry Martinsson http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/texasswede/ | 9/5/2008 11:25:06 AM

    When you say "the right salesperson", is that the account rep for this particular customer? Shouldn't he/she already been on top of this, i.e. was dropping the ball or not doing his/her job?

    I may be misunderstanding how things work, but if an advocate for Lotus at the customer need to bring it to the sales person's attention, something is wrong. Unless teh company tried to make the switch in the dark, but why would they then even listen to IBM?

    Just out of curiosity, are the IBM sales reps just sitting and waiting to be called up, or are they actually proactive as well?

  1. 2  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 9/5/2008 11:27:48 AM

    What are they migrating from? The message implies another solution like GroupWise. Or is this simply a "save?"

  1. 3  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/5/2008 11:44:26 AM

    @1 The reality of behavior for any sales person -- 1) they may have multiple clients 2) they are opportunity-driven and 3) sometimes they are deliberately kept out of the loop. In many cases, I am contacted because "business as usual" may not be working, and a breakthrough approach is needed. This is often regardless of whether/what the sales rep is doing. When one retail customer made the decision to migrate away from Notes a few years ago, their employees were told that if they communicated the decision to IBM, they would be fired. I heard about it "back-channel"...we still couldn't stop it but at least we stopped spending energy trying.

    @2 I'm trying to avoid details here to make a different point. Yes, we win migrations and saves all the time, but the point I was after here was the partnering with and within the community.

  1. 4  Bill Dorge  | 9/5/2008 12:43:18 PM

    Great to hear! It's also great that we have a community of Lotus professionals that can help in this type of situation. You won't find that just anywhere and one of the reasons I like being a part of it.

  1. 5  Jack Brody  | 9/8/2008 11:56:27 AM

    @3 "I am contacted because "business as usual" may not be working"

    I admit I may not understand the responsibilities of the IBM sales/account reps, but in my experience most of my clients have already determined to go to Exchange/Sharepoint before ever talking with their IBM rep. This has been the source of my frustration over the years. I see presentations to my clients from Microsoft reps all the time and rarely ever see anything from the IBM side. "Business as usual" has too often not been working, IMO and maybe some introspection is warranted.

  1. 6  mike  | 9/9/2008 12:28:41 AM

    @5 What you said +