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No Calls

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1603 points ezekg | 3 comments | 16 Jan 25 14:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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duxup ◴[16 Jan 25 15:26 UTC] No.42726526[source]▶
One thing I find with enterprise is your call sometimes isn't entirely about you selling them on your product. It's about learning about the enterprise, from them.

It's about feeling out their organization, their issues, and the dynamics between different departments at that company. Even issues they don't realize they have that are solvable. I find none of that comes out very clearly in emails that tend to be bullet point style focused but don't reveal the nature of the issue.

I don't like calls either, but they are useful.

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ezekg ◴[16 Jan 25 15:28 UTC] No.42726560[source]▶
I agree with this. This is why I still do the occasional 'discovery call' with people directly involved in a project -- and is very clearly communicated as not being a sales call.
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1. tttttrhoww ◴[16 Jan 25 16:05 UTC] No.42727120[source]▶
One of the most infuriating b2b calls I've ever been on was setup by our vendor to sound like this. After almost a year of using their product (on a month to month plan), they wanted to check-in and see what features we were using, what we liked, didn't like and show us the new stuff they'd released etc. And then in the last 10 minutes of an hour long call, they dropped a little "we just need to go over some administrative details" bomb where they started negotiations to get us on a year long contract. I will never accept another discovery call from this vendor again. It was such a huge piss off.
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2. duxup ◴[16 Jan 25 16:09 UTC] No.42727189[source]▶
Yeah that's terrible. I'd be all "not today man, talk about the other stuff". If they didn't take that, I'd be done with the call.
3. dilyevsky ◴[16 Jan 25 23:33 UTC] No.42732315[source]▶
Weird reaction to say the least assuming you were happy with the product. I've been on calls where the vendor is already on thin ice because the product doesn't work and we're just making sure they are taking us seriously, where AE knuckleheads try to use that as an opportunity to upsell a higher tier of support or something. That's annoying and ime never goes well.

Offering an annual contract though, which presumably comes with a volume discount is a totally normal practice that should benefit both parties assuming it's executed well.