A few people have raised questions on the policy regarding Tally.NET subscription. Hope the following will clarify things.
a. New buyers of Tally.ERP 9: All new sales of Tally.ERP 9 come with 12 months of Tally.NET subscription from date of activation. As a special case, people who buy now will get a few days extra, as their subscription will expire on 31-Mar-2010. (For example, if someone installed Tally.ERP 9 today, instead of the subscription expiring on 20th Mar 2010, it will expire on 31st Mar 2010). After that, they need to pay Rs. 2700 (Silver) or 8100 (Gold) to renew for another 12 months.
b. Existing users of Tally 9 who are getting a free upgrade to Tally.ERP 9: All existing users of Tally 9 will get Tally.NET free up to 31st Mar 2010 - irrespective of the date on which they move to Tally.ERP 9. So, if a person moves to Tally.ERP 9 today, the subscription will expire on 31-Mar-2010. If someone moves on 12-May-2009, it will still expire on 31-Mar-2010. After that, they need to pay Rs. 2700 (Silver) or 8100 (Gold) to renew for another 12 months.
c. User of Tally 6.3/7.2 who upgrades before 31st Mar 2009: For current users of Tally 6.3/7.2 - if they take the upgrade offer now, their subscription will last till 30-Sep-2009. After that, they need to pay Rs. 2700 (Silver) or 8100 (Gold) to renew for another 12 months. (Here, if people had already upgraded before 12th Mar 2009, they would have been considered as 'existing users of Tally 9' - and therefore, would have obtained the subscription up to 31-Mar-2010).
d. From 1st April 2009 - there will be no more upgrades available for users of Tally 6.3/7.2. In place of an 'upgrade', users of Tally 6.3/7.2 will be able to buy a 12 month subscription to Tally.NET. This will be at Rs. 5400 (Silver) and 16200 (Gold). As part of the subscription, they will be eligible to the current release of Tally.ERP 9. After one year, they can renew their subscription at Rs. 2700 (Silver) or 8100 (Gold) to renew for another 12 months (just as regular Tally.ERP 9 customers).
Please do write for any further details.
In recent times, several prospects got postponed or lost due to pricing conflict. The pricing conflict arises mainly due to CA intervention in purchase process. How do we handle a CA who is forcing us to offer discounted prices to his client?
The partner who is handling the CA has got following fears:
1) CA may postpone the interest of his client (may force his client to hunt for better pricing) if he is not willing to give at the requested price
2) Possibility of losing the CA itself (because partner does not want to service at discounted price)
There is really no easy answer to this typical 'sales' problem. Customers (and their advisors) will always negotiate for better terms. Sometimes it is price and sometimes it is facilities, and so on. Generally, it is not something 'critical' to them, but - as all of us as customers do - one wants to feel 'good' about the deal. At times, it becomes a clash of egos - since the person demanding the 'concession' believes that it is 'trivial' - and by getting denied this 'trivial' thing, one feels insulted.
There can be no 'blanket' answer to such a situation. Every case is bound to be unique, since one is dealing with different personalities.
My personal opinion is: to the maximum possible extent, one should do whatever it takes to close the deal across the table. If, for any reason, you want to walk away from the deal (the terms do not suit you), you should walk away cleanly and clearly (i.e. do not look back at the deal).
Basically for products which are at our price point (that is, priced for the mass market), every negotiation should be a clean 'make or break'.
Let us understand the benefits of this approach (and the problems of NOT following it):
If I am 'closing' a deal with a customer - I am removing and reducing his 'talking' to the market for 'counter-offers'.
If I am 'leaving' the deal - then it no longer matters to me whether the customer finally bought with a better overall offer, or a worse overall offer (remember, it may not be a 'price' issue alone).
However, if I leave the 'table' but not the 'deal', the customer gets an opportunity to keep playing me against others with 'counter-offers'. My time keeps getting occupied, and my chances of the order keep reducing (as more players enter the field). Finally, even if the order is closed by me, the 'cost' of getting it would not be worth the deal. So - nobody wins.
How does all this answer the question?
I will restate. You should do what it takes to close the deal, or just leave the deal. Make it a binary situation. In such a case, nothing goes wrong. Leaving things hanging, everything goes wrong.
Yes - you may walk away from several deals, and yes, you will also close several deals. Your whole 'speed' of transaction will increase, thereby increasing sales: even if your 'abandon' rate is going up. (Once you stop entertaining prospects whose deal you have 'left' - you get far greater productive time on new prospects. Also, you have far lower negative energy listening to their nonsensical counter-offers).
Lastly - if it implies 'losing the CA': occasionally it is OK. Sometimes it is better to let a creator of negative energy go, than to deal with it.
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3/20/2009
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