Looking for non-biased resource

"nobody" wrote in message
om...
I'm not supporting lying in any way. But, there is no reason to advertise
your mode of transportation. Personally it seems pretentious and
ostentatious other than in a passing remark or in response to a direct
question to reveal that you are traveling in such style. When somebody
asks
what time is it, you don't say "Look at my Rolex!"

Since 9/11 no one thinks business travel is a perk anymore. Even getting to
fly F is seen as merely a lighter form of punishment. All clients cared
about were the ticket prices.

CWK is right, when cornered we can be honest and justify the flight with
the
same reasons that we justify the purchase, umm... if we justify the
purchase.

The fact is that if you're making enough money to seriously consider
justifying flying your teams around by private jet, you're probably making a
killing on the software. How price-sensitive are your customers now and are
you seen as being low-cost or producing an extremely high ROI?

To be fair there can be benefits to this too, though. Companies like to feel
that they are doing business with winners, more so the higher up the ladder
you go. Flying in on your own jet certainly projects that image. Every
client will be different.

-cwk.

The fact is that if you're making enough money to seriously consider
justifying flying your teams around by private jet, you're probably making
a
killing on the software. How price-sensitive are your customers now and
are
you seen as being low-cost or producing an extremely high ROI?

To be fair there can be benefits to this too, though. Companies like to
feel
that they are doing business with winners, more so the higher up the
ladder
you go. Flying in on your own jet certainly projects that image. Every
client will be different.

-cwk.



I call BULL!

I believe you have carried your point too far. The flexibility to use a
private plane when it makes sense could not be such an extreme case.

Even coach fares that need connections could run up the bill, and if you can
do a tighter schedule by sending a team to a region to hop around for a
week, I can see it saving days in the field, hotel, car, meals, etc. Even
at over 2k an hour, it could actually work out to being within 2 times or
even closer. That may make it worth it for them. Also, it could make it
more economical to send a larger team which may have other benefits.

Let's say we take two teams of 3 to the left coast to do a total of 4
installs (two each). Instead of 6 round trip coach fares for 3,000, we take
the Jet.

Coach we have to take Sunday to Friday Night. We also get little
productivity out of the teams other than the installs and travel, because
they are whipped by the experience of commercial travel and long car drives.

Jet or Turbo Prop we may have Sunday to Thursday night and we can have our
whole crew in the office on Friday. For every single installer that doesn't
get burned out and cause turnover, we save about $40,000 each year (my best
guess, but its likely more).

Yes, meals and hotels are actually a little more because we have the flight
crew, but that likely gets well balanced with free parking. Even if the jet
is 3 times the cost of travel, you get 6 employee work days back and likely
reduce turnover.

So, what if supplementing the existing commercial travel with a Jet costs an
extra $400,000 per year. Could it not be worth it to the CEO?

BTW, the Jet ride close has long been a successful sales tool in Software.

Your salesman moaned because he had a feeling he would end up getting a
complaint from the customer on the cost of the travel ticket which would
mean more work for him

The problem is that the salesman would promise things he couldn't
necessarily deliver. For instance, he'd promise that the ticket would cost
no more than $300. This would work if we booked the ticket that very
minute,
but experience showed that booking tickets more than two weeks in advance
(unless we bought Y fares which defeats the purpose) was dangerous due to
scheduling. And if we had to throw tickets away, he (head salesguy was
also
the GM) would blame me (head of consulting) for that too. Heads or tails,
I
lost.

From these circumstances you draw the conclusion that the salesmen were
idiots?

Regularly promising things you can't deliver at a given price (they did it
on every part of the deal, not just the travel) fits my definition pretty
well.

-cwk.


Sounds to me like the real idiot was the GM. He likely took the job because
he wasn't a good salesman. Then, he likely did a lousy job communicating
these issues to his salesforce (likely because he was too busy with his nose
up a bunch of arses).

So from my perspective, the problem was not so much idiot sales people as it
was idiot management. If they had done a better job of working the
commissions so that these problems became a money problem to the salesmen,
AND given them some control over the process, then it likely would have gone
away.

Managers can talk to sales people all they want, but all they hear is what
the commission plan says. Ignore this at your peril.

"Dude" wrote in message
...

Your salesman moaned because he had a feeling he would end up getting a
complaint from the customer on the cost of the travel ticket which
would
mean more work for him

The problem is that the salesman would promise things he couldn't
necessarily deliver. For instance, he'd promise that the ticket would
cost
no more than $300. This would work if we booked the ticket that very
minute,

So from my perspective, the problem was not so much idiot sales people as
it
was idiot management. If they had done a better job of working the
commissions so that these problems became a money problem to the salesmen,
AND given them some control over the process, then it likely would have
gone
away.

As is so often the case, the GM was former #1 salesguy, and he turned out to
be possibly the single most consistently incompetent businessperson I've
ever worked with. Worse still, by being the GM, he had no one to watch and
keep an eye on the voodoo quotient in his deals. Good at sales does not
imply good at management and certainly not vice versa.

-cwk.

As is so often the case, the GM was former #1 salesguy, and he turned out
to
be possibly the single most consistently incompetent businessperson I've
ever worked with. Worse still, by being the GM, he had no one to watch and
keep an eye on the voodoo quotient in his deals. Good at sales does not
imply good at management and certainly not vice versa.

-cwk.



So, now you have 2 incompettent managers, him and the guy he worked for.