Sales fatigue at the souk
For PGA IT manager Geraint Lewis, the arrival of spring brings the circling salesmen, sniffing out a freshly sprouted IT budget.
The Masters Tournament traditionally marks the start of the golf season, as Spring arrives in Augusta with an explosion of colour as the blossom on the course bursts into life. This year, if anything the anticipation of this great event was even bigger, given the return to golfing action of one Eldrick Woods, following his much publicised ‘fall from grace’ over the winter period.
Once again, the Masters delivered great golf, a great finish and a great champion in Phil Mickelson, who but for the dominance of the game by Tiger in the last twelve years would have won many more ‘majors’ than the four that he has secured and would no doubt be lauded as the ‘Greatest Of His Time’.
Certainly in the UK, the PGA club Professionals are keen to see Spring arrive and are crossing their fingers for the often promised but seldom delivered BBQ summer. After wet summers and snowy winters, the PGA Pros need to see the golfing equivalent of ‘Bums on Seats’ hoping that a sustained period of good weather will bring out the golfers resplendent in their new golf clothing, keen to try out their new clubs.
Spring in the IT world usually marks the start of the new financial year, where IT managers can look forward to deliveries of shiny new pieces of hardware, delighting in spending many happy hours configuring PCs and Laptops up for users to break and abuse in so many different ways.
What I don’t look forward to are the constant sales calls from ‘account executives’ looking to sell you the latest piece of new technology as they ‘smell’ that the IT budget has been approved and like buzzards start to circle hoping for some new business from you. The calls follow the same format, introducing the latest piece of ‘buzz’ software or hardware, looking to save you money or increase your uptime etc.
It is the equivalent of walking through an Arabic market, every stallholder trying to encourage you to buy something from their stall. In the end you just get fed up of the whole experience and return to your air conditioned hotel for some peace and quiet.
I prefer to work with a small number of vendors who I have built up a relationship with over a number of years, they know me, I know them, and we both (I hope) know my business so they are in a position to give me best advice when it comes to purchasing.
