Lately I’ve noticed some weird behavior from the old guard storage vendors, whom I sometimes refer to collectively as the Big Five – Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell, EMC and Network Appliance. The behavior evidences itself in a very specific sequence of events. Perhaps you’ve seen (or been the victim of) this yourself:
- A client requests a quote for a storage or backup solution from his/her trusty Big Five vendor. The Big Five guy is only too happy to oblige, but only after he finishes rinsing his big new boat.
- Once the quote is in hand the client realizes – rightly – that the pricing for the goods & services quoted is preposterously high.
- The Big Five vendor, when called and questioned about his prices, responds by tying up at his slip at the marina and driving directly to the client office, armed with elaborately complex cost justifications, exhaustive TCO analyses, and, finally, some variation on the old “Nobody Ever Got Fired For Buying (insert Big Five vendor name here).”
- The client, after shoveling himself out from under the bovine scatology of the Big Five vendor’s presentation, calls me and asks for a demo & quote for a Nimble, NexGen or Unitrends solution, all of which typically offer greater functionality, performance & ease of use – and better support – than the Big Five solution, at a fraction of the cost.
- THIS IS WHERE IT GETS WEIRD: The Big Five guy, once he gets wind of the fact that the client is speaking to me, lowers his anchor, notifies the client that he has identified some “wiggle room” in his pricing, and produces a quote that is as much as 80% less than his previous one. The technical term for this is “dropping his pants.”
- Not all customers respond positively to this pants-dropping business. Many, if not most, respond with, “Where were these prices when I asked you the first time?” This is sometimes followed by, “And just how stupid do you think I am anyway?”
- Some clients are fooled by it and ultimately buy from the Big Five guy, only to regret it later when they find out that prices for options, upgrades and support are not so heavily discounted, and are also most definitely NOT negotiable.
Weird isn’t it? Suddenly their prices are GREAT when faced with a competitive threat from me and one of the new wave of better/faster/cheaper storage vendors.
I feel bad for these Big Five guys. It must be hard to keep making those boat payments with all the pants-dropping going on. I shouldn’t feel too bad though – the payments still get made, one way or the other.
If you feel it’s important to contribute to the marine recreational habits of your storage vendor, by all means continue doing business with the Big Five guy of your choice. Who knows, he might even offer to take you out on his boat sometime. On the other hand if you are interested in a solution that represents the current state of the art in storage, backup and/or DR, while also saving a ton of money, give me a shout at (813) 655 3282. By the way, in case you’re interested, I don’t have a boat!
Well said…bravisimo!!!