One of the fun parts of my job is negotiating with software vendors.
Small companies hit upon an idea and develop a product in their shed. Once it just about compiles and the GUI looks nice, they scrape off the Release Candidate 1 label and embark on the sales mission, traipsing around bigger companies to convince them of the product’s ability to cure cancer and grant immortality.
The vendors arrive in nervy teams throwing business cards like shuriken. A typical party consists of:
- 1 × Sales Guy. Polished to a blinding sheen. Practices his handshake ten times before breakfast. Promises “not to include lots of slideware”, then immediately follows with twenty-five minutes of fucking Powerpoint. If this guy is answering your questions, you’re not asking the right questions.
- 1 × Techie Guy Who Wrote Most Of It. Had his ponytail cut off before being allowed to leave the office. After months of coaching is now capable of talking about the product in a vaguely coherent way. Sales Guy will look to Techie Guy with barely-contained panic when a difficult technical question is raised.
- 1 × Quiet Guy Whose Purpose Is Never Quite Clear. You will shake his doughy hand, notice his carefully combed hair, and be slightly uncomfortable with his creepy presence.
- 1 × Level 15 dual-class Ranger/Druid.
Based on the demo I saw yesterday we can also make the following observation:
23-Feb-08 at 11:01 pm | Permalink
Ha, I really enjoyed this.
I hate shaking a doughy hand…