Am I being stupid?
This is a situation that some of you might have been in. Reacting to a requirement for a new project, you need to get some inside knowledge on a particular enterprise application - let's say a big content management system, for example. It's known that the app is fairly popular, but there's just not a lot of info on the web about it. Download all the docs, PDFs, and browse the website, but you don't feel like you're really getting to the meat.
It's a few weeks before you need to start working with this app for real. Oh, no time or budget for a training course. Nevertheless, you feel you'd really benefit from a demonstration of the app from one of the experts.
So I email the company and ask if I can come to their offices and see the app in action. Can't be fairer than that, can I? All I'm asking is for two hours of their time. Benefit to me - I get an insight to the system. Benefit to them - I'm more likely to be enthusiastic about the app when I work with it. Who knows, I might even blog nice things about it.
I contact one of the salesmen and being an honest sort of cove, explain my situation to him. His response? The sales team are 'maxed out' at the moment and can't respond to this kind of request.
I get it - if I have money in my pocket for a new 100 user licence, you'll talk. If I'm just a developer, you're not interested. Who the f*ck do you think makes your app work for you? Do you think it runs by magic? Sod them. Now I've got a downer on the company, and I'm starting from a negative viewpoint of the application.
Which company am I talking about? The more astute amongst you will have worked it out already from my subtle hints in the first couple of paragraphs.
Contrast this behaviour with Buzz Bruggeman and the team from ActiveWords - they'd get up at 4am to demo Active Words to your Grandma if you asked them. And they'd do it with a smile.
tridion