I Deliberately Misunderstood This Guy

[Dips]

I got a call from one of our resellers in Malaysia. These particular guys are focused on selling their own hardware (we make software) and have blatently stated they would prefer NOT to sell our product at all. But sometimes their customers insist, so they became resellers.

So here's how it went with the Sucky Reseller...

SR: Hello. Could you give me a quote for a single-user license?

Me: Of course. The suggested retail price is $600 and your price is $420.

SR: Oh.

Me: ...

SR: ...

Me: Is there anything else I can help you with?

SR: We are selling [hardware] to a school in Thailand and they don't have a lot of money. We were hoping to offer a discount on the software to help them out.

I understood immediately what he was getting at. He wanted us give him a discount larger than the already generous reseller discount to help these poor and deserving end users.

Now I know these guys. They wouldn't give a discount on hardware to their own mothers. So I wasn't inclined to make subsidize their act of "charity."

Cue my patented Deliberate Misunderstanding...

SR: We were hoping to offer a discount on the software to help them out.

Me: Oh, please don't worry. $600 is only the *suggested* retail price. You are more than welcome to sell it for less if you wish to. We wouldn't dream of telling our resellers what price to charge their customers.

SR: And my price?

Me: $420. Is there anything else I can help you with?

SR: No thank you.

And we said our goodbyes. I entered a note in the database because I had a hunch that he would call again hoping for a different answer. My hunch was correct and he didn't have any more luck with Mark.

[Boozy]

I have to assume that if you'd given these guys a discount, they still would have sold it to the school for $600 (or more).

Nice response...very quick thinking on your part.

[Fawn]

OOoooh! Scammers! Evil evil scammers!! tsk tsk

[Dips]

I have to assume that if you'd given these guys a discount, they still would have sold it to the school for $600 (or more).

I'm not 100% sure what happened. They wouldn't have sold our software at all if their customer hadn't insisted on it.

I'm guessing they offered a discount to avoid losing the hardware sale [their hardware costs more than their competition's]. They just didn't count on us saying "no."