In my initial Charging crisis post I wondered about the ‘elephant hunter’ sales person analogy.
BIW CEO Colin Smith has filled in a gap in my knowledge. In IT businesses, apparently, sales personnel were advised to nurture three different types of account: ‘rabbits’ that could be converted into frequent, small sales; ‘deer’ that would yield medium-sized sales but less frequently; and ‘elephants’ – infrequent and difficult to finish off but yielding big money.
This doesn’t leave me any closer to an analogy for ASP salespeople. After all, the ASP will be receiving regular, small payments from its customer, not getting a single up-front licence payment; maybe we could liken them to honey-bees, returning regularly to particular flowers to collect nectar? Anyone get a better suggestion?
