Agreed, John. Good points all. This is essentially the path we have taken with the customer. It is a niche product, so your first points are applicable. We'll see how it goes.

>Has anybody developed a good line of patter to overcome customer objections based on Microsoft's announced termination of VFP support in 2014?
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>Are you supplying niche or generalized services? If niche, then your main value proposition is yourself. Of course you can commit that your expert contribution will function up to and past 2014, whether in VFP or some other tool- possibly including options yet to appear. As another poster has suggested, you can bolster this by suggesting transfer of data to SQL Server or MySQL if necessary, since that will cover many possible objections.
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>If you are providing a more generalized service then you should consider whether you can focus on some sort of niche expertise you can offer, in which case the above would apply. Failing that, the easiest path is to run with the herd. Then you can focus a sales pitch on your own qualities and abilities without having to justify a deprecated tool. You can be certain that competitors will focus on the "sinking ship" you are offering the customer. Also, external consultants may be licking their lips at the possibility of a rewrite by them using NET and SQL Server or whatever.
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>IMHO it's good business to provide as much of a niche service as possible since that is more difficult to outsource and you have a ready defense against firms offering expertise with a particular IT tool rather than the particular industry.