Hi Carol,

I think you will get differing opinions on this one. I can tell you that we have apps that are in use all over the eastern coast and our sales reps ARE provided laptops by us. IT allows us to ensure that the sales reps are providing a professional appearance and demonstration of our product. The revenue produced more than compensates for the cost of the equipment. We also train our sales reps thorougly on our app and they actually perform the initial training and setup for the the new users when they purchase our app. You have to consider the up-front cost of the equipment, the reliability/risk of the sales rep, the desire for professional appearing demonstrations, the training man-hours lost in training the sales rep and gained when the sales reps train your new customers. In short, it is a business decision. We want our product professionally promoted by knowledgeable reps so it was worth it for us. Quite frequently our customers contact their sales rep BEFORE contacting our help desk as the sales rep is very knowledgeable about the business in addition to our software.


Tracy

>We have an app that we have sold to over 70 and have competitors.
>One of our competitor's sales rep has left and contacted us, saying our product is much better and wants to be our sales rep.
>We are unsure whether we really need a sales rep.
>We already have a deal with a psuedo sale rep, that if one of their leads comes through, they get a flat amount.
>The same deal is acceptable to this new sales rep.
>
>But, she says, she needs to be supplied with a laptop and a projection device, by our company. She is not employed by our company in any sense.
>She said our competition did this for her. (I do not know whether they employed her. But I think not.)
>Has anyone heard of such?
>Should we spend $1,000's, so that a sales rep, that contacted us for work, can do a better job?
>
>Any and all comments are welcome,
>Carol Dewar
>Magram Computer Services