Two months ago I was talking to a friend who works in company involved in a merger. He mentioned about their management request that sales people should allocate time in the field to simply get know their counterparts from the other merging company in their territory.

I was wondering then why? Pretty often sales people within the same company either do not know each other or (if they know) do not work well together or care about their colleagues (not to mention that sometimes they truly hate each other). It may be nice that they are aware about who their colleagues are but is quite unlikely to provide any benefit in the short or medium run. It is so funny how during business as usual management do not really care who knows whom but in a merger situation they want everyone to know everyone to show progress through the process. It’s a kind of “keep’em busy until we figure out what to do next!” (more…)

Real Case:

UPC – I’m paying monthly for more than 3 years RON 80+ for digital TV and internet (actually I am paying TV services for close to 8 years). I receive together with the bill an offer for new customers (really stupid to send such thing for actual customers as you will see later). Guess what was stated in that offer? For the same service that I receive someone who has never paid a nickel to UPC pays RON 10+ less and, in addition, gets 3 months free (for 2 years contract) and gets new modems that are technically better than mine for free. I called and asked just for price reduction only and they said no, unless I buy additional/upgraded services from them which I actually do not need. Talking to the operator they agreed that the only way to get a cheaper fare is to cancel the actual contract and then get a new one with the new terms. So their marketers decided that someone walking on the street is far more important than a client who has paid regularly for almost 8 years. Guess what am I going to do? Cancel the contract! (more…)