There Are No Liquid Lunches in the Cloud
Software sales pitches are becoming a lot less about golf and a lot more about products
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(Updated 10th paragraph to clarify that Guardian Life Insurance uses AppDynamics)
Until a few years ago, Evan Blake made about $300,000 a year selling corporate software with a formula straight out of Mad Men. Working for companies such as Cisco Systems and BMC Software, he’d use connections and charm to land a few meetings a year with buyers from big clients, then spend weeks working up a pitch for each, promising software so customized that both parties knew it probably couldn’t be built. “Six to 12 months after doing the deal, you’d go on the apology tour,” Blake says.