From: rafetmad@cheshire.oxy.edu (David R. Giller)
Subject: Re: Eggheads see the light
Organization: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041 USA.
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 03:23:31 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.022202.10398@njitgw.njit.edu> dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap) writes:
>In article <1992Apr14.083651.12756@burns.jpl.nasa.gov> hand@spc9.jpl.nasa.gov (Kolin Hand) writes:
>>This is certainly true.  I walked down to the Egghead nearest us here (the one
>>on Foothill and Rosemead, Brooke) the other day and asked the salesperson if
>>they carried the new OS/2.  The guy brushed me off by saying that he had just
>>seen a memo stating that Egghead would not carry it.  Several days later, I
>>thought I might give my "friendly" Egghead a call and ask them, again, if they
>>had OS/2 v2.0?  Well, the little sales-type person said "yes, we will be gettingthat in "next week."  
>>
>>Bottom line:  I think that the little sales-dorks at Egghead (oh, excuse me,
>>I forgot my composure ;-) ) ahem... salespeople have seen an increasing
>>interest in a far-superior operating system/GUI and have been back-talking, er,
>>back-tracking to cover thier tails, I mean trails.
>
>The bottom line:  Sales people everywhere, with few exceptions, don't
>really know the products they sell.  Some do, but most people don't
>know anything more than what's currently on the shelf.
>
>Don't flame back.  If your a salesperson and this doesn't apply to
>you, then it doesn't apply.  If it does apply, then every offense is
>intended - go and learn your market.

I must agree.  I don't understand why everyone listens so closely to
computer-store salesmen about software... their job is to sell computers
and software.  They are experts in company policy, what they have been
selling well over the last few weeks, 10-key, check validation,
and whatever happens to be running on their demo machines (if anyone
wants to hear a story of a computer salesman who spent 15 minutes
behind the counter playing Prince of Persia while I waited for help,
e-mail me.  I'm not going to post it, becuase it contains foul language).

They DON'T know your business, or what normal people use their computers
for.  Have any of you programmers asked a software salesman about development
packages?  I have, just for fun.  You get some pretty interesting theories
about how to make decisions.  ("Well, this package costs more, and you
know that you get what you pay for!  Besides, the box is bigger and
heavier...")

Along the same lines, people, take the PC rags with a grain of salt.  These
people are experts at writing technical prose, desktop publishing,
word processing, etc.  They are NOT, inherently, technical wizards.
The only way they will know what they are talking about is to go out
and try it out.... and what are they supposed to compare it to?
Unless they were a computer professional in EVERY field before they
got into computer journalizm, how are they supposed to have gained
all of their alleged expertise?

In other words, don't take anyone's words as gospel unless they have
a legitimate reason to know what they are talking about.  This goes
for me too.

Flames > /dev/null.  Or, to OS/2ers, flames > NUL.
-- 
David Giller, Box 134 | Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light
Occidental College    | bulb?  A: Three.  One to replace the bulb, and two to
1600 Campus Road      | fend off all the Californians trying to share the
Los Angeles, CA 90041 | experience. ---------------------------rafetmad@oxy.edu