Wireless Access

I have got a few of these clients which are happy with their 802.11g technology and they feel they do not need to buy 802.11n

Specially many hotels here....

For example there is a big chain of hotel here which is going all HP gear because they got a really cheap AP for room which is b/g and got four ports in it. and well an uplink of 100mbs

Now i have told the manager that the technology they are buyig i mean now in 2013 its really old but he tells me that well it works fine for me... and the users wont complain.

If we dont go soo technical if its possible something easy to understand how would you go to this kind of client at convince him to move to 802.11n APS and stop buying old b/g technology now in the 2013?

Can anyone give me some opinions, ideas!  i would like to hear them please(im not this kind of sales man im more a presales and postsales guy but i need to put it simple which does not go soo technical so they can understand the need of it)

The other bad thing is that they do not use wireless voice ipphones or anything like it now, they are just using it now for internet for guest... but i guess i can tell it that when you would like to use it on the future you will have to pay again though...

Anyways please list me some thoughs here, it would be really appreciated :)

Cheers

Carlos

This decision is all about the likely use case.

When my family checks in to a hotel, we bring 3 laptops, 3 eReaders, two smart-phones and a camera -- all expecting WIFI.

We're probably a bit ahead of the curve, but not by much.

Suggest the hotel look at how many devices each room requires, and note that all of those devices (and their bandwidth) will be happier if each can get off the air faster.  N allows each flow to go faster (assuming they're all N and that the neighboring room's devices aren't using B on your room's AP)

Here's a sales idea. Have the customer perform a wireless survey of people that currently stay at the hotel. I would have the survey occur over a two week period. Next, run a proof of concept where you do a temporary replacement of their legacy APs to newer 105s or 135s. Then, do the same thing again. Depending on the hotel backhaul, and the AP placement, I wouldn't be surprised if there's s a noticable difference in the responses.

Just a thought.

-Mike

Those are not bad ideas but im dealing with client which they thinking is:

It works?

noone is complaning or the complaning is low ? the leave it like it.

They are not even interested in giving something better to the client its sad :(

The other thing is that they see

HP = 100k

Aruba = 150k

pick HP end of the history...

I even explain to one of those in which the hp shop was putting the APS on the hall a line of those like 6 all  in a line and i did explian it why it was a bad idea, and that could cause him trouble at the end it was all about price... even if my design was  a way more superior and consistent.

Its really hard to sell...haha... in this enviroment... i prefer going to banks and stuff like it they just buy good stuff... so they buy aruba :)  but the hotels in my country? ha!!,,,,

The sad thing is that thouse deployment of hotels are good deals i mean a lot of APS and stuff... also universities... but then HP comes with their super low price...

We have won on really expensives k12 with aruba  here, which is good  and they were good deal, lot of APS...  and its because they are interested in giving good performance to the wifi, and they are actually interested in having good gear.

The other important thing is having good references... we have won other k12 because we had good reference from other k12 that got aruba with us... they actually recommend Aruba because they are happy with it. 

HP is our biggest compeitors here, really not cisco... cisco does not worry me... but HP does... its weird dont you think? hahha

Nightshade1

I cannot give competitive information here, but of all the industries that value WLAN as crucial for business,  the hospitality industry is not necesarily one of them...

Nightshade,

It sounds like I'm a lot like you, more of an engineer than a sales person. My wife has a marketing degree and has been pointing me to a couple of sales books that have definitely improved my approach with customers. Those two books are "The Personal MBA" by Josh Kaufman and "Pitch Anything" by Oren Klaff. The one thing that you may try to do is to reach out to them at an emotional level as well as a technical level. For instance, bring an Aruba Sales Engineer to a meeting and have a call with Product Line Manager (PLM) and let your customer know how they're important to Aruba. To be honest, when I was a customer, it was reassuring to know that a manufacturer had my back. This may help your customer have a more vested interest in the wireless network if the manufacturer has a vested interest in him as a customer. That feeling from a manufacturer has always been a very important component of the sale when I was a customer.

All in all, it might be worthwile to think outside the box so the feeling that you have about the Aruba technology is translated in a way that will reach your customer.

-Mike

well you know Collin,  they should!  as the custumers find this crtitical specially bussiness custumers!

we were quoting to a hotel in which their custumer prefer going to an internet cafe instrad of paying for the wireless in it...its funny because their actual wlan is not working... people complain... and when they saw the price of aruba they prefer staying with their brand and partner which are not able to resolve this!  they do have money because they are investing a lot in how the hotel looks... it just that it was kind of frustrating loosing that one in particular.  not that we lost agains cisco or something...

they just see technology as like a waste of money and its hard to change that way of thinking i think...

i have stsrted to do  some of sales in my new role but the most what i do its presales and technical marketing... and workshps and that kind of stuff... but  im starting to dive in sales a bit and its hard hahha the good thing is that we got good sales girls and guys and they ttying to help me... and i fo all i can to help them in the technical part

i should start studying sales strategies as well