Handling Objections When Selling 802.11n Wireless Solutions

Austin Smith, CEO of Digital Son, I.T. Services, a Lawrenceville, Ga.-based solution provider, on overcoming customer objections when selling 802.11n wireless solutions.

A Demo's Worth a Thousand Words:
If they have a need for wireless-N, just demo it. For one music entertainment customer, I brought some gear over and set up a demo. Just dragged-and-dropped a raw music file across the network. It took 30 seconds vs. 35 minutes to an hour-and-a-half. They can see the raw difference in the numbers.

Assess Customer Needs Honestly:
The hardest part is convincing customers to invest. I'm not going to sell an Eskimo ice. If they don't have the need for wireless-N or Gigabit Ethernet, there's no need to oversell.

Pitch it For Vertical Applications:
Customers with high multimedia usage are a good fit. Music entertainment companies can really benefit because they're moving large files across the network.

Prepare for Questions About the Draft:
It's a concern of mine [whether the final standard will greatly differ from today's draft version] ... But since 802.11b/g/n are all related, I've got faith. I just wish they'd finalize it instead of dragging it out.

Smooth Over Interoperability Concerns:
Wireless-N is pretty transparent. They've worked the kinks out. When Apple put out the MacBook Pro with 802.11n NICs, I did see issues with it and the Linksys [WRT]350N [wireless router]. Linksys was causing it to freeze up, but as we're moving toward the standard, those types of problems seem to be smoothed over.

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