MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Shopping for major discounts at Dell (how-to)

Unregistered · 08-16-2005, 02:42 PM

It depends on if they build a "quote" for you. They can price items out without storing it in the system, but if they save the quote (and I regularly did so that I could keep track of everything the customer was looking at) there's going to be a record of you calling in often. (Until the quotes expire...usually around a month.) If the rep you're talking to sees a lot of recent quotes under your customer number, they're not going to take you very seriously, and aren't likely to waste their time with you. If there is any place where the adage "Time is money" is true, it's at Dell.

I was on the systems side, and it works a little different than it does for the S&P people. During the time I was at Dell, S&P was a huge push, so the higher-ups gave us more margin dollars on S&P. One important thing to understand when you're pushing for a deal is that Dell pays commission based on MARGIN dollars, not on the total sale. If you're calling in for that $399 computer, the sales rep is making NO money. It's even possible they're LOSING money, besides the fact that they're wasting time on a call with little to no upside.

Push for a deal on higher-end systems, but forget about it on the cheap systems. For goodness sake, a $399 computer is cheap, no matter how you look at it.

And by the way, Dell is a sweatshop. If you're not an exec, you're a peon. I was regularly at the top of the "stacks," but they'd just keep raising the bar to keep top performers from getting paid like it. Finally, when they overlooked me for another job because I was "overqualified"--even though they told me I was the best candidate they talked to--I said "Hasta."

08-16-2005, 02:42 PM	#5
Unregistered Nameless Being	It depends on if they build a "quote" for you. They can price items out without storing it in the system, but if they save the quote (and I regularly did so that I could keep track of everything the customer was looking at) there's going to be a record of you calling in often. (Until the quotes expire...usually around a month.) If the rep you're talking to sees a lot of recent quotes under your customer number, they're not going to take you very seriously, and aren't likely to waste their time with you. If there is any place where the adage "Time is money" is true, it's at Dell. I was on the systems side, and it works a little different than it does for the S&P people. During the time I was at Dell, S&P was a huge push, so the higher-ups gave us more margin dollars on S&P. One important thing to understand when you're pushing for a deal is that Dell pays commission based on MARGIN dollars, not on the total sale. If you're calling in for that $399 computer, the sales rep is making NO money. It's even possible they're LOSING money, besides the fact that they're wasting time on a call with little to no upside. Push for a deal on higher-end systems, but forget about it on the cheap systems. For goodness sake, a $399 computer is cheap, no matter how you look at it. And by the way, Dell is a sweatshop. If you're not an exec, you're a peon. I was regularly at the top of the "stacks," but they'd just keep raising the bar to keep top performers from getting paid like it. Finally, when they overlooked me for another job because I was "overqualified"--even though they told me I was the best candidate they talked to--I said "Hasta."