So my friend Mr Bump has a problem with my post on vendor frustrations with customers. For those who don't know Mr Bump, he writes about "NAC in the real world", originally about his deployment of Nevis Networks product. At first I thought Mr Bump was a pseudonym for Dom Wilde over at Nevis, but over time I actually like some of what Mr Bump writes and he contributes to the security blogosphere in a positive way. I just like to give him crap about his choice of NAC vendors, but it is all in good fun. Plus I actually like and respect Dom Wilde and that kind of unscrupulous behavior is not his thing.  There is another NAC vendor who plays fast and loose like that though and I will be writing more about that this week, so stay tuned.

Mr Bump responds to each of my three points, but before I get to that, let me clear up a few things. First of all Mr Bump says that this is his problem with 90% of all "sales" people. Mr Bump, you obviously have some issues with sales people. Were they mean to you when you were young? Did your Mom like the salesperson sibling better? Do you secretly dream of being a sales person? Just kidding, but seriously, I did not write my article from the point of view of a sales person. Sorry you confused me with one, though as I have said before we all sell everyday, whether we admit it or not. I was writing from the point of view of a business owner, trying to build a solid business one customer at a time. I am not concerned with short term commissions, but building out a solid customer base. This way I can sell the business for a huge profit and you can call me a slimy entrepreneur ;-).

Also, I can complain as a customer, that is my right. Equally so it is my right to complain about customers as well. I guess I can complain about anything I want on my own blog, not sure why that should bother you. Think of it this way. We all wear different masks in different roles in our lives. Sometimes we wear the Daddy mask, sometimes the boss, sometimes the employee, etc, etc. Being one in one situation, does not preclude you from being another in another situation.

Now, on to the show. Mr Bump doubts my sincerity about being upset when a new guy comes into a customer replacing the guy who bought the product and we have to start all over with them. He says I am kidding him. I made my sale and collected my commission and am on my way. Well Mr Bump, I suggest that if that is the kind of security vendors you deal with, find new ones! Any good business person can tell you that one unhappy customer is worth 10 happy ones. It is about building long term customers. That is how you build a business, not about being bandits who come in, rape and pillage, collect the commission and move on. I have known sales people who have sold to the same people over and over again, because they do care for more than the short term commission. I am sorry you can't believe it and you can't see how it frustrates a vendor. But sometimes we will work with a person for months or even years and build a deep relationship. As part of the game, they move on, I get it and that is the way it is. But it is very frustrating starting from square one with the new guy who may have a pre-conceived prejudice.

Next Mr Bump finds it unbelievable that I would care if a product implementation got delayed. Again, this speaks wonders to the kind of security vendors he deals with. It is not about if my resources are committed at all. Mr Bump I can't wait to get you up and running so you can tell your friends and others about what a great product and company you deal with and we can continue building the business. Also, believe it or not I care that all of a sudden a maintenance fee comes up because the time starts running from the date of sale and the customer hasn't even used the product yet. Shelfware is a failure for a vendor. Delaying implementation is the first step to shelfware. Please Mr Bump spare me your "in the trenches and grenades" story. Most hard working people at security vendors or anywhere else for that matter are not sitting around playing foosball either! We all deal with emergencies and priorities. I am keenly aware of the security and network admins job pressures and have tried to build a company that actually makes your life easier. Again, I can only assume you are dealing with quite a bunch of vendors if you feel this way.

Lastly Mr Bump almost agrees with me about using the product in unintended ways. Mr Bump I can put you in touch with people who have done this. You have to remember that unlike your NAC vendor, our stuff is built on off the shelf hardware with open, standards based OS and database, etc. People who are comfortable around a command line and Linux like to play. We don't mind, just realize how hard that makes our support obligations though and don't expect us to fix what you "developed"

So I hope that clears that up. Like I said in my comment on your blog, too bad you didn't pick a better NAC solution you might have a different opinion of security vendors and maybe even sales people ;-)