Selling 4D

After they believe you understand what they need and are qualified to meet this need, they may ask "Why 4D and not another database program?" "What's the difference between you and an Access developer?" IF they ask, you are now pitching 4D.

They may wonder "Will 4D be around for the long-haul?" "Will this investment payoff quickly enough to make my boss happy?" For a client making a substantial investment, it's all about reducing risk. You need to reassure them that 4D is a stable company with a commitment to product support. Small business owners seek to minimize risk of things outside their control and managers within larger organizations are often in survival mode and can be quite risk-averse as well.

The following "bullets" from a study conducted may be helpful in easing the minds of nervous potential clients.

The Aberdeen Group conducted a comprehensive visible cost of ownership (VCO) study. Highlights of their findings include:

• The cost of ownership of 4D's v6.7 Internet Embedded databases is 1/3 the industry average ($35K vs $101K).
• 4D v6.7 has a clear superiority in VCO with respect to the industry average performance of embedded databases.
• 4D's v6.7 superiority is primarily (but not entirely) due to 4D's ability to achieve "install and forget it" deployment and "near-lights-out" administration.
• Users cite increased data stability and thus minimized management overhead.
• 4D's superiority is likely not just to continue, but possibly to increase.

There is another useful tutorial, "Selling 4D to Enterprise Companies" written by an IT Director in an enterprise company. It is chock full of insider tips for selling into clients in addition to useful information on positioning yourself with potential corporate clients.

Also review the Success Stories portion of the 4D web site to get a sense of applications that have been developed for various industries and functions.

For a development and feature comparison, read the 15-page PDF White Paper, 4D, MS Access, and FileMaker Pro: A Comparison. Use this paper to familiarize yourself with the design capabilities and features of the various databases so that you can respond intelligently to client technical questions if they have any. Do not give this paper to clients. It is too detailed to be of interest to most users. Again, resist the urge to sell the product, solve their business problem.

You can also get answers to your 4D development/technical questions by posting a question to 4D's mailing lists. Your job as a developer is to familiarize yourself with its contents and to be able to discuss the benefits of 4D in user-friendly language on the topics that are of importance to your potential client.

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