Comment by kentonv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kentonv | Hacker News Reader

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Sorry!

This isn't because we want to force you to talk to sales people (we don't even have any sales people! just us techies here!). The problem is that Sandstorm+Business is still in development, so there's nothing self-service for us to offer you. We want people willing to contact us to do so so that we can get their requirements and keep them updated, but if you don't want to talk to us (understandable -- I'm the same way), then your best bet is to try out the "individual" version now (which actually works OK for companies, but doesn't yet have all the features listed on the /business page).

Within a couple months we'll ship this, and then you'll be able to get it set up without talking to anybody. In fact, we plan to make it all part of the same build, so if you install from https://sandstorm.io/install today then the features will appear over time...

(We're currently not actively working on a managed-hosting version of the "business" features. We'll probably do that someday, but on-prem is a big selling point so we're focusing on that for now. That said, many people use https://oasis.sandstorm.io for work purposes today.)

Seriously, you should consider making that somehow part of the "contact us" link. Because even as someone not using the service, anytime I see "contact us" I get the same disgusting feeling in the pit of my stomach that you want me to contact you because you want to up-sell me.

At the very least, make it a link to "show pricing" and then on the next page give an explanation of like - if you need X, it should cost approximately X. Because we're still figuring things out, we may need to give you custom pricing (from the geeks, not a sales guy, we promise!). "Contact Us" has unfortunately become synonymous with shitty used-car negotiations.

If you don't trust their salespeople, why on earth would you trust them claiming that they aren't sales people? Judge based on the available facts, not superficial prejudices.

As stated above, I think it's not so much a lack of trust but a lack of confidence in a company that can't give you a straight-up pricing structure on their web page.

It screams "we'll charge you as much as we think you can afford", kinda like those domain squatters. Oh you're a big company and want this random domain name? $40,000 please.

Most have set prices, but contact us for pricing is often because a company is well aware the sticker shock on the price is going to drive most customers off. Being on the phone when you share that price gives them more of a chance to ease you into the number and try to justify it.

But in the case of Sandstorm devs, it's just that those features/that product is still in development.

Yeah, but vendors should realize that users can see-through the facade. Seeing "contact sales" makes me think of the sticker shock, and me being a cynic I often expect the pricing offered to be much higher then it ultimately ends up being.

Ehh... I think you're being too cynical and that you're projecting. I also think you're forgetting that this is a two-way street.

When Walmart calls your sales department, they aren't going to be suckered into a high price. On the contrary, they have a procurement department whose job is to negotiate the price down. They also probably have custom requirements that they want met, so a self-service option wouldn't even work for them.

Typically -- especially among "scalable" startups -- the "contact sales" option is meant specifically for these big fish to utilize, while the smaller fish get a self-service option with standardized pricing. This is what Sandstorm will have in the future.

I would say that I think there needs to be a more upfront accounting of ballpark figures for 'contact sales' moments. Working as a SysAdmin, I've come across points where you call, they want to set up a trial, you ask them how much it's going to cost, and they keep saying 'well, depends on which options you get and this and that, so it's hard to say'.

And I just wanna know if it's a four, five, or six digit figure for God's sakes.

I agree, and I think Sandstorm is not a great center piece to have the "contact sales" discussions round. I think it's just a note that the start up community in general could up its 'sales experience' game, ranging from pricing, to support, to onboarding/offboarding. Let's face it half the time the developers will also be in charge of sales, and speaking for myself I sometimes do not provide the best sales experience to customers.

Also I think Sandstorm is really cool. Feel like I should mention that.

We draw the best inferences we can based on the limited facts available.

I'm also one of those Tab-closers. My advice is, hit me with a real-life demo of these apps, in a video within 8 seconds minimum, or I gtfo, basically..

There is huge value in your offering. But there is also a massive investment required by users of these apps and .. eventually .. your services. You have to show me a demo full of real apps in use, with solid data ..

Well... the front page has a big demo button right at the top...

.. which I have to make the effort to press, if I'm interested, but I actually lost interest within the first 8 seconds of visiting the site because the cyclomatic complexity is just too darn high. Seriously.

You should actually make a "Pricing" page with some representation of this info. I remember seeing sandstorm.io sometime ago and dismissing it because I could not find a page showing me what it would cost. I might check it out now thou.

https://sandstorm.io/get has pricing, FWIW -- just not for the product that we haven't quite figured out yet.

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