Norton Reseller

[YeOldeStonecat]

For those that jump on ppl selling Norton, there is a huge difference in SELLING a product, and RECOMMENDING a product. What you have to keep in mind is that some of your (well, at least MY) clients insist on what they know and love, and to tell them different could mean to silently lose trust with the client - or lose the client altogether.

This part here...I've never ever had problems with. Our clients have followed our advice on pretty much anything we recommend to them (budget allowing..but naturally we recommend what's obtainable by their budget)

Part of wearing the "IT/SMB Consultant" hat is..."consulting"...our clients hired us for that. Giving our opinions/advice based on a long time of experience is part of our job, part of what they pay us for.

 

[FoolishTech]

This part here...I've never ever had problems with. Our clients have followed our advice on pretty much anything we recommend to them (budget allowing..but naturally we recommend what's obtainable by their budget)

Part of wearing the "IT/SMB Consultant" hat is..."consulting"...our clients hired us for that. Giving our opinions/advice based on a long time of experience is part of our job, part of what they pay us for.

Part of wearing the "break/fix technician" hat for most end users and even some small businesses I've done jobs for, is that the customer is always right even if they are wrong.

Yes, it's anti-Consultant, but some people don't want to pay you for your opinions, they just pay you to fix it quick and get out of the way so they can get back to business.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Part of wearing the "break/fix technician" hat for most end users and even some small businesses I've done jobs for, is that the customer is always right even if they are wrong.

We'll have to respectfully disagree on that, IMO that's in pure "retail" (which I came from)...not consulting. Us old guys that've been in the field for a long period of time, moving to more "consulting" roles. Been "in the trenches" for a long time, formed our views on what works, what doesn't work. Our long time faithful clients have learned we have no problems voicing our opinions to them and telling our clients how we'll do it for them...that is what they hired me for.

The only time I've had a client "bark back" when we told her we were changing the antivirus that their healthcare network ran on...was because she didn't like the fact that it was so locked down on the client end so much and she couldn't open up the AV client on the employees workstation to see history/logs. I fixed that by having a digest of the logs sent to her weekly from the control panel.

They have faith in us to keep up with the trends and know what's working now, and wha't not working. We've earned their trust in us. They know we don't steer them wrong.

Now..maybe a new startup guy...trying to get some clients for the first time...they've not established their clients trust in them yet. So...appearing too opinionated would be the wrong move for them, I'll agree on that. They haven't built a relationship with the customer yet to build the clients trust yet. I'd still "urge" the client to go towards what I believe in, but I'd not be as firm about it. However..once years and years of building a solid relationship with the client passes by...and you've earned their trust....it's time to really steer them into what's best. That's what separates the "consultants" from the "teen at the local best buy/geek squad" shop.

 

[Martyn]

We'll have to respectfully disagree on that, IMO that's in pure "retail" (which I came from)...not consulting.

Agreed. Although the customer is always right and may go against my advice I still wouldn't sell them a product I don't believe in no matter how much profit I make.

 

[andcorptech]

Agreed. Although the customer is always right and may go against my advice I still wouldn't sell them a product I don't believe in no matter how much profit I make.

I will never SELL Nortons, i get the customer to buy it at a store and ill install it if required. I do however let them know my Opposition to their choice of product.

I will buy in products for customers even when they are not my preferred choice, but will never sell an item I am strongly against, such as Nortons.

 

[TLE]

I'm not a fan of Norton, but I have to say it is getting better.

It's certainly not as heavy as previous versions and it's detection rates are getting better. In fact I would go so far as to say, I would rather they use Norton than AVG.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/summary/summary2011.pdf

Oooh, controversial....I await to be shot down in flames

As an additional note I tend to sell the AV which I think best suits the PC. If it's a fast PC, then I will happily put Kaspersky on it, if it's old and slow, then I tend to go for Avast. I wouldn't want to associate myself with just one AV as it may not be suitable for the situation it's being used in.

 

[iflores]

Have any of your ever tried...

www.buycheapsoftware.com

Will this be a good spot to purchase these items?

 

[PCX]

Wow, talk about reviving a rough thread . . .

I sold NAV for a little while when they started to clean up their act. I was getting the "Gamer Edition" (A/V only, none of the other junk, and came with a one-click systray icon to disable NAV.)

I bought sealed copies on eBay for like $9 shipped, and resold them for $50. Heck maybe it was $5 shipped once they were considered previous year editions.

Note you can buy the previous year products cheaper, but you can still sell it as the current year Norton product as they allow free upgrades. So when it's time to install it on the client's PC you can install the latest version and use the previous year's product key - or install the CD version you have then upgrade it to the current year product for free, your choice. Get the current year product/upgrade from http://updatecenter.norton.com

So there's an few options for the OP... Hope that helps...

---

For those that jump on ppl selling Norton, there is a huge difference in SELLING a product, and RECOMMENDING a product. What you have to keep in mind is that some of your (well, at least MY) clients insist on what they know and love, and to tell them different could mean to silently lose trust with the client - or lose the client altogether.

Buying the older edition AVs is a great suggestion. In our shop this is how we save our customers money. We purchase the Kaspersky 2011 Internet Security and use that same key to activate 2012 for cheaper than they can get it from the stores.

This part here...I've never ever had problems with. Our clients have followed our advice on pretty much anything we recommend to them (budget allowing..but naturally we recommend what's obtainable by their budget)

Part of wearing the "IT/SMB Consultant" hat is..."consulting"...our clients hired us for that. Giving our opinions/advice based on a long time of experience is part of our job, part of what they pay us for.

We'll have to respectfully disagree on that, IMO that's in pure "retail" (which I came from)...not consulting. Us old guys that've been in the field for a long period of time, moving to more "consulting" roles. Been "in the trenches" for a long time, formed our views on what works, what doesn't work. Our long time faithful clients have learned we have no problems voicing our opinions to them and telling our clients how we'll do it for them...that is what they hired me for.

The only time I've had a client "bark back" when we told her we were changing the antivirus that their healthcare network ran on...was because she didn't like the fact that it was so locked down on the client end so much and she couldn't open up the AV client on the employees workstation to see history/logs. I fixed that by having a digest of the logs sent to her weekly from the control panel.

They have faith in us to keep up with the trends and know what's working now, and wha't not working. We've earned their trust in us. They know we don't steer them wrong.

Now..maybe a new startup guy...trying to get some clients for the first time...they've not established their clients trust in them yet. So...appearing too opinionated would be the wrong move for them, I'll agree on that. They haven't built a relationship with the customer yet to build the clients trust yet. I'd still "urge" the client to go towards what I believe in, but I'd not be as firm about it. However..once years and years of building a solid relationship with the client passes by...and you've earned their trust....it's time to really steer them into what's best. That's what separates the "consultants" from the "teen at the local best buy/geek squad" shop.

Agreed. Although the customer is always right and may go against my advice I still wouldn't sell them a product I don't believe in no matter how much profit I make.

Heres the thing, people are getting tired of shop owners stealing their money and not educating them on ways to prevent issues in the future. I personally only sell Kaspersky due to its effectiveness and stability. The only way that will change is when something better comes out. We do hundreds of virus removals and for every computer that we installed Kaspersky on, none of them have come back for a virus removal. While this may seem counterproductive to a business owner (because he is no longer providing all the great virus removals that Norton provides), it actually helps to build trust in your customers. The fruit of this trust is repeat business and referrals. Even if that was not true, I would still educate my customers and help them to make the best decision possible.

And yes, selling a product is just the same as recommending one. Its not like we are a retail business that does not specialize in the area of computer technology. As shop owners and techs, we are expected to also be consultants.

One final note. If you ask most any successful business owner, they will tell that the customer is not always right and that concept can literally destroy your business. Most customers expect us to education our selves, so that they do not have too. Those who do not and refuse to listen, should still be educated and allowed to learn the hard way.

 

[Asrial]

Have any of your ever tried...

www.buycheapsoftware.com

Will this be a good spot to purchase these items?

I wanted to chime in on this after some time had passed and I got experience with the seller...

I'll also be PM'ing iflores, but this is mainly for others to be aware.

I looked into BuyCheapSoftware and, to put it quickly, they're exactly what I wanted when I posted in the beginning.

I've made a couple of purchases from them (a few single items to test the waters, then a mass purchase, and another more specific purchase).

My very first purchase got held in the system because of suspected fraud. They didn't go into details, but it sounded like it was a problem with my IP address. I had to call in to get this taken care of. However, all my later purchases have been taken care of by the next day.

Basically, I'm buying Norton 1 user licenses for $13 (as a reseller for them). I get the product key in e-mail.

I'm also able to get 3 user licenses for $18.

I don't know where the product keys are coming from (since I never receive an actual product), but so far they seem legit as ones I've purchased a while ago en masse are still activating at a full 365 days.

So to answer your question iflores, yes, they seem like a good company to add to your list of places to buy software from.