I have been shopping for a replacement network laser all-in-one printer. I had gone to Staples to look at a couple of different units and ended up buying one that the salesperson and, based on the information in the manual and in the store, would do everything I wanted, and it was at a very reasonable price. I took it home, hooked it up to the network and couldn't get the network scanning to work on my Macs.
I spent the next hour or so locating online support documentation and at last in the latest manual, buried in a footnote, discovered that the network printing is only supported on Windows. Awesome. Gratefully Staples has a friendly return policy and I was careful in unboxing the unit so everything is perfectly intact.
I then looked at the HP units and couldn't find any good documentation to clarify if Mac scanning was only USB or also network capable and finally called their tech support for pre-sales. Immediately I was speaking with someone who was very friendly and was able to locate the answer quickly. She then asked if I would like to purchase the unit and gave me the price on the spot (which also happened to be lower than any of the other advertised prices). Turns out they have a friendly return policy as well and will pay for return shipping!
In sum, the great part is that I was able to get the answer to my pre-sales question from tech support quickly and they had the opportunity to immediately turn the tech question into a sale so it worked out great for everyone.
And that kind of hearkens back to what I credited to my sales success while putting myself through undergraduate school--individuals could ask me detailed questions about products which I could provide or readily find the answers to and that built a level of trust that people don't always get by going to a salesperson who doesn't know much about a product. The moral of the story... If your job is selling products, know something about what you're selling. If your are a savvy company and realize that tech support questions can be turned to sales, think about it. You may have to hire more expensive labor to do it but done right, you can have some pretty satisfied customers and it can lead to quick sales.
