After Madera County began using Envision, and we had received a few inquiries, my wife and I decided to advertise. We printed a flyer on cream colored typing paper using our dot matrix printer and sent it to all of the California environmental health departments.
We didn't know what to expect, so we were very surprised when more than 40% responded with a request for more information. We knew then that there was a real 
need for a comprehensive software package tailored for environmental health departments. As you can tell, though, we were not very accomplished or polished at marketing and sales.
I didn't know or enjoy marketing or sales. Yet I knew it was important and it had to be done. Although I eventually became fairly competent at it, I enjoyed software development, meeting with the clients, and solving problems (I was pretty technically inclined back then) more than creating sales material.
Turns out that being polished or accomplished wasn't as important as I thought. In fact, the few times that I tried to be so worked against me. No, it turns out the old maxim, "Treat your customers right" works.
For example, one day I got a call from Mike Chapman, from the Kern County Environmental Health Department. They had seen my software demonstration and were interested in talking to my clients. Mike wanted to let me know, "I've called every client of yours and not even one had a bad thing to say about you or your company!" Jokingly, he added, "You must be paying them, right?"
Another time Azeb Aberra, from the Seattle-King County Environmental Health Department called to let me know of her due diligence experience. She had called Lorraine Lew-White of the San Mateo County Environmental Health Department to learn more about us and our products. Lorraine told her that she'd be glad to talk to Azeb, but it would have to be later that afternoon.
Azeb, sensing that Lorraine needed a private time and place to dish the dirt on 
Decade, made the call at the appointed time. She was surprised when Lorraine put the call on speaker phone and introduced several people to her. Each of them answered Azeb's questions and overall gave Decade a very good recommendation.
As I've mentioned before, I've made mistakes. And for a while, our references weren't as positive as they once were. Nowadays, though, I'm getting a kick out of hearing my staff tell others their own stories of happy clients.
That's not to say we are sitting around slapping each other on the back. Just the opposite, in fact. We know we still have our work cut out for us, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying the great feedback.
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