This has got to be the worst acquistion mechanism snafu that I've seen in some time.

So, I'm on the SPSS website looking at some web analytics products. Having been convinced that they might have something for me, I click on the well placed "Contact Sales" button at the bottom of the page I was just reading.

Upon clicking on the "Contact Sales" button, I'm asked to login. You want me to WHAT? Login? To your site? You mean, I have to get a username and password to your site just to have someone call me to try to sell me something? What the hell is this crap?

Our clients consistently want to put their "best" stuff behind a password out of fear of their competitors getting it. I keep telling them their competitors have had access to their marketing materials for years, and it does no
them no good to hide it from everybody else, particularly the people they want to communicate with.

And if you click on the tinty "Contact us" you get a regular web-form that includes phone numbers and their address.

We're seeing this more and more. Apparently Marketing groups are being incented by the number of 'leads' that they can collect...by what ever means.