I went to a AT&T company store last weekend.

I waited a while after AT&T released the Nokia Lumia 900 LTE smartphone to make a call at one of the AT&T O&O (owned-and-operated) stores in Denver, Colorado.

In January of 2011, I almost caused a ruckus when I [believe I] shamed the staff at a Denver-area AT&T store into admitting that they were people who epitomized the very terms “salesdrones” and “salesdroids”, as they were not interested in either listening to the desires of the customers or selling them the smartphones the customers want, but more interested in selling the easiest-to-sell products, whatever that might be..

Of Salesdrones, Windows Phones, Nokia, and AT&T Stores
This is a store I hadn’t been to before, for I wanted to be a ‘mystery shopper’.

I went into the store, and asked the first available salesdrone what the best deal on a ‘very good smartphone’ was.

Surprisingly, I was told of the Nokia Lumia 900 as the very first choice!

A non-iPhone recommendation?

Seriously, you could have floored me with a feather!

“Are you serious” was my next question.

The (lady) salesdrone proceeded to walk with me to the display, and launch into a listing of the virtues of the phone, and surprise again, the virtues of Windows Phone.

There, she, ever so slightly, went off the rails. For while she was enthusiastic, she made several factual errors that could be attributed to either sales exuberance, or inadequate training.

I proceeded to attempt to steer her towards either the iPhone or any of the Android junk that littered the store, but she wouldn’t bite.

I then asked for the service plans available, and at that point she whipped out a pricing matrix any CPA would be proud of, and launched into a lengthy explanation of the various benefits of each service plan.

My eyes glazed over, after approximately 10 minutes of listening to the drivel.

Well meaning, and well delivered, but drivel nonetheless.

When I couldn’t take it any longer, I informed her that she had sold me on it, whipped out my Sprint HTC Arrive POJ (piece-of-junk), and informed her that I would have to bring my ‘Better Half’ over so she can sell her on it too. In her defense, the lady was gracious, and confidently told me to come back anytime, and gave me her work hours.

I then left the store

AT&T now actually sells Windows Phones?
My primary shock here was that there was a concerted effort to at least bring Windows Phone into the sales conversation from not just the sales drone that attended to me, but from her colleagues as well, from the snippets of conversations I could overhear.

This is in stark contrast to the last time I ventured into an AT&T store and was amazed at the number of times my attending salesthingy tried to dissuade me from getting the Samsung Focus 1, with that beautiful AMOLED screen!

This is refreshing.

I don’t know if this new development is due to either much better training, a renewed focus on motivating the sales-foot soldiers, and better advertising. It could also be due to to the previously announced intention to use spiffs to motivate salesdrones and salesdroids to add sales pitches for Windows Phones to their repertoire.

Whatever it is, it has certainly moved AT&T store sales folk to talk Windows Phones with never before seen vim and vigor.

I hope they keep it up.

Why isn’t the Nokia Lumia 900 LTE selling at a faster clip?
Really, why isn’t it?

It is an elegant device, it sports a superior operating system, it has affordable pricing, and it takes advantage of the much faster LTE network.

Just like the iPhone did at launch, and since then.

So, what’s missing?

If you re-read the earlier part of this article, you might remember where my attention started to wander, and I lost cohesion with the salesdrone’s words: talking about available voice-data plans.

The data plan!

Yes, people!

The friggin’ data plan!

In all respects, the Nokia Lumia 900 is a worthy rival to the iPhone. So why not go ahead and admire the heck out of the iPhone all the way by copying the final thing that made possessing it easy?

This is where both Microsoft and Nokia have dropped the proverbial ball.

One of the most important things that Apple did when the iPhone was initially introduced, was make a pact with AT&T whereby the devices came with simple data plans that greatly aided , and simplified the buying process.

Now, this isn’t rocket science, and is easily to replicate.

However, I have not seen Microsoft, despite my many ministrations to them to do so, avail themselves of that little gem.

It greatly simplifies, and aids the buying process.

It truly does.

Unfortunately, apart from the planned use of spiffs, all I see Microsoft attempting to do, is repeat the same tired campaigns, hoping that some ad or the other would resonate enough with the populace, and drive them to the store.

Maybe, the ads would.

However, even if you factor in great, unforgettable ads, and well-incentivized salescattle, the STOP event created by the unnecessarily complex and myriad number of data plan options eviscerates all that goodwill, and might just end up driving sales prospects away, in virtual tears.

This is absolutely nonsense, and has to stop.

Yes, it has to stop, for the good of the platform.

Microsoft has to go the extra mile, and develop pricing plans for each, and every ‘signature’ device for every carrier, playing to the strengths of the specific carrier and the device(s) offered.

That would extend the cachet for high-end Windows Phones, and help drive demand generation for it.

If Microsoft has to subsidize the phones or data plans, they should do so, knowing all too well that Windows Phone users have an attach rate equaling that of the iPhone, and thus giving Microsoft an opportunity to recoup those very same subsidies on the back end.

I fear that if this is not done, this incredibly beautiful and functional mobile operating system could be eternally relegated to an also-run status.

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