Dealing with FUD#4 (``Promises of Future Bliss'')

Change the topic back to what's currently shipping rather than promises. Emphasize that:

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Your product is technically superior to what is shipping today (e.g. BIND 8 offers capabilities that the NT 4.0 nameserver does not offer, such as enhanced security),

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The promised future bliss is currently vaporware,

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The actual delivered product may or may not contain the capabilities that the salesman is promising (For example, Windows 2000, according to many industry analysts, is still not going to contain many of the functionalities promised by Microsoft in 1995 for their ``Cairo'' release of Windows NT),

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By the time the promised future bliss is actually delivered, it is likely that your own product will have leveraged its current advantage and be yet more advanced than the promised product.

Do not spend much time on the above. Emphasise that you're not interested in speculating on vapor, you're interested in what's currently shipping. Shrug off the promise of future bliss with ``promises are easy, let's talk about what's currently shipping.''