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How Not To Sell Software in 2012

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Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#111

Post by caublestone »

lhnn wrote: post #74
caublestone wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in Procurement and run RFP's all the time. you are right that enterprises go through this whole process and that they ask a lot of questions about software capabilities. But honestly, at the end of the day, the process is so long and drawn out mostly because of compliance. Start-ups are fun companies that don't really have to worry about the threat of being regulated or audited by the government. But a publicl…

As long as you hate being a part of that shitty machine, it's ok... I guess. EDIT: I love my job.. mostly because I got to install an app for my team that increases productivity WITHOUT: -Requesting a dev server build -Requesting a test server build -Getting permission to use an open source tool -Getting persmission to run said tool on "non-standard language" (PHP) -Explaining why I'm installing a tool for which one…

No it's not ok. It's a reflection on my fear of instability :).

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#112

Post by ableal »

davyjones wrote: post #33
damoncali wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much the entire CAD market is in that price range...

I will add PLM/PDM software to that. What many people do not know is that most core CAD product companies have a PLM product as well that can contribute upto half of all company sales. I used to work for one and know this for a fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_lifecycle_management

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_data_management

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#113

Post by onemoreact »

toumhi wrote: post #100
nhebb wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Practically everyone who’s paying for software is doing so through an app store I think that software developers that eat, sleep, drink, breathe the Apple / mobile world need to be careful not to let this define their worldview of the software market. As big as the Apple / mobile market is, it's still just a small piece of the overall pie. > And how well's that working for them? Although I think the premise is wro…

I'm always surprised when I see that kind of websites with no clear calls to action. They seem to violate all good landing page optimization guidelines, yet they are multi-million dollar businesses. Are they leaving money on the table by not optimizing their landing pages? Or did the customers learn to expect that kind of websites and already know they just have to call? In this case, would they be put off by a more…

It's just another way to maximize revenue. I recently got a Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN subscription though my company. If I go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy.aspx it looks like that's $11,899.00 yet when I looked on our internal site it was ~20% of that of that price. If the actual price is really 20% of that why even list the price? Well most of these sites are designed to sell to billion dollar companies and only a tiny fraction of the people visiting that site have the authority to purchase their product. Ideally, your contact info has value to them, and they trade pricing info for it.

But as an upside, you can often start using the software before the sales process finishes. Which is a fantastic end run around the 'approved' > 'negotiated' > 'purchased' process which can take forever at large companies.

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#114

Post by jules »

davmar wrote: post #78
secret_target wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would love to get your take on what sorts of online advertising has worked and not worked for you in building your company.

obviously google adwords. remarketing pixels are good. adsense blew away a ton of cash with few results. but check out other directory listings. www.capterra.com is HUGE for us. our conversion rates there are about 12% (!!!!). organic conversion rates are about 2.5%. which is much more reasonable. but we spend a lot of $$$$ with them. edit: a conversion for us is a lead.

What do you mean by adwords and adsense? AFAIK adwords is the advertiser's side of the coin and adsense is the content publisher's side of the coin.

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#115

Post by pavel_lishin »

Confusion wrote: post #93
CamperBob wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sure seem to know a lot about how busy I am and where my priorities lie.

He knows a lot about how busy people feel and where the priorities of most people lie, as expressed by their actions, as measured, rather than their words. He doesn't know a thing about you in particular and doesn't care, because he needs to get it right for most of his customers. Not every single one of his customers. If you don't accept these facts about email marketing, as annoying as the situation may be, you are…

> If you don't accept these facts about email marketing, as annoying as the situation may be, you are an outlier.

I probably am. That said, why not offer both options?

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#116

Post by AndreyKarpov »

Good article! I read this article and was glad. I am pleased that we are moving in the right direction. We watched as our competitors sell Coverity (http://www.coverity.com/) and Klocwork (http://www.klocwork.com/). The process is very complicated. We (http://www.viva64.com/) have avoided almost all of the items listed in the article. Cool.

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#117

Post by ttcbj »

davmar wrote: post #30
gruseom wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, that is a great comment based on experience. Can you say more about your industry and/or path to success? What was most surprising? Do you have salespeople actively soliciting business or do most prospects find you? What advice would you give to startups planning to break into the b2b world?

gladly. i think the single biggest contributor to our success has been the fact that we are in close contact with our customers. if we lose a sale, we have the opportunity to learn why we lost. during a webinar, we hear the reactions of customers. with RFP's we get a list of the features they want. when we win, we stay close to them during implementation. we learn what works/what doesn't work with our products. based…

Couldn't agree more with everything said here. I have had a very similar experience.

The only thing I'd add (more in relation to the comments above) - I think people are too quick to discourage a direct sales model for bootstrap B2B companies with products in the $1K to $5K range. If each sale generates long-term recurring revenue, if you can visit several customers per city, and if initial sales tend to lead to word-of-mouth sales later, direct sales can be a great way to get started.

You can do it on the cheap compared to a big-time enterprise salesperson. Its an investment. You learn a lot, you build relationships, and you begin to develop the momentum that the comment above discusses.

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#118

Post by Duff »

onemoreact wrote: post #113
toumhi wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always surprised when I see that kind of websites with no clear calls to action. They seem to violate all good landing page optimization guidelines, yet they are multi-million dollar businesses. Are they leaving money on the table by not optimizing their landing pages? Or did the customers learn to expect that kind of websites and already know they just have to call? In this case, would they be put off by a more…

It's just another way to maximize revenue. I recently got a Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN subscription though my company. If I go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy.aspx it looks like that's $11,899.00 yet when I looked on our internal site it was ~20% of that of that price. If the actual price is really 20% of that why even list the price? Well most of these sites are designed to sell to billion…

The problem is that not everyone works at a startup, armed with a credit card.

If you sell to the Fortune 500 or government, a procurement officer does the purchase. The procurement guy's purpose in life is to extract discounts. With government, it's even worse, as you have GSA and State contracts with published price lists.

There's also legal complications. If a vendor gives a discount to one government entity, all government entities qualify for that price by law.

Re: How Not To Sell Software in 2012

#119

Post by bradfa »

Hume wrote: post #31
bliss wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having spent the last year on a procurement project I agree, when it's millions of pounds at stake (much more in potential benefits) the sales process is necessarily protracted. However, I agree about the pricing games. In my experience, companies give a massive list price (but don't answer questions about how many companies actually pay that price - I figure none) and then argue the "discount" percentage. Stoney sil…

Do you know the price point at which purchase orders predominate over credit cards for payment? I'm launching a product soon and I plan to price it at $6k per year. I assume that the software will be paid for by PO but if anyone here has a different view, I'd like to hear from you.

My former employer (>150k employees) had MasterCard limits that were $3k per purchase and $15k per month per card. Those were hard limits. Anything over that had to go through POs. Amex was only to be used for travel, couldn't use them for purchasing products.

Current employer (<50 employees) has us use our personal cards and get reimbursed. Anything over a few hundred is going on a PO.

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