Question

Topic: Strategy

Marketing B2b Software - New Job

Posted by Anonymous on 3/1/2006 at 4:37 AM ET 800 Points
Hello,
I am happy to say that I just accepted a Marketing position with a small software company. (They produce a "small business" CRM product.) My question relates to marketing a b2b software product. I have limited experience in the high tech / software fields, and would appreciate any feedback. These are my questions…

1. How might marking B2B software differ from marketing other B2B products/services? (What should I be aware of, that I might not expect?)

2. Are there any good books, web sites … that relate to marketing software that you could recommend?

3. Any other advice – my first day is Friday.

I have already gained great insight from responses to other member’s questions and look forward to any advice you all may have for me.

Thank you – What a wonderful web site!
Jo
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 3/1/2006 at 6:30 AM Accepted
    From recent experience of helping technology start-ups get ready to enter the market, I see that the principal difficulties are often caused by the failure to address marketing fundamentals: by this I mean business and markt definition, segmentation, targeting and positioning. (In your position I would be looking at how well this groundwork has been completed).

    Then part ii - a clear market strategy - is often incomplete or not coherent. In particular, the *business* value proposition is not well-defined or articulated in a quantified way.

    Is is a natural tendency for B2B to focus on technicians - because they can talk about the technology and product features rather than business benefit. These are the hardest people to sell to - demanding, take a long time to make a decision (because it is not theirs alone) and are very price-sensitive (because they have to fight hard for their budgets).

    B2B software decisions, especially CRM, are really made by business people (Head of Marketing, Sales, Service, CFO, CEO). As a result, you need to think of business value angles that will interest them (because they had little to no interest or patience for detailed explanations of why the widgetry is so fantastic...!). It's a good idea to think about the attitude of the company towards technology adoption (past projects) as part of your targeting abd qualification process - Innovators, Visonaries, Pragmatists, Laggards behave differently, whcih demands different approaches and responses from you. (Look at Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" if you're not familiar)

    So part iii - a sound Marketing Plan - should recognise the reality of this DMU and that the sales cycle is probably going to be protracted and that buyers have a range of needs and behaviours....

    I'd recommend https://www.itsma.com/ as a good starting point. Lots of thought-provoking articles, even if you're not a paying member.

    Good luck and drop me a note if I can help you further...

  • Posted by telemoxie on 3/1/2006 at 7:57 AM Member
    Congratulations, and thanks for your question. One issue related to software maketing is that software is a unique product which can have a long sales cycle... and where a great many folks may be involved in, or impacted by, the decision.

    Most likey, you will be working for a firm with established competition, and you'll want to spend some time getting to know their strengths and weaknesses.

    Can you give us any more info on the type of position you will have, and the size of the small software company (e.g. does "small" mean 5 employees or 50?) so that we can offer more targeted advice?

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