Know-How Exchange : Branding

Software that you customize for business customers would likely have a relatively long sales cycle, and require a certain level of customer hand holding. It is a nice dream to think you can place the information on the web site and companies will go and get it there and go right to buying from you, but this unfortunately does not happen. You should probably expect to have someone from your company give a live demo in your planned sales cycle.

You should use many different methods to get information out to customers. Direct mail, write articles, direct sales contacts, perhaps trade shows, etc.

Customers will want to know that the system does work, and for this I am a big proponent of articles. If you get a case study article published, this both gets the word out about the product, but more importantly provides information that tells prospective customers that you have a viable solution which is used by at least one customer. The article kind of acts like a reference customer for you, without the hassle of trying to get the prospect to talk with a real reference.

Don't have a reference customer to write an article about or use as a reference? Get one, as they are pretty much a requirement. It is common to discount (sometimes very heavily) for first customers willing to be references.

After the get info stage, you need to have a certain level of supporting information to move them toward buying. This may means holding webinars where a reference customer comes on and talks about their experience with the product, definitely means having a good web site and quick response to any questions they have, maybe some form of ROI calculator, maybe an online demo, etc.