Question

Topic: Strategy

How Can Software Services Be Marketed??

Posted by Anonymous on 6/28/2005 at 6:32 AM ET 250 Points
Marketing a product was always easier. You need to know your basics, and keep it right. You do have a fair deal of playing ground within your strategy, and you innovate and improvise. However, there is one Industry which is plagued by a serious dearth of ideas on how to market itself: The IT services industry. Real world marketing strategies fall on their face here. And then there is the quintessential COMPETITION. In such a scenario...how is a marketeer placed vis-a-vis his options..??? What are the possible strategies that can be employed to create a mindshare within the prospects/ clients for an IT services organisation???
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by adammjw on 6/28/2005 at 8:17 AM Member
    Vivek,

    I would not say that marketing a product was always easier.Simply products came first to be marketed before services came up and that's it.
    I would say that you face similar marketing challenges as the companies selling B2B solutions.
    You have to convince them and find a way to show your prospects that it's your IT which will help them make their business easier, more consumer- focused or whatever it's meant to support or facilitate.It has to demonstrate it's a solution to their problems and headaches.So the question is what customer needs your IT addresses and in what way it's superior to other IT solutions they already have but find unsatisfactory or simply do not know yet how helpful it might turn out to be.

    Rgds

    Adam
  • Posted by steven.alker on 6/28/2005 at 10:40 AM Accepted
    It’s not what comes out of the box, it’s what you can do with it, whether it’s a vacuum cleaner, a computer, a software package, and insurance policy or an IT services contract.

    Bells, whistles, knobs, kilowatts, megabytes, annual percentage returns and the fact that it looks like an iPod all help to differentiate your product or service from the competition, but the consumers, especially B2B customers don’t make buying decisions based on these facts alone.

    In IT services, the challenge has always been to convey benefits to the prospective customers – the same challenge as has faced the insurance industry, industrial financing and any other area where the sale involves an intangible. Even high end capital equipment sales suffer the same problem. You can’t exactly demonstrate a nuclear power station to someone, especially if yours is the first of its kind.

    Here’s one way you can do it. You must have a clear understanding of the difference between features and benefits.

    List the features of the IT service you can deliver to your clients

    Attach the benefits of these services to the items on your list. There can be many benefits to each feature, but one should be a paramount benefit.

    List how you can deliver these benefits.

    Market your enterprise on this basis and then get out in front of your prospective clients to explain the benefits in a sales visit.

    Ask the prospective client about the problems they encounter and show how your services can solve them. Do it problem by problem using the benefits you will deliver.

    Ask them if they agree that these benefits will be the solution they are seeking to their problems and whether on that basis you can have their business.

    Keep terms like “Mindshare” and other marketing-speak to internal memoranda and when with the client, keep it simple. Relate to their needs, solve their problems and ask for their business.

    Sorry if that seems terribly old fashioned in the IT age – we run a CRM consultancy and I think that it is fair to say that when it comes to sales, the simplest approach involving the least conspicuous application of the technology we can deploy tends to win the sales.

    The prospects can be impressed with the software and seamless application of our SQL integration techniques once they become customers!


    Steve Alker
    Unimax Solutions
  • Posted by michael on 6/28/2005 at 10:49 AM Member
    Service or product, you sales staff is selling themselves or "trust".

    You, as a service provider, need to be seen as credible. From there it's still about relationships. In my "product" days we had to give away samples. In the service business we give knowledge....some more freely than others.

    The hardest thing you have to do is convince someone they need your service. I submit that is too time consuming ans there are 1000's of companies who KNOW they need your service. Put your focus there.

    Michael
  • Posted by wnelson on 6/28/2005 at 11:09 AM Member
    Marketing fundamentations DO apply to the IT industry in particular, and the service industry in general. It's all about the needs off the customers and how well you satisfy those needs versus the competition. What is the value of the IT service to the customers? Competition is both external and internal. If a company has IT folks inside now, how would they benefit by having an outside service? Do they save money? Do they get a hire caliber of expertise and does this pay back in opportunity or cost avoidance? How is the value you provide higher than the value your competition provides? These are the keys to marketing your IT services.

    Wayde
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