How to Sell and Market Business Software

Are you still trying to sell your software to businesses the old-fashioned way, with one-time license fee and direct sales? In some cases, this is still the best approach. But in today's rapidly changing software industry, there are more options available to grow your sales.

In the current competitive software marketplace, it is critical to focus on these 6 key steps to keep your software sales growing.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper & pen, or text editor on your computer

1. Target your Product & Pricing.
   
   Do you have the right business model and pricing structure? There are many options available today: single license, subscription, SaaS, open source, outsourcing, etc. Make sure you have the right model for your software, or perhaps it is time to add other options for your customers. For example, moving to or adding services revenue or subscription licensing can drive increased software sales.

2. Have a Strong Value Proposition.
   
   What is your company’s and your product’s biggest strength (in the eyes of the customer, of course) and main advantage against your competition? That is your value proposition. Keep it simple. You should be able to communicate it without even a moment’s thought, and it must be communicated convincingly and with passion!

3. Identify your Profitable Customers.
   
   Exactly who are your best customers? Are they in a specific industry? Are they in small, medium or large companies? What other common characteristics do the right customers have? And who are the specific purchasers and stakeholders within your customer? Make sure your software sales strategy reaches these specific target customers. If you have a lead outside of this target, you should think long and hard about whether you want to spend your time chasing it. Focus your sales efforts on the right customers.

4. Build Strong Customer Relationships.
   
   Know who within your target customers you need to build relationships with. These should be the individual purchasers, stakeholders and influencers of your product or service purchase.

5. Reinforce your Value Proposition with ROI and Client Examples.
   
   So you've got a strong product and value proposition, identified the right customers and built relationships with them. But that is not enough to get them to buy your software or service.
   
   Especially in today's economic times, you need to convince that customer that you really can deliver on your value proposition for them. That means communicating a strong and convincing ROI.

6. Ensure your Sales Organization and Compensation Drives the Right Behavior.
   
   Both your sales organizational structure and individual ownership/reward must be structured in a way that supports customer relationship building with the right target customers. Sales process is absolutely necessary, but make sure it does not get in the way of your sales people doing their job, and make sure the comp plans are rewarding the right behavior.

Tips & Warnings

• Forget the "generic" sales pitch (or at least, leave it in your briefcase until the customer requests it...). Instead focus on listening to your customer's needs.
• Make sure your identify & know your customer's pain point... it should be one of their top-3 to drive a solid sale.
• Don't waste time trying to follow up on every lead generated by your marketing efforts. Before spending time on a sales lead, make sure it fits your target customer profile.

Resources

• Software Marketing Advisor site for guidance and tips on software marketing and sales.
• More information and tips for strong software sales.

[cfointhebox]

on 11/28/2008 Great marketing advice