Software Selling Mistakes : Ignoring long end of the tail

The other day I was in a discussion with one software company on specific exposure mechanism for the HRMS product vertical.   He had a concern, his product was too good to resist, he is sure of converting every lead which comes by, but how to get the attention of buyers.  With the market flooded with similar products, what will make his product stand out of the crowd in the first instance?  On iPOTT itself we have around 30 HRMS products..

I felt the answer was very simple.  The answer is in the question “so what’s the differentiating factor?”   The differentiating factor is not those 4 lines stated on your product brochure.  The differentiating factor must be in every aspect of exposure effort.   I will list out a few of the critical factors which act as differentiators.  You are welcome to add to it or totally disagree.

1. USP: This is one area to give some serious thoughts.  I generally see statements like : Good value for money, excellent service & support, etc. How can you call these USP?  How can you decide what value and for what money?  How do you qualify excellent?   How about thinking something really UNIQUE about the product you have to offer. It can be anything ranging from special product packaging or for that matter a very different type of service model. Remember don’t get someone, me included, to suggest  USP for your product. You be, your own  Mr/Ms. Outstanding to find the USP for your product.




2. Guarantee & allow reversal: I often see products tagged with guarantees like  ‘100% robust and reliable shortest implementation cycle’ etc. If such statements are true,  then say it with a risk reversal factor.  Eg: implementation cycle of 20 days, additional days will not be charged.  Money back guarantee, product take back, etc  fall into risk reversal. These statements actually adds a lot of trust and visibility to the software




3. Provide value add : Value adds need not be related to discounts or currency.  Bundle your product with complementary service or product of your own. Let me take an example from iPOTT,  Premium  Promoters of iPOTT can find Marketing Partners, reseller, etc through our “cross country introductions”




4. Beat your drums: Who else can do it?  Educate the buyer about your achievements, awards, clients, etc.  But do not mislead.   Don’t use market hypes, they are identified as hypes and they are only temporary attention grabbers. To the above, I would like to add some secondary factors which actually grab attention towards software. These factors will help buyers pause and if they have a clear and concise message they can stall a buyer to look at your software

• A classy Software logo




• A impressive software name




• A trademarked logo / name

How do you expect your buyer to consider your product to be out of the crowd if your erp application is called ERP Software? It is surprising to see how products & product logo are neglected. While 100’s and 1000’s of man hours & money are spent on product development, companies fail to spend time and money on a well designed logo or well thought name. When this is the situation I can hardly talk about branding. It is a fact that only 5% of the software names/ logo’s are trademarked. Trademark can bring in trust. A trademarked logo or name will ensure sustainability.



• A web site

Another ignored area is the website. I am not talking about the companies without websites (12% of promoters on iPOTT do not have websites) It is about companies with websites and what they convey. This is the first gateway to display all the factors which actually grab the buyer’s attention. This is the entry point for your visibility. I can count on my fingers, websites which are designed for the purpose of ‘attention generation’.

In reality all these points mentioned above should help you gather attention, generate interest about your product and also instill a desire to check for more information. I can’t help mentioning at this point, iPOTT listing helps your product get the required attention, allows interest generation and induces desire.

After this, what remains is for you to generate compulsion and action towards product procurement.
It’s time to move away from the crowd and focus on areas to bring about ‘exposure’ to your products. Do not take one step at a time, just leap ahead.

Happy selling!

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• “Threats” that make India Software Inc
• The topmost software selling mistake!
• Software Pricing Part 2
• Is it yours? TM it now!!