Whenever I talk to other ISVs there are two recurring themes: pricing and sales. Pricing is hard, as much guesswork and art as science. And most ISVs – those set up by developers, anyway – don’t understand sales.
But help is at hand.
Firstly, check out the video of Paul Kenny at Business of Software 2008. If you think that your software sells itself, or find sales distasteful and sordid, then prepare to be challenged.
Paul starts off his talk by asking the audience to agree or disagree with statements such as:
“I really love being sold to”
“Generally speaking, sales people disappoint me”
You can guess how that went. In response, he says:
“What you’ve experienced in your life are banal, mediocre, inappropriate sales techniques. Over the next hour, I’m going to make it my mission to put you in touch with your inner sales person. I’m going to help you love your sales people a little bit more.”
And, dammit, I think he pulls it off.
There’s no better time to watch this video: as the economy sours, persuading people to open their wallets will get harder. So selling will become more important. Here’s the video:
http://businessofsoftware.wistia.com/medias/jazqld91pq?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640
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