Much of my consulting lately involves on-demand services (aka software-as-a-service, or “SaaS”). I’m seeing ever-growing interest from business customers in subscription pricing and online services, especially since they pay much less “up front” versus software licensing. This necessarily slows down early revenue to the vendor and intensifies the need to upsell your installed base. Continue reading
I’ve often played the “secret shopper,” hired to approach key competitors as a customer or as a consultant to a prospective customer. The goal is to find out in detail what the Other Guys are really saying about themselves — and about you — plus specifics on their products, pricing, positioning, channels and delivery dates.
It’s very difficult for insiders to do this because [1] return phone calls to their office voicemail give away the game immediately, [2] competitive analysis needs consistency and concentration during several weeks of sporadic discussions, and [3] internal product managers/product marketers already believe they know the answers. Continue reading
Sometimes, at the end of a heroic development effort, we find lukewarm prospects instead of purchase-order- waving customers. How can we get inside our prospects’ heads early in the product cycle so that our “next new thing” meets their needs and desires? Or… paraphrasing Freud’s famous question about women,
“What do customers want?” Continue reading