Software Solutions Design, Inc.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

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  Contact Us:Mark BiskebornPhone: 949-293-2016California, USA

Marketing

In the field of Marketing, Software Solutions Design, Inc. is here for you, when you seek strategic consulting in all aspects from strategy, planning and tactics.  You might be looking for new approaches....

• New ideas about your marketing plan or support for business operations, for example, organisation and management of campaigns, texts, white papers, press articles, reviews, presentation materials, newsletters, or website development. 
• Take a fresh look at your strategy in light of new goals and tactical activities.

An applicable marketing and communications strategy is a requirement for success. The overall realization of strategic goals happens only when marketing, sales, and product management work together, when strategic plans take over the knee-jerk impulses.

• Create communication plans with marketing, sales, and product management. 
• Set into place marketing strategies through measured and monitored adjustments and revisions toward an optimal support of sales results. 
• Get control of sales impulses through strategic planning. 
• Work out all the tools needed for sales success in light of the global marketing concept.

Product Marketing

Within the specialized area, 'product marketing,' one of the main responsibilities is to develop a comprehensive 'sales kit' for the products and services in question. The sales kit must include all the tools that help the sales professionals to work with prospects toward a business solutions and closure on sales. Typically, the tools in the kit include various ROI calcualtors that quantify the financial and other benefits of a new information system. A mock-up of such an ROI Calculator is linked here: Mock-up ROI Calculator for Warehouse operations

The Link, above, displays a spreadsheet version of the Warehouse ROI Calculator that we later developed for this website using ASP and VB on the Microsoft .NET platform. Before developing any type of application, large or small, it is always more efficient to review the requirements as well as analyze the functional requirements in detail before launching the actual development project. The version of the ROI Calculator is linked here: Version 1: ROI Calculator for Warehouse Operations 

Soon, we will develop more applications such as ROI calculators for various types of applicaitons:

• Overall CRM implementations 
• Field Services 
• Call Center 
• Marketing automation
• Content Management Applications
• Document Management
• Information Security

ROI calculations are important because they serve as part of other types of measures to quantify the financial benefits for an organization to purchase a new information system. There are several other cost accounting techniques used in marketing and sales of new technologies. We will add more examples of a "sales kit" later. You might notice that the style of this ROI Calculator adds more detail than some of the ROI calculators that system vendors use for more commercial purposes on their Websites. In addition to ROI calculators, other tools in the sales kit include competitive analyses, pricing guidelines, white paper descriptions of product or service benefits, sales process guidlines with templates for communications with prospects, guiding them through the steps to closure on a solution.

Marketing Strategy

What is the focus and the main area of value proposition at your firm.  Take this and build on it for crisp communication to the market place about who your are and what products and serivces you offer in ways that outstrip your competitors. Strategy evokes the basic question about what plans are needed to market and lead your company to success. 

We consider your company's offerings.  How should a product or service be presented to the targeted market?  We seek less the answer in a tactical elements at this point, but more in what resources and measures should be chosen in order to obtain notice, trust and interest in the market.

A review of the target market lies at the forefront the marketing strategy. 

A focused positioning

"Positioning" means that you can find a unique place in the sun, secure a distinguished and noticeable place in the market.  The overall market is the total possibility of all customers that might become interested in your products and services.  Through positioning, you can carve down this huge set of potential customers to a segment in which you are most confident that 'these are the types of people most likely to buy my products.'  Once you refine the criteria that helps you to identify this segment, you find a market segment that becomes your target market, a set of prospects that require the least amount of resources to transform them into purchasing customers.  This is a group of highly profitable buyers because your "cost of sales" is low, your profit margin high. 

Through positioning, you can find the target market most inclined to need or want your products and services, thus the group that enables you to obtain the greatest return on your investment in business operations in general.  Such positioning helps you to define clearly and articulate with ease who your company is on the market and what value your company adds to buyers.  This quick and easy definition of your position is called the "elevator pitch" that can be brief enough to fit on your business card because it is so well thought out.

Advantages of focused positioning

• I know who my customers and prospects are, which ones are most likely to do business with me. In this way, I know where to find my prospects and where to concentrate my sales resources and investments. 
• If I can refine my positioning, I can easily communicate it to the market.  This makes is easy for prospects to know where to go for a particular, specific need for which I am well equipped, an expert, to handle for them. 
• In other words, when an electronics retailer needs to improve its web-based procurement processes.  Where does this retailer go?  To a process optimizing expert? Or to a consultant, a software solutions vendor, specialized in retail procurement optimization?
• With a well refined position, you make your company less vulernable to shotgun uses of sales resources, less vulernable to competitors. 

Requirements for defined Positioning

• Your defined position places your company where the buyers need your offerings and are willing to pay the prices for them. 
• In your selected target market, you can deliver your offerings in a very distinguished and preferable manner to the buyers. 
• You make sure that your buyers recognize the distinguishing ways by which you deliver the products or services to them.

Test to determine if you already have a solid positioning

From the following questions, you can quickly obtain a sense about where you are with your company positioning. Positioning is something that you need to adjust and fine tune often in order to keep up with your changing business environment.

• Do you know the market that is most likely to profit, obtain a solid ROI on your offerings? 
• Have you selected a refined market segment where your sales resources can focus their time and energy? 
• In three short, simple sentences, can you say what your company does for whom and how the buyers benefit? 
• Do you barrow mission statements that do not really correspond to your positioning? 
• Do prospects come to you through "word of mouth" or by any means other than your direct sales people going to them? 
• Do you have no or only very few competitors because your offerings or way to conduct business is so unique?

The more you can say "yes" to the above questions, the stronger your positioning.

Positioning, Promoting, Pricing, Competitive Analysis

In developing the "sales kit," we write white papers and other marketing collateral that positions your firm as well as your products and services in the clearest light and in sharp contrast to your competitors.  The marketing effort aims to set your firm, your products and services apart as the leader in your market place.  Leadership comes in the form of any compbination based on our packaging of your pricing, promotions and innovative value and financial benefits.

Marketing Communications

Clear positioning is a first and critical step toward developing a marketing plan. A clear position makes clear communication possible. In this way, position is also a critical part of branding because it enables potential buyers to identify exactly who you are in light of their needs or wants.  Marketing communication means working with marketing communications organizations to maintain continual industry press coverage regarding all new developments in your business. Presentations to journalists and analysts.  Presentations at trade conferences and seminars.  All marketing efforts aimed at maintaining a clear, concise branding, positioning, and promotion of your products and services. Clear messaging enables buyers to identify your business easily as the place to go to fill a need.  Clear messaging enables the sellers to make clear, understandable statements that make the buyers feel comfortable about doing business.

Lead Generation for Sales

Staffing and developing a out-bound call center capability to target, identify and qualify leads that are passed on to your sales team for further follow-up and processing through pre- and post-sales phases to closure.

More to come....

Soon, to demonstrate more of our work and capabilities, we are adding more capabilities and presentations to this website.

Does this interest you? Then we should talk soon. Send me an email(mailto:mbiskeborn@hotmail.com) or call me: 1-949-293-2016.

I look foward to your call soon...

Send me E-Mail (mbiskeborn@hotmail.com) or send comments or questions through the Website:Input form

Thank you!