Selling your solution
The steps listed below are those you might take to sell your software or services. Datalance can work with you to improve this process and increase your chances of a sale.
Understand your market
| Know yourselves | We are often able to help our customers understand their business from someone else's point of view; this is easier for us because we are 'someone else'. What is it you're actually selling? Is it what you think you're selling? Look at your marketing material - is it saying the same thing to us as it is to you? |
| Know your competitors | We can help you to understand who your competitors are and how they compare. Again, sometimes it's not obvious who your competitors are, sometimes they are not commercial competitors - they might be in-house departments, or entirely different non-software solutions. |
| Know your customers | This is key to successful selling. It may seem that one set of customers are better than others, but are they more profitable? That needs to be balanced with customers who make less profit, but could be larger in number if the solution is packaged in a different way. For instance could we sell 'hands-free' to one segment and reduce the cost of sale? |
| Decide how to price your offering | Are there components of the solution that could be sold on a fixed price? Are some better placed as time and materials? We can help you to understand how to structure the pricing with a balance of cash now vs. potential later. Together we could decide if success-related pricing is appropriate, based on your experience with the product. |
Build your propositions and publish them
| How do you reach potential customers? | We would look at your current marketing material, including business cards and promotional activities. There are a large number of events happening in your area to support your sales effort - are you using them and gaining sales from them. Have your potential customers heard of you? If not, why not? |
| Build a web site | Many small businesses still do not have a web site. Simple sites can be free to build if you're prepared to do it yourself, and often we have helped people to understand how to do it themselves rather than pay for a site. The key things here is: you need to be on the web. These days new customers will verify your existence by checking the web. If contacts come through the web site, then enhance it, if not leave it as a simple "here's what we do and how to contact us" site. Web sites do not have to be complex. |
| Promotional material | Let's look at the material you're publishing - does it support what you're trying to achieve? Does it target the right customers, or just anyone who's prepared to look? Does it clearly state what you are proposing, or just tell people what you do? It needs to state the beneficial effect your work will have on your customer, not just what skills you have. |
Respond to tenders
| Understand your requirements | May seem like an odd thing to say, but it's important to do the right projects - ones that will enhance your business. If you have 3 tenders to respond to, it's often better to respond well to one rather than spread your time over the three, especially of one takes you where you want to go and the others are just 'in your area'. |
| Write a professional response | That doesn't mean writing as many pages as possible - it means taking account of what the customer has asked for, building benefits to the customer into the response whilst ensuring that your strengths are highlighted throughout. What are the customer's real requirements? Do they want a new system or are they trying to increase sales? |
| Present your solution | If it's an option, it's often a good idea to try and present your proposal rather than just send a document. We can help you to structure a presentation so that the key points are presented in the right way. If required we can attend a presentation with you to support your offering, but we would never suggest to present the solution for you; you are a key part of your solution and you must build a relationship with the customer-to-be as quickly as possible. |
| Negotiate the price and timing | There are a myriad of ways a solution can be sliced and priced, depending on timing, constraints, quality of requirements and your own priorities. The customer may suggest alternative pricing structures and our experience will help to clarify whether these are achievable in part or in full. Often it is best to split a project up into different pricing parts, dependent on the factors and constraints presented. |
Based in Northampton, we tend to cover East Midlands and Northern Home Counties - Herts, Beds. & Bucks, but if you are further than this and need help, feel free to contact us and we will try to help - that may mean that we just find someone more local who can help, but we will make sure they are the right supplier and that they understand your requirements.
Our services are reasonably priced and can be success-based if scope and nature of the requirements allow.