Now more then ever your prospects are busy and purchasing your software is probably on the bottom of their “to do” list. They have bills to pay, the kids to cart around from one activity to another, they’re sleep deprived and they don’t trust in your face advertising. However it’s your job to break through their routine and have them hone in on the products that most likely will make their lives just a little bit easier. So how do you do you do that? Simple…address your prospect’s current problem or need they help with.
1. Make it All About Them
You need to develop a Position. This position clearly and succinctly communicates what your solution does for them. It also presents a point of differentiation from your competitors.
Your Position allows you to get into and stick in the prospect’s mind.
You need to decide WHO you are talking to… what their NAGGING problem is, how your product solves it, and how your product is different from the alternatives.
When you answer those questions you are ready to develop the Positioning statement.
2. Uncover Patches of Organic Fans and Widen your Business Opportunities.
A great example of this is Photoshop, I know a number of Photographers, Graphic and Web designers that are using Photoshop for their work and personal use but recently I discovered there is a whole niche of Real Estate professionals that are trying to make themselves experts with this tool in order to enhance the look their personal websites and photo galleries and videos to make a lasting and great first impression without having to spend the extra cost to hire a professional to do the same services.Put in a system to discover this. If you have customers select their profession or industry when they purchase, you can create a simple system for noticing surges (up or down) and look into it further. Your software may be getting used for reasons you may have never thought of. Then, you could create an entirely new website or landing page for this group with specific testimonials, case studies, tutorial videos, and online demos to engage them with.
3. Make Video and Interactive Demos a Must!
The benefits of video can’t be stressed enough… particularly for software services. Showing your software in action helps melt resistance to purchase, or even trial, away and makes the user feel like she has a better shot at getting the full benefits. Most people won’t sit down and read a ton of text, but many will watch a several minutes of video.
If you don't have one you may want to set up a channel on youtube.com for your company. It’s one place to house all your videos and it also helps when prospects are trying to maybe not find a specific video but all videos related to your company software. Here is an example of video to sell software demo services, Intro to TestDrive online software demos. All sites selling software should have these types of short, demo videos.
4. Put out Case Studies, Serve Up Testimonials.
It’s surprising how many companies still don’t do this… Testimonials sell software, heck great testimonials can sell anything when they are put where people can see them, so place them everywhere…your website, your Facebook fan page, even on Twitter. Case studies have even more impact. You can offer case studies on industry related publications to gain more exposure. Take that a step further and create video case studies and testimonials.
5. Use Social Media to Connect, Support and Improve.
When I am looking for software that I may not be familiar with the first place I go to is Twitter these days. I want to know who else is using the software and their thoughts on it, the good and the bad. It’s the fastest way I know to get relevant information that is of the moment.
Offering an ongoing conversation about your software is key to not only support current customers but to engage new ones as well. There are already many savvy software companies using Twitter and other social sites to make customers aware of outages, blips in service, updates and to ask questions on what users would like to see in the next version upgrade.
YouTube is usually the next place I go to review what people are saying about a product and how they use it for their needs. I like to see if their needs are relatable to mine and how this software has possibly helped them. From viewing the videos I can also discover other uses and features that I did not know were available. This is why having a channel is so important so that your customers can share information and indirectly gain you new clients while at the same time upgrade current ones to latest versions. Its’ also a great way to visually show your current customers how to resolve simple problems or errors they might have run into.
Once I have done my research on a new product Facebook tends to be my last stop on the social media tour. It’s where I go once I become a fan of something and other times it’s where I go to learn about how the product or service I like so much is evolving… whether it be a service update, upcoming related products or discounts.
The web and Social Media in particular are such a necessary resources for all companies and customers these days that even if you are not making the fast sales from it you gain face time with folks that you may not otherwise reach. It’s a way for your testimonials to become a living and breathing entity that can and will create the strongest sales source of all….word of mouth.
