While I am not a theoretical physicist I understand the so-called God Particle to be something that merits the name because it fits most theories or models. As I talk to owners & managers of small software product & services companies I get the sense from some of them that they see their product or service in the same light. Something along the lines of :
-"Our product does everything that the leading products in the market do & is a fraction of the cost"
- "I believe the service we are offering would be of tremendous value to early stage start-ups, mid size companies & the large enterprises".
People are often so passionate about what they have created or are so close to what they are doing that it's difficult for them to accept that this just cannot be the case - unless you have unlimited resources that is ! This creates a special problem when one tries to come up with a Sales Strategy or a Marketing / Demand Generation plan - by definition one cannot target everyone out there.
To drive home the point that likely target segments probably exist even though they may not have been tagged as such I recommend taking a look where you have succeeded / failed to sell in the past - if there is a reasonable aggregation of data available about past sales then just looking at the people who have bought your product or service & their reasons for doing so should start throwing up patterns (like the price / feature bundle, ease of use, your references are great etc.). This is even more useful when one looks at people who have considered but not converted - their reasons for not buying are often similar (not got the specific feature set we were looking for, not sure about support, don't think your skills in this area match up to our expectations etc.). One can draw reasonable inferences about target segments based on this - for instance if "ease of use" keep cropping up as a solid reason to buy your product chances are this points towards a type of organisation at a very specific level of skill in the area & there is great value in identifying other organisations in similar shape to target, if your references are winning you business then it makes sense to target companies that are similar to or value the same things as your references & so on.
It's probably worth pointing out that an example does not constitute a trend - if there is one customer of a particular type who has bought the product that may not necessarily represent the segment.
The obvious obstacle to this course is if a reasonable quantum of sales data is not available - either because the product / service is new or because this data has never been consciously gathered. In such a scenario my suggestion would be to:
- Draw up a few notional target segments based on a considered perspective of the overall market
- List a few potential customers in each segment with some bias towards names that one may have easier access to through a network, because of physical proximity etc.
- Run a time-bound, tightly monitored, structured sales effort focusing on these cos. with the primary objective of test driving the message, the issues of relevance to each segment - including reasons to buy & to not consider etc.
- Over the course of this exercise look to gather information that validates or debunks the initial assumptions about likely target segments. This could form the base for more informed decisions about the target segments & the best way to address them.
It is of-course possible that there are products out there that genuinely do everything & are of real value to everybody - to the makers of those products & the founders of those companies I offer my heart-felt congratulations &, if I may, my resume for a job on your sales team !
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