Tech CEOs Struggle with

High Cost of Sales

Lead generation and sales engagement times continue to increase resulting in longer sales cycles.

Pricing Pressure

The default way to win sales from competitors is to reduce your pricing.

Wrong Capabilities

Investing in product features that do not result in more sales faster.

Common Approach

  • Restrict information that is publicly available to make it difficult for competitors to copy
  • Create a roadmap focused on features and functions as requested by product users
  • Review competing products to identify the whitespace in your solution

The Result

  • Longer Competitive sales cycles as prospects do not fully understand how your solution differs.
  • Price pressures as prospects use competitor’s pricing to drive down the value you can claim.

 

The Problem

  • Hiding or containing product information makes it difficult for your prospects to evaluate your solution. When you hide from competitors you also hide from potential customers.
  • Reviewing competing products and asking product users which features they need leads to all solutions looking the same.

New Viewpoint

Accept that competitors will copy you front facing capabilities.   

  • Stop hiding your product. When you hide from competitors, you hide from prospects.
  • Focus on creating internal capabilities, processes and data that competitors cannot see and thus cannot copy. 
  • Make the customer the center of your product value.


Commoditization is coming

Assume there is a commodization ladder where each rung that initially provided differentiation has been copied.  

Your role is to move up the commoditization ladder faster and more efficiently than your competitors.

Invest Time Wisely

Spend less time looking at competitors and worrying about what they are doing.

Talk with your customers to share information and understanding their strategic, business and operational needs.

Partner with Customers

Change how you engage customers and solicit information.  

Don’t ask your users which features they need, as this leads to all products looking the same.

Instead, understand which business problems they need to solve.

Agility in Change

Continually invest in your solution’s architecture to quickly and capabilities to solve business problems in new and interesting ways.