Assessing Product Features Against Customer Expectations (ProductCamp Boston 2016)
Grow Your Business in New Ways - Steve Robins (ProductCamp Boston)
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Transcript of Grow Your Business in New Ways - Steve Robins (ProductCamp Boston)
© 2011
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com
•Provide a solution methodology for Marketing
•Discipline, rigor, consistency – best practices
•Help Marketing to work with Sales
•How:
• Solution Marketing Blog
• LinkedIn Group
Steve Robins
• 15+ years in solution marketing
– Expertise in solution, industry and product marketing
– Experience: FirstBest Systems, Solution Marketing Strategies, EMC Documentum, KANA, The Yankee Group
• Founder, The Solution Marketing Blog, Top-rated solution marketing blog
• Martech columnist for TechTarget
• Inbound Marketing Certified Professional
LinkedIn.com/in/SteveRobins1
Twitter.com/SteveRobins
SolutionMarketingBlog.com
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p4© 2009-2015
An Incremental View of Opportunities
Narrow view
Current product
Current customers
Expertise: my product
How do I expand my product’s opportunity?
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p5© 2009-2015
Services
“Solution-Thinking”
Customer
---
Pain
Points
Tech-nology
User
Process
Content/ Data
Complete SolutionEverything to solve the customer’s problem
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p6© 2009-2015
Complete Solution
User • User interfaces
• Training
• Support
• Best practices
• Domain expertise
Process • Process optimization
• Reengineering
• Workflow
• Integrated experiences
•ROI studies
• Security
Content/Data
• ContentDocuments
Images
Video
Music
Books
• Data
• External data sources
• Data security, data policies
Technology • Hardware/ infrastructure
• Software platforms
• Applications
• Complementary technologies
• Integrations
• Custom coding
Services • Strategy
• Project management
• Risk management
• Custom coding
• Integration services
• Communications services, hosting
• Support
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p7© 2009-2015
What is a Solution-Thinking Anyways?
so·lu·tion
General definition:
a: an action or process of solving a
problem
b: an answer to a problem
so·lu·tion-thin·king
Business definition:
Creating complete and integrated
customer-focused offerings that
includes everything required to
solve a customer’s problem
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p8© 2009-2015
Why “Solution-Thinking”?
Increasing complexity of technology
Limited in-house IT to support systems
Avoid in-house/SI build or integration
Business users drive tech decisions but don’t understand the technology
Mature markets
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p9© 2009-2015
Why It Matters
Early Adopters
Visionaries
Innovators
Technology
Enthusiasts
Early Majority/
Pragmatists
Late Majority
Conservatives
Laggards
Skeptics
Time
Customers want technology
and performanceCustomers want solutions and convenience
Rela
tive %
of
Cu
sto
mers
End of LifeEarly Life Bowling
Alley
Sources: E.M. Rogers, G. Moore
The Solution Opportunity
Main Street
The Tornado
The Chasm
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p11© 2009-2015
Solution-Thinking
Competency based on knowledge of the customer and problem, NOT only the product
Look for new ways to serve…– Current customer – more fully solve problem, address new problems
– Related users, same company
– Related users in same ecosystem
Opens up more growth opportunities
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p12© 2009-2015
Expansion from Core Competency
Current
Customer
Problem
Same company
different functions Other
companies
Other
verticals,
Similar
challenges
Current Customer
Different problems
Same
Ecosystem
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p13© 2009-2015
Exercise
Your product?
How does your current approach fall short?
What new opportunities do you see?
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p15© 2009-2015
The 4 P’s – All About the Company
Place
Product
Pro-motion
Price
Company
“Build it and
they will come”
Outbound,
interruption
marketing
Cost-plus;
margin is king
Best channels
for us to sell
the product
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p16© 2009-2015
Strategy, Metrics
Place
Product
Pro-motion
Price
Company
Solution Marketing – All About the Customer
Customer
---
Pain
Points
Solution
AccessEducation
Engagement
Value
End-to-End Marketing for TodayCustomer-Focused Marketing
“How can I solve
my problem?”
“How can I
learn more
about it?”
“How will it help me and
what is my total sacrifice
to get this solution?”
“Where can
I find it?”
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p17© 2009-2015
Value = Benefit - Cost
Benefits (Improvement)
Profit, expense, revenue drivers
New business
Time savings
Productivity improvement
Headcount reduction
Soft benefits
Total Cost of Ownership
External…
– Software
– Hardware
– Services
Internal…– Training
– Change management
– Desktop upgrades
– IT management
Valueto the user
or buyer
$D
oll
ars
Perceived
Benefit
Value
© 2011 www.SolutionMarketingBlog.com
Total
Cost
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p18© 2009-2015
Value = Benefit - TCO
Value-Based PricingB
usin
ess B
en
efi
t ($
)
CBA
Poor Value
Unneeded
features
Fair Value
Price matches
benefit
High Value
Lost software
revenue
Assume that vendor charges fair price
for features provided
D
Customer
Benefit
Fair Value
Price matches
benefit
Lost revenue
Unneeded features
Customer
Benefit
Customer
BenefitCustomer
Benefit
Price
Solution use-case drives benefit and value
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p19© 2009-2015
Solution Needs Hierarchy
Components &integrations
Businessvalue
Solution description –what it does
Target audience and business problem
Intelligence:templates,
rules etc
Mature
Less
Mature
2
3
5
1
4
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p21© 2009-2015
360o Discovery
What markets and solutions should we
target?
What will each solution do and include?
How will we educate and engage with potential
users and buyers?
How will we incorporateand communicate value?
How would the user/buyer like to buy and use the
solution?
Internal
• Revenue
• Current offerings
• Core competencies
• Solution maturity
• Sales-readiness
External
• Under-solved challenges
• Top market, solution opportunities
• Segment size
• Market drivers
• Competition
Solution Requirements
• Use cases
• Revenue
• Business challenges
• Industry/function trends
• Key components
• Buy vs build
• Testing
Persona
• Titles
• Business challenges
• Career goals
• Thought process
How to connect
• “Hang-outs” –communication channels, pubs, trade shows, social media
• Industry jargon
• Influence levers (ex case studies?)
Value
• Before/after process
• Before/afterchallenge/gain
• Customer’s value drivers -dollar impact
• ROI
• Purchasing habits, budget
Access
• Best channels
• Optimal role of VARs, SIs, directsales, buying on contract
• Preferred delivery models… Software? SaaS? Business Process Outsourcing?
User
Personas
Customer
Value
Solution
Access
Portfolio
Strategy
Solution
Development
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p22© 2009-2015
BIZ CHALLENGE SOLUTION
PowerAdvocate Offers Complete Solutions
Business challenge:Optimize procurement in the energy sector (power plants)
Company challenge: Differentiate the company from larger players like Ariba
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p23© 2009-2015
BIZ CHALLENGE SOLUTION
PowerAdvocate Offers Complete Solutions
Products: SaaS solutions for procurement spend, cost, market, sourcing
Services: Industry experts provide services to lower costs
Data: Market-specific procurement data and analysis
Differentiator: industry-specific data
Solution Assessment
User
Process
Content/Data
Technology
Services
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p24© 2009-2015
BIZ CHALLENGE SOLUTION RESULT
Microsoft SharePoint Delivers Valuewith 50% of the features
Share information with other people in the enterprise
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p25© 2009-2015
BIZ CHALLENGE RESULTSOLUTION
Microsoft SharePoint Delivers Valuewith 50% of the features
We don’t claim we do everything. If we do 50 percent of the functions that these other companies do, but they’re the ones customers really want, that’s fine. The magic is that end users actually like to use the software.”
“Chris Capossela
Senior Vice President
Information Worker Product Management Group , Microsoft
NY Times 8/2/2009
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p26© 2009-2015
BIZ CHALLENGE SOLUTION RESULT
Microsoft SharePoint Delivers Valuewith 50% of the features
Significant growth at expenseof mainstream ECM vendors
Lesson: Customers gain value by buying only the features they need
E
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p27© 2009-2015
Summary
Go beyond product
Focus on the customer/market
Solve complete problem
www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com p28© 2009-2015
Thank You
Steve Robins
PrincipalSolution Marketing Strategies
LinkedIn.com/in/SteveRobins1
Twitter.com/SteveRobins
SolutionMarketingBlog.com
www.SolutionMKT.com