grow your business in new ways - steve robins (productcamp boston)

29
© 2011 www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com Grow Your Business In New Ways Steve Robins May 2, 2015

Upload: productcamp-boston

Post on 16-Jul-2015

158 views

Category:

Marketing


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

© 2011

www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com

Grow Your Business In New

Ways

Steve Robins

May 2, 2015

© 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 p3© 2009-2015

“Product Thinking”

Company

Tech-nology

Customer

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 p10© 2009-2015

Solution-Thinking Everywhere

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?

© 2009-2015 The Solution Marketing Blog

Solution Marketing

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 p20© 2009-2015

Theory In Action

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

© 2011

www.SolutionMarketingStrategies.com

Grow Your Business In New

Ways

Steve Robins

May 2, 2015