by Scott on March 23, 2007
This is the first in a new series about business strategy choices we’ve made at Synap Software and how they work out. Most of these decisions are applicable to any company or startup, not only software vendors. In an old blog post I wrote a long list of what I called at the time “Best Practices” for software companies. (The post is here but is not required reading for this entry.) I promised to come back to it and explain the thought process behind each decision from the perspective of our company, so here we go.
Decision of Product Choice: Lead Management Software
There are several reasons I choose to build a small business marketing and lead management product. I’ll cover one reason here.
Reason #1: It’s What I Know
Though I promised to write this series some time ago, I was motivated to write this today after reading Phil’s Lessons Learned series. His blog is recommended reading. There is a thread running through his lessons learned series of the value of sticking with what you know and I agree with him. Whether it be the technological aspects, customer behavior, or industry metrics; sticking with what you know gives you a head start, helps you build the right thing, and keeps you interested throughout the long process.
- Knowing lead management helps us build the right thing
All designers and developers should read Robert Hoekman’s Designing the Obvious
. The first step in his “common sense approach to web application design”, which he admits is “pretty darn obvious”, is to Know What to Build. And what better way to know what to build than to be your own subject matter expert?
I know marketing, lead management, and workflow systems from 17 years of IT experience supporting Customer Care, Sales, and Marketing organizations. I’ve seen what works and what does not work through the eyes of users. I’ve seen users frustrated with large, long IT efforts and complex, expensive marketing and lead management software products.
I believe that the major reason for the high rate of IT project failure is the disconnect between the builders and users of software. By “sticking with what you know”, to use Phil’s phrase, that gap between builder and user is substantially narrowed. I didn’t need to go to users and take an order only to find out that what they ordered is not what they really wanted or needed.
- Knowledge indicates experience which indicates interest
Another reason to pick a product area in which you have expertise is that your level of expertise probably indicates your level of interest. You built expertise from years of experience and those years devoted to the subject probably indicate some level of interest. Interest in a subject will help keep you trucking through the long hours, seemingly endless work, and sometimes lonely efforts it takes to get started.
If I had not found small business marketing interesting I probably would never have gotten LeadsOnRails.com to a point of launch. My time and energy would have quickly been distracted into things I did find interesting.
- I can talk about small business marketing and lead management software with others
Step 2 of the 7 Steps to Improve Small Business Marketing is to participate in, listen to, and learn from your customers’ community. This is a lot easier and more enjoyable to do when you have your own experience and knowledge in the area.
Is small business marketing and lead management the right decision for us?
Building in a field I know is definitely the right decision. I couldn’t imagine trying to learn something new while also building a product around it. LeadsOnRails is satisfying users’ needs and expectations. I’ve been able to maintain a personal interest in the product through thick and thin.
The one area where I would like to do more is in regular and active participation in the small business marketing and lead management community. I have a plan and will share the results in a few weeks.
Subscribe
The easiest way follow along as I cover more details behind each major decision we’ve made to this point, as well as my assessment of if it was a good decision, is to subscribe to the blog feed.
CREDIT
Two recommended reads prompted today’s post. One is Phil’s Lessons Learned #1 – Stick with what you know. After reading this I realized I haven’t really explained why lead management software is something I know. I recommend you read Phil’s ongoing series on some of his recent decisions. And yes, I realize Phil’s mention to stick with what you know is in reference to technology choices (e.g. desktop vs. web), yet it is applicable across the board.
The other is Ken’s Restarting the MicroISV Challenge where he points out that he never really explained his project idea which, again, made me realize I never really explained much about our company beyond the “about us” and short biographies on our company pages.
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by Scott on March 21, 2007
Every interview in Jessica Livingston’s Founders at Work is full of interesting perspectives from successful people who had no guarantees when they started and probably claim to have no secrets of success. This is not a “success” book or a “how to” book, but simply an interesting book. Yet a read between-the-lines exposes secrets of success.
They are summed up in the interview with Paul Buchheit, creator of GMail and Adsense. Here is Buchheit on the idea for and the first implementation of Adsense:
”It was an idea that we had talked about for a long time, but there was this belief that it wouldn’t work. But it seemed like an interesting problem, so one evening I implemented this content-targeting system, just sort of as a side project, not because I was supposed to. And it turned out to work.”
Two Secrets of Success
In this quote we see two secrets of success common among folks that rise to the top of their industry:
- They work on what they find interesting. Not just on what they are told to or supposed to.
- They pursue ideas not generally expected to work.
Success and the micro-ISV
I suspect many micro-ISV owners have these traits and see themselves in this approach. To micro-ISV owners, it’s no secret.
In fact there are not really any “secrets of success” – it’s a simple risk-reward formula. Yet if this JoelOnSoftware thread is any indication, it is one that is too easily forgotten.
Success and the Employee
Work on what other people assign to you and you will likely complete the task, but will not find career-changing success. Work on something you find interesting and others find unlikely, and your chances for breakout success are increased almost immeasurably.
This advice is for everyone – not just company founders. For example, Paul Buchheit who I quoted above, is not a Google founder but an employee who practices these non-secret but too easily forgotten “secrets of success”.
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by Scott on March 20, 2007
Our work thrives on contact and feedback from users so I have four ways for people to contact us. If you are considering adding contact methods, here is my anecdotal experience of what contact methods are most popular and two questions for you.
In order of most used contact method to least used contact method by LeadsOnRails demo and trial users:
- Contact/Feedback form built into the product
- Email
- Campfire chat room here
- Phone: (303-683-3522)
I think it’s no coincidence that the two asynchronous contact methods are the most popular choices. This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe there is not a need for immediate contact, or fear that any live contact will turn into a sales call, or that those top two contact methods are just simply the most convenient.
Do you find the same preference for online contact forms and email or do people contact you more directly? Am I missing any important contact methods?
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by Scott on March 19, 2007
We have several articles showing you how to use RSS and Digg and other tools to publicize your blog and to make it as easy as possible for people to find you – obviously and important part of your small business marketing plan.
Here’s another quick tip. Use FeedBurner (you are using FeedBurner, right?) and set up your blog to use SmartFeed. Described by the FeedBurner folks as an option that “translates your feed on-the-fly into a format (RSS or Atom) compatible with your visitors’ feed reader application”, this lets you have one feed link and is just another small step you can take to make it easier for people to subscribe. Something to help with ”#3-Be Heard” on the list of 7 Steps to Improved Small Business Marketing.
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by Scott on March 19, 2007
If you have not yet checked out AddThis.com, take a look. Addthis is self-described as “Simple and recognizable widgets to help your visitors save and promote your website or blog to the social bookmarking and feed reader services!”.
I would have just said that you can replace this:
with this:
When someone clicks the “Bookmark” button, they are brought to the above list of options. Keeps your blog nice and clean but still offer your readers their favorite social bookmarking options.
How to Add This
When you sign up for an account, AddThis will create the button code for you based on how you are using it (website, blog, etc.). Simply cut and paste and you’re good to go. If you are using Typo, I’ll post a shot howto on our Rails blog.
Measurement
AddThis also has button statistics built in so you can see how many times each bookmark or feed is collected.
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