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| Written By Shawn Strayer, Web Developer at Rockton Software |
Download (Trial Version)
o The difficulty with this approach in a corporate environment is that usually the individual interested in your product does not have the technical knowledge/authority to get it installed and configured correctly. It is a high barrier of entry to ask an end user to download your product, contact their IT department to learn how to install and configure it for them, just so they can do an evaluation. Even if your product is targeted at an individual, many people are not comfortable with the risk of downloading and installing unknown software on their personal-use computer. Another disadvantage is that your product may have been improved or modified since the download happened so a customer may be evaluating something that is out of date. Simply put, this approach is just too much trouble and will only be successful for the rare product that is the only game in town.
On-Demand Demo
o This approach is successful for accomplishing a high level overview of what a product can do, but it lacks the ability to be tailored to an individual customer. Usually, the customer walks away feeling, “Well, I know what it does, but we perform X,Y, & Z tasks differently, and I’m not sure it can work that way.” If you are fortunate, this approach might peak their interest enough that they download the trial software, or it might also result in a time consuming follow up call to the salesperson to gather further information or schedule a Live Webinar.
Live Webinar
o There are many disadvantages to this approach. Often a company will schedule specific dates to perform a mass webinar and that requires the customer to make time in their schedule to evaluate your product. If this is an individual one-on-one webinar, a result of a sales call, then usually the salesperson can work around the customer’s schedule; this model is costly to a software company and simply does not scale well if you have a large client base.
Trade Show
o This is the most personal approach to selling software, and the one that most closely resembles the brick-and-mortar approach available in other industries. Attending a trade show gives you the ability to meet with prospective clients and show them exactly how your software can solve their problem. Usually, your most knowledgeable employee will be giving the demonstration and can answer any questions that arise all while tailoring the experience to the individual. While trade shows may appear to be the panacea for software sales it has many obvious drawbacks. Although you gain the benefit of having a targeted and captive audience, that audience is limited to those who had the time and resources to attend the trade show, which only represents a very small percentage of your possible customer base. Leveraging trade shows as your primary means of selling software will ultimately result in a much higher cost of sale since this approach often requires travel and lodging. Depending on the size of your sales force, this approach can also lead to burnout and exhaustion due to the excessive time commitments required.
After looking at all of those approaches you may just be thinking there is simply no good way to sell software, and that is where leveraging the cloud comes into play.
To lower the barrier of entry for your software and make it easy for a customer to try your product we, here at Rockton, recommend a product sandbox. For those not familiar with the term, a product sandbox is simply an environment that has your software already installed and configured that an interested individual can access to perform their own evaluation.
As of this writing, it is possible to standup an Amazon Web Service EC2 instance for as little as 12cents/hr with no upfront expenditure; you are only charged for instances that are actually running, which allows us to spawn instances on demand from our website and terminate them when the user is finished.
Although the machine environment remains consistent each time it is launched—the data entered by users evaluating the software is lost when an instance is terminated, so there are no concerns of data exposure between prospective customers.
Another benefit of this approach is having a product environment already setup and configured in the cloud also allows internal employees to use the same environment for product demos, webinars, and trade show environment should the need arise.
So let’s compare how a Product Sandbox approach differs from those above:
Sandbox vs. Download (Trial Version)
o No download, installation, or configuration is required. A prospective customer can simply launch the environment from your website and begin evaluating your software. You are also guaranteed that they are always evaluating the current release.
Sandbox vs. On-Demand Demo
o Unlike an on-demand demo that is static, a customer can actually use your software and evaluate if it works the way they need it to.
Sandbox vs. Live Webinar
o Scheduling is not an issue, now. Since a customer can simply perform their evaluation at a time that is convenient for them. There are also no problems with scaling since unlimited evaluations can occur simultaneously, and the cost to the software company is negligible.
Sandbox vs. Trade Show
o A product sandbox will not provide the high-touch value of meeting with a knowledgeable employee in-person and having your questions answered on-the-spot. However, your sales force will be much better prepared to assist prospective customers when they are not burdened with excessive travel. Hopefully, when they are contacted, they are now dealing with a somewhat educated customer that has previously spent time using the software and has specific task oriented questions. The reach of this approach is also far greater than you would achieve through only attending trade shows.
At the end of the day, your ultimate goal is to make it as easy as possible to let a customer prospect use your software and evaluate if it meets their needs. In the end, purchasing software with as few barriers as possible.
By leveraging Amazon Web Services and having a product sandbox in the cloud, you are well prepared to reach a large client base with a solution that is easily scalable, low maintenance and relatively low cost.
A good product will indeed sell itself, but only if you get it in front of your prospective customers.
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