Revenue Journal®

Let's assume someone really good-looking swept you off your feet with promises of a life of bliss. You dated, got engaged, and then tied the knot.

About five minutes after you left the church together in your limo, your new spouse suddenly turned into the ugliest, meanest, rudest person you had ever met. A broken heart and many months later, you were free, and you vowed to yourself: "Never again."

This is the mindset of today's software buyer. Especially those considering big-ticket, enterprise-wide programs.

These people are Skeptical, with a capital S. They have already been badly burned by "revolutionary" systems like CRM and ERP. Some of them almost killed their own companies trying to put these systems into place (and almost did it again when they had to remove those same systems).

Think you can impress these buyers with flowery promises? Not anymore. Think they'll believe that "It will be different this time - we will actually take care of you?" Ha! Think you're going to convince someone to champion your solution to their CEO? Dreamer!

They don't trust any promises; too many promises have been broken by everyone in the software business, from Microsoft (the biggest promiser and promise-breaker of all time) on down.

No wonder it's so tough to sell software.

Before we talk about the solution, we need to look at one other reason that enterprise-wide sales are so tough to close: the Little Black Mark syndrome.

People who work in corporations walk around with a small white board on their chests. When they start the job, the board is clean. After a while, the mistakes inevitably occur, and Little Black Marks start to show up on the white board. They remain there forever, as long as the person is working at the company. Every time that person walks into a meeting, everyone thinks, "Oh, yeah. That's Jack. He's the one who sent his 'isn't the CEO a jerk' emailto the entire executive team by mistake."

No one wants to be the sap who "champions" a product, only to have it shot down in flames. They may look at your product, and talk to others about your product, but they're not going to be its champion. That's why "viral marketing" doesn't really work in the enterprise world. Employees in large companies avoid taking risks.

Sellers from smaller entrepreneurial companies who are trying to sell their software into large bureaucratic companies have a hard time understanding how much these white boards influence the sale. They take risks every day.

What's the solution? How do you sell in the Skepticism Swamp?

Three basic ways:

1. Care about them.
They aren't going to buy something important from anyone who doesn't care about them. If all you care about is you, you won't get very far with today's customer. You can't fake this. Put your own anxiety aside and start listening. Understand what they are really saying. What is the real problem they're trying to solve? Can you help them solve it? If not, don't push. If you can, great. Proceed. But...proceed carefully. Which brings us to #2.

2. They're very ill. Feed them slowly. Start out with a nice, small appetizer. Make it easy for them to take it in a forkful at a time. Yes, you'll have to sit on your hands while they thoroughly chew every bite. But they're just not going to wolf down a banquet in one sitting. They got sick every time they did that, and they learned their lesson.

Everything about your selling and marketing - and how you price and package your product - should be modular and designed to take them to the next step, a little bit at a time. Do whatever you have to. Split your product into modules they can buy separately. Let them try before they buy. Create a "light" version.

Take hints from the inexpensive software programs, which often let you see screens or download a trial version before you commit. Customers really can't tell if a program will work as promised - and do what they want - until they start working with it.

Make it easy for them to see the screens and download a module, light version, or trial copy. Assume you will have to prove yourself over and over, with each interaction. They will never trust you completely, but they will trust you enough to let you take the next step.

3. Be flexible. A software company CEO and his VP of Sales recently asked me if I thought they should offer their product via unhosted subscription, hosted subscription, or seat licenses. "Everyone wants it a different way," they complained. "Which should we offer?" My answer: "All of the above."

If that's howyour customers want to buy, who are you to make it difficult? Your customers are the ones with the money, you're the one with the product. Make it easy for them to buy! If you aren't set up to give them a hosted subscription, and they want one, don't be stupid - get a server and a server guy! Outsource it! Do whatever you have to do. If being able to offer it the way they want it means you'll make the sale, what's stopping you?

No question about it: It's a swamp. But there's hope.

The Skepticism Swamp was filled by B.S. - grandiose promises callously made by people who had no intention of keeping them; by media storms; and by unclear strategies. It was created by people dirtying the waters with manipulation and greed. By programmers telling salespeople, "Sure, we can do that," when they should have said, "I think we can do that, but it will take six months and cost $300,000." By "heroes" coming in to revolutionize the business world with some great new system that couldn't even share data between applications. By magazines breathlessly pushing the latest program sold by (surprise!) one of their big advertisers. By sellers ignoring the power of the embedded base, behaving as if their program was being sold into - and would operate in - a non-networked environment. By marketers writing copy that slyly avoided the product's weaknesses, in the hopes that the customer would be stupid. And on and on and on.

You can pretend that it's 1986 and the PC has just come out and no one has been burned by technology - yet. You can dream that Silicon Valley is still mostly orchards basking in the sun, and no one lost half their 401K in the dot-bomb disaster. You can pretend that customers don't have the Internet to research even the most obscure product or topic, that you don't have to compete with everyone in the world selling your type of solution, that the swamp isn't filled with competitive and regulatory alligators, and that your customers would love to spend at least 20% of their working day trying to make your technology work.

You can also pretend that you're going to make a lot of sales. But you'll be wrong.

Want to sell in the real world? Make it easy for people to understand what you're selling, spelling it out in clear and carefully organized language. Interview your customers personally to know what their concerns are, then write copy that honestly and efficiently addresses those concerns. Most importantly, make it easy for them to take a little step, experience success, and then take another.

If you do all this, you will be able to lead them out of the Skepticism Swamp. And if you truly keep your promises, and take care of them after the sale, the entire software industry will start to heal, one satisfied customer at a time.