2 Ways NOT to Sell Your Software to Customers:

Nearly every business is trying to implement newer technologies to manage and make their internal process efficient.

From marketing and sales to HR and payroll - there are software solutions for everything.

It's a huge market - projected to reach around US$698.80bn in 2024.

But because of the sheer size of the software market, it becomes a breeding ground for conflicts.

Between who? Between the software vendors and businesses/customers.

Often the consumer complains that the software or product does not work as expected.

Such conflicts usually result in delayed implementations, productivity losses, and wasted resources on both sides.

The reason for the conflict is usually mismatched expectations.

And do you know why mismatched expectations happen?

Because of the way the project is onboarded and how the sale is made.

Now how can you avoid these situations? Or at least lower their impact..?

Let me tell you 2 ways for that.

But remember, there are no sure-shot ways to avoid disputes entirely.

But there are a few points to address whenever you are selling a software product:

1) Manage Expectations

The first step is to understand the business requirements.

Understanding the business requirements is like the foundation of a sturdy building.

You have to get that right, or otherwise, everything might crumble.

You have to make sure that your product is the right fit.

And providing disclaimers (if required) is the right way to start.

Now when it comes to agreements, you have to provide deliverables or statements of work (SOWs).

For e.g., in the context of software development projects, focus on:

a) Functionalities

b) User interface design

c) Performance metrics

d) Integration requirements

These focus points will help you a lot early on to avoid disputes later.

2) Training Marketing Team

While it’s understandable that you may want to show the best of your product in your marketing strategies.

But there’s a thin line when it goes to the extent of the misrepresentation.

The sales staff sometimes have targets.

Now because of this, they may sometimes OVER-SELL by mentioning something that the product is actually not capable of.

This again creates mismatched expectations at the time of implementation.

One other point is - not to lowball your cost estimate in an eagerness to secure the client.

Lowering the price often causes problems.

Because then you might not be able to adequately deploy resources on the software implementation.

That's it.

These are 2 ways you need to make sure that you are not selling Software.

Because more often than not, these two ways end up costing you a lot of:

1) Time

2) Resources

And the end product is not good.

P.S. Have you ever tried to sell your software in the past?

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