My name is David Crankshaw and I am from the dark side: sales and marketing. It’s the world of emotion, persuasion, and influence — and also the world of metrics, feedback, and analytics.
I help software companies use online marketing to improve customer conversion and retention.
I’ve worked with large and small technology companies. I have an MBA from Stanford (but don’t hold that against me).
It’s rare that you hear of a business software company struggling for technical reasons. You’re an engineer. Engineers by their nature, their training, and their experience know how to build things that work.
But software companies often struggle to gain traction in the market.
Perhaps your communication doesn’t resonate with the reasons your ideal customers would choose your product. Or you don’t have permission to educate them about your field of expertise. Or they don’t trust you enough when you say “We think you should buy this product because it will genuinely make your life better.”
This matters because the world needs what you make. Software is disrupting markets large and small. Software is making people more productive and creative. Software is making it easier and more satisfying for them to do their work.
And it matters for you. You’ve made a significant personal investment to build a software product in a domain that you are passionate about. You need to see a return on this investment. And you need to see it before the inevitable rise of a technology that will replace yours.
But your software can’t make a change in the world — or accomplish your financial goals — if your potential customers don’t see how your product benefits them in words they can understand.
Does this mean that you must adopt manipulative techniques that you might associate with marketing? Will you have to convince people to take actions they regret later?
Absolutely not. Selling more software is about teaching and building trust. It’s about building a long term economic relationship with your customers. One where your customers value what you provide enough to continue giving you money for it.
I want to share ideas with you from the dark side that you can use right away. Ideas that will bring more potential customers to your site. That will cause them to raise their hand and agree to let you communicate with them periodically. That will equip you to win them over to become customers. And that will deliver more profitable revenue to you.
