SandHill.com Blogs

Best Practices: Service and amp; Support: Churn Prevention: Effective Technical Support in the SaaS World

Lee Weiner — 2010-03-09T10:26:19-08:00

In an era of near perfect information, commoditization-of-everything price pressures, and customer as marketer (or anti-marketer), B2B customer relationships can be fragile and fleeting. Because these relationships can no longer be taken for granted, maintaining them takes on greater importance for software companies - no more so than for those providing software as a service (SaaS), where customer retention is so critical. Yet with SaaS, it may not be clear who, if anyone, owns the customer relationship.

Return Leaders: Conversation with the Founder: Mark Leslie, Veritas Software Corp.

Javier Rojas — 2010-03-03T10:33:37-08:00

Some leading companies arrived at the top without taking early venture capital funding. Today's market may call on companies to be more prudent in how they apply capital to generate returns. In this continuing series of discussions with founders whose capital-efficient businesses are recognized "Return Leaders," Kennet Partners Managing Director Javier Rojas sat down with Mark Leslie, founder of Veritas, to learn how he created a $1.5 billion revenue business on a $4 million investment in a breathtaking 11 years.

Strategy Matters: An Interview with Marchai Bruchey, CMO of Chordiant Software

Robert M. Wright — 2010-03-02T10:11:25-08:00

Chordiant Software is an $80 million public company delivering operational CRM to companies serving "millions of customers" such as subscribers in the cell phone, banking and health insurance industries. Chordiant's predictive and adaptive applications optimize the customer experience to help global brands multiply customer lifetime value.

Software 2020: Success Strategies for the Next Decade: Introducing Software 2020

Maryann Jones Thompson, SandHill.com — 2010-03-01T10:06:25-08:00

Today's software business is operating "inside the tornado." New technologies, business models and economic trends are driving many buyers and sellers to experiment with new ideas - and pushing others to hide out, waiting for the storm to blow over.

Best Practices: Software Sales: How to Reach Unreachable Goals - Quickly

Jill Konrath — 2010-02-23T10:36:34-08:00

When I hung up the phone, I was in a state of shock. I'd just agreed to do something that was vital to my business growth, yet totally unreasonable to accomplish in only 90 days. To top it off - I had no extra time in my already over-flowing schedule.

Best Practices: Research and Development: Knowledge Management Basics Inform System Release Lifecycle

Jake Sorofman — 2010-02-15T10:12:50-08:00

I'll make a confession: I'm not organizationally gifted.

New Era, New Thinking: Rethinking Business Models for the New Economy

Jan Hichert — 2010-02-02T10:37:07-08:00

The stock market is inching its way back up, unemployment is holding steady and in some locations even declining and housing prices are at their highest in a year. These small improvements may mean we are seeing the beginnings of an economic recovery. But as a slow recovery begins it is becoming clear the emerging economy will not be the same as we became accustomed to before the recession and businesses will not be run as they were prior to the economic collapse in late 2008. Budgets will remain small and despite growth, businesses will continue to be wary of investing in new solutions causing them to scrutinize the cost and benefit of new products. Because of this change, business to business vendors, especially technology vendors will need to shift the business model from providing products to providing solutions and focusing on customer needs rather than product capabilities. Vendors that are able to provide low cost or even free business solutions like Vistaprint, will be better positioned to survive and thrive in this new economy.

Best Practices: Software Marketing: What Jack Bauer can Teach Software Marketers

Britton Manasco — 2010-02-02T10:33:38-08:00

Jack is back.

Best Practices: Software Sales: Sales Versatility: Connecting with Customers Every Time

Michael Leimbach, Wilson Learning — 2010-01-26T10:43:36-08:00

As a sales leader, you probably debrief sales calls, review sales campaigns, analyze prospecting activity, and ride along on certain customer calls to observe or assist. No doubt you have noticed that each salesperson has some customers and prospects that they easily connect with, and others that they don't. And you might have seen cases where the same approach that succeeded with one prospect or customer caused another to become impatient and tense. Perhaps certain salespeople appear to waste time on social chit chat or having coffee with a customer- and yet they seem to succeed in closing good business. And some established customer relationships end up being downright difficult - fraught with tension and frequent communications issues and misunderstandings for reasons that are hard to understand.

Software Growth Strategies: Hitting the Sweet Spot

Paul O'Dea — 2010-01-26T10:38:59-08:00

Anyone who's ever played golf knows about the "sweet spot". It's that favoured spot on the clubface - hit the sweet spot and it feels good, you're in control of the ball, and that birdie is yours for the taking. If you don't hit that spot, it doesn't feel right, you spend your time hacking in the rough and before you know it you're in a bad patch.

New Era, New Thinking: Dealing with Change

Jake Sorofman — 2010-01-20T10:00:35-08:00

Best Practices: Software Marketing: Marketing and #039;s Big Disconnect

Christine Crandell — 2010-01-20T10:25:45-08:00

A sales force is all about improving top line performance. So is Marketing. But it's not their only job. Marketing is also about messaging, public image, product management, customer advocacy as well as other activities which influence sales, but only indirectly. Their differing charters can lead to their easily falling out of alignment and ending up with lost leads, resentment, and lack of cooperation between these two essential teams.

Predictions for 2010: 5 Predictions for Enterprise Technology in 2010

Miko Matsumura — 2010-01-14T10:02:10-08:00

Best Practices: Software Marketing: Overcoming the and quot;Visionary Founder and quot; Handicap

Guy Smith — 2010-01-14T10:37:23-08:00

BMW and Enzyte may have too much in common.

Best Practices: Software Sales: The #1 Way to Enable Greater Market Success

Michael Cannon — 2010-01-05T10:06:24-08:00

A great go-to-market strategy, poorly executed, is destined to fall short of expected results.

Best Practices: Software Sales: How to Convert B2B Software Free Trial Users into Paying Customers

Kim Cornwall Malseed — 2009-12-18T10:24:59-08:00

"We generate quite a few leads from the free trial of our software, but not enough leads convert into paying customers. What can we do?"

Software in the Cloud: Is the Cloud Misleading Enterprises, Customers - Even Politicians?

Anders Trolle-Schultz — 2009-12-15T10:19:32-08:00

Best Practices: Research and Development: Best Practices: Secure Your Intellectual Property

Adi Ruppin — 2009-12-11T10:01:27-08:00

On-Demand/SaaS Reality: SaaS Sales Acceleration: Seven Proven Strategies to Increase Sales Velocity

Joel York — 2009-12-09T10:38:51-08:00

The growth challenge of most SaaS vendors can be boiled down to the following simple formula:

Predictions for 2010: Eight IT Predictions for 2010

Jake Sorofman — 2009-12-04T10:25:53-08:00

To paraphrase philosopher Thomas Hobbes, 2009 was nasty, brutish and not short enough. It was a year characterized by uncertainty and punctuated by pain.