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The LA Fox Developer Newsletter
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November 1995
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by David A. Greene, MA, Productive Solutions
We all strive for technical competence as program
mers. We absorb as much of the VFP manuals as possible and read every issue of FoxPro Advisor to keep abreast of technical developments, adaptations, anomalies, and recent discoveries. Many of us have managed to conquer the delicacies of passing parameters by
reference or value, while others have mastered pointers in C. We persistently continue to make every effort to offer the finest that our client’s technical dollar can buy.
For those of us
in a consulting practice, however, it’s
not enough.
Efforts in marketing and sales will be
the deciding factor in the success or failure of our businesses. Seminars in sales and marketing can provide a wealth of useful information, but good ones can be difficult to find. McGraw-Hill has offered
excellent courses in professional sales and marketing for some time, and credit goes to the SBT Corporation for developing a first-rate Reseller Training Seminar that gets right to the nuts and bolts of the process. This article provides an overview of what
you can expect to find in those seminars.
Marketing
Many of us are market generalists, seizing every opportunity that comes our way as a means of maintaining cash flow and keeping the doors open.
Everyone seems to be a generalist when their business is first started. Remaining scattered and unfocused in the market, however, does not allow the efficiencies and profitability of operating in a specific market niche, with an established identity and market position. By focusing on a specific range of opportunities in the marketplace (e.g., medical and dental offices) you can develop a set of skills that can be packaged and marketed. A set of common solutions to business problems in that market niche can be collected. And a set of personal relationships will develop that will lead by referral to
business growth.
Specializing in a
vertical market brings several advantages. First, none of us knows
everything.
A limit to the amount of new information that must be absorbed to remain current in a field translates as a
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manageable environment. Second, a level of expertise in a particular area can be quickly developed, with a knowledge of the specific language (buzz words) used in an industry. And third, when combined with a knowledge of the most current issues in an industry, you have the ability to establish a level of competence with a client that simply isn’t possible as a generalist. If you knew, for example, that insur
ance forms for a doctor’s office are the equivalent of invoices on other businesses, you would have an immediate advantage over a competitor who is not
as familiar with medical business practices.
Selecting a vertical market isn’t particularly easy, and most of us that do specialize seem to have
fallen into vertical market specializations by chance.
Let’s face it, if you develop a financial package for a piano tuner and
it catches on with a few other piano
tuners, odds are you’ve become a specialist in that
market. Given the number of piano tuners in your market area and the resulting limit to the size of your potential market, you might want to consider pursuing markets with broader business potential as part of your overall marketing strategy.
Sales
Selling anything requires an understanding of two things: why
people buy and when they buy.
People will buy from you for one reason and one
reason alone:
they trust you
. They buy because they have been assured through your words and actions that you have a thorough understanding of their
needs and can offer solutions to their problems. This also means that you cannot impose canned solutions to
clients’ problems
before
you’ve heard what those problems are. Never suggest
anything
until
you’re familiar with the entire complexion of a client’s business; even if your recommendations are the best alternatives, they will never be perceived as
such by the client until they are certain
that you
appreciate their problems.
You will also need to address three common buying
fears while developing a client’s trust. These are the same fears we all have when making any substantial purchase. You must be sure the client perceives
value
for what they are paying. We all want to feel our investments are worthwhile. Clients must have
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