The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

November 1995

WHEN TECHNICAL PERFEC-

TION SIMPLY ISN’T ENOUGH

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, adapta-

tions, 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 market-

ing for some time, and credit goes to the SBT Corpo-

ration 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 com-

mon solutions to business problems in that market

niche can be collected. And a set of personal rela-

tionships 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

manageable environment. Second, a level of exper-

tise in a particular area can be quickly developed,

with a knowledge of the specific language (buzz

words) used in an industry. And third, when com-

bined 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 pursu-

ing 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 solu-

tions 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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