Business and Marketing

One of the worst mistakes high tech companies make is trying to make their product or service appeal to too many markets. How many times has someone told you, “their product is so wonderful that ‘EVERYONE on the planet’ will buy it!” Then when you talk to them a few months later, they’re either out of business, or close to it.

If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one. Although there could be many different groups (market segments) that could use your product, they all have different requirements and desires, and are trying to solve different problems. For example, if you sell the same product or service to the health care and education markets, you’ll receive requests for feature enhancements and services that address issues that are unique to each market such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance for health care customers and Average Yearly Progress (AYP) issues for education.

This is usually a big problem for small high tech companies because they tend to have limited resources. So, when they get swamped with support problems and enhancement requests from different market segments, they can’t satisfy them adequately. As a result, customers become dissatisfied and defect to competitors.

A better strategy would be to concentrate on solving a specific problem for a well-defined target market, regardless of industry. An example of a company that does this well is Image Tag, Inc. in Chandler, AZ. Image Tag sells a software called Kwik Tag that helps companies manage document flow by enabling users to create digital copies that can be retrieved on demand from a “virtual file cabinet.” Just about every company has problems managing the vast amounts of paper that circulate through the office.

Therefore, Image Tag could conceivably choose a “machine gun” approach and market Kwik Tag as a solution for every type of document management. However, if they did this, they’d be forced to spread scarce resources much too thin. Instead, they’ve wisely chosen a “rifle” approach-to focus on problems associated with the accounts receivable/payable process for customers using Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains Software), Microsoft NV (formerly Navision) and Microsoft AX (formerly Axapta). They’re also a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner. So, they can also leverage Microsoft’s resources to maximize their marketing and sales resources.

So, when you’re planning a marketing strategy, remember that you’ll be much more successful if you focus on solving one problem VERY well instead of trying to be all things to all people.

Marni Patterson is a Marketing Consultant who helps small and mid size high tech companies plan and implement cost-effective, results-oriented marketing programs and strategies. Her blog offers free information and advice based on her own experiences working for and consulting with small and large high tech companies. Visit http://www.techbizbridge.com or http://techbizbridge.blogspot.com/ for more information.