What go to market strategy would you suggest in order to bring in new business opportunity for my company(heurion - offshore software Development Company)?
Heurion www.heurion.com, is an offshore software development company based out in Bangalore, India. We are one of the oldest Ruby on Rails development company in India. We have built 75+ web application on ruby on Rails itself and 20+ mobile application.
Till last year most of the new business we were getting through reference and Request quote. In order to grow and Build brand in market we have decide you go into market and look for business opportunity and more and more projects.
To start with we have starting using E-lance, odesk and serval other bidding platform to get project which is not working that well. we also doing e-mail marketing and cold calling to connect with people across the world.
I would like to know from all of you what all go to market strategy would you suggest me to implement in order get some leads.
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Feb 2, 2014
I believe that one of the best strategies is to have collaborative relationships of depth - you know one another well and have ways to assist in the growth of the other's work.
This can be singular - one on one, or it can be a small group which has shared guidelines of ways to share resources and refer to one another.
Feb 1, 2014
Dear Diwakar Joni,
It is certain that different companies, brands can have a few means of bringing a product or service about. I would suggest that the best one which may be impossible for some markets remains to know someone on the specific market to further evaluate and research the possibilities and thereafter to promote your product or service in the best way possible. If this strategy is impossible, another alternative would be to be in contact with the people who are your biggest competitors on that specific market and approach them with a plan and the qualities of your product or service to work on a mutual basis. Introduce your product or service and clearly demonstrate to them the reasons the two of you should consider working together based on the greater advantages of your product or service. If you prefer to go into a market independently and on a different angle from your competitors, you should study closely the market in question and be in direct contact with the associated prospects who are within your field of interest. Most importantly, always believe in your product or service, recognize and promote the values of why it is a better product or service than any other on the market. Originality will always attract a prospect.
Best Regards,
Ms. Dale M. LeBlanc
Feb 1, 2014
Hi Diwakar,
Let me ask you since everyone is providing their advice but I don't see anyone asking you:
1) Do you have a detailed business plan?
2) Have you created a marketing plan?
3) Sounds like you have tried different lead generation strategies, what are you challenges with them? Is it pricing, are you having a problem closing the deal with clients? Is there objections you need to overcome in your sales process or your business process?
Here is my 2 cents...
There are standard business practices that I hope you of followed. Create a business and marketing plan that outlines your business, as well the direction you are taking the business.
Your marketing plan, yes needs you to do market research, find out who your potential client is, what are their pain points that you can speak to that will attract them to contact you. Then you take your product/service to market by doing a soft launch use different forms of media, be it print, cold calling, social media...etc. Test this to measurable results and see what needs to be modified and what is working. Once you find what is working stick with it.
That is a little bit of advice.
Now I am going to be honest with you. First it sounds like there is a problem with your sales if you are bidding on these jobs sites like e-lance and odesk for example. Which you are not finding it is working you know it's your sales.
1) Is your price to high?
2) Are you not relating to your potential customer?
3) Are you talking at them vs listening to them and answering their questions?
4) Are you finding out their pain points and providing them a solution with your product/service?
Start there and clean up your sales process. The reason why I say this is the worse thing you can do in my opinion in business is have something that isn't working. If you start going on the social sites and this is an issue, it will become a massive issue because people on social sites will review your product, your business practices and they will not hold back.
That is why when I consult with companies I make sure we access all their business practices before they go to the masses.
I know you asked for a marketing strategy but from the sounds of it you might need to go through your business strategy first and let that define your marketing strategy as your business grows.
Best of luck in your business.
Jan 31, 2014
Hi Diwakar, first of all identify your target customers. Then understand their business and ask yourself why they engage your services. Bear in mind the culture in Asia for example is unlike the culture in other continents. They need to be educated in terms of business approach and financially such as what benefits in terms of savings after implementing your products. Perhaps you could target media and marketing advertising firms. I think this is a great prospect in order to help them market and advertise their products thru appa to replenish marketing via magazines and newspapers.
Jan 31, 2014
I see everyone running from this Question . ;D . Cold Calling , Emails , and Bidding is all played out . The world is only paying attention to Entertainment . So what i mean is Online Campaign Internet Advertising. I looked at your Website and it's nice but very basic . We have so much technology now that we can run our own commercials in seconds through YouTube and get paid while promoting whatever you want to sell . I think a site that has a very strong marketing strategy is Oranum.com . I have watch this site grow from nothing to being overflowing with traffic. Every website I go onto now I see their links all over the Web on every type of page you can think of . Offer a Web Master Program on your site and watch it grow from people that just want to make some money . Hope this help and makes sense . A nice creative video for your website homepage would be a great improvement .Help them help you , you build it and they will come . This site below has some interesting information .
http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winners_detail.asp?yr=all&award_level=best&medium=Online%20Campaign
Jan 31, 2014
This whole world is an market and we all are marketing something or the other, either it could be products, ideas etc.. though most of us feel we may not be into the marketing field yet we trade our talent which is in a way indirect marketing itself, so defining your strengths and targeting prospective clients is the strategy. well instead of asking for strategy may be asking references and leads here would have been more ideal for you
As for suggestions most of my friends here have already commented leaving no scope for me to say something different...
Jan 31, 2014
I would suggest refining your value proposition. Unless you can distinguish your delivery capability, you are just competing on price and, as you have seen on o-desk, there are a lot of people who will offer to perform a service at below cost.
I don't believe traditional mass marketing is going to work for you. If I need someone to code an app for me and I cannot find anyone local to do it, I am not handing my precious baby (my business idea) to someone I do not know. You'll probably need to expand by building on the referrals thing. I would think you could generate enough referrals from 75-100 satisfied customers to keep your team busy.
Feb 1, 2014
Building referrals, that's what we are doing presently but I hope you understand we cannot just depend always our customer to help us get more customer. So one day or another we have to go out and look for customer instead waiting for them to reach us. In order to that we are trying our best and hopefully will be having our center in the country where we believe we have the opportunity to get new customer.....
Jan 31, 2014
Diwakar,
There are many options worth considering, and I would be happy to chat with you regarding options for a go-to-market strategy.
One option is to consider a content marketing strategy. First, analyze your customer’s behavior patterns. Who are they? Where do they spend time? What do they care about? For example, are your customers seeking to find talented Ruby developers? Are they reviewing free local resources or using their network to find talent? Are they trying to decide between Ruby or another framework for their next project? Where are they searching to make this decision?
Then while focusing on (1) the issues your prospects care most about and (2) the areas where your company has a deep expertise, create content that will address their problem objectively (without selling your service)!
Once you know what content to develop, you’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of content marketing platforms that can reach your target audience. Let the content drive them to your site to learn more about your services.
Feb 1, 2014
Hi Mr. Michael, Thank you for your advice and I would certainly like to have content marketing option in placed to gain more traffic on our website...I see from you profile you are a product specialist i would request you have a look at our Product TestimonialsFor www.testifor.com and give your valuable feedback...also i request you add me on Skype so that we can have a quick chat over it..my skype name is: diwakarjoni or drop me an e-mail diwakarjoni@heurion.com
Jan 31, 2014
Great answers on here for you to follow through on. I wouldn't do cold calling or email marketing as a strategy. It gives the feel of spamming and scamming which is not going to help you in any way.
As mentioned, you need to work out a marketing strategy in which you define your end user, what problems your product solves and how it will help the target audience you wish to market it to. Once you have these, then you can move to the next phase in which you find the channels to get the word out.
Your website offers 3 products but the last one, ablitiz.com is defunct. Not sure if the server is down but that does not look good as I, coming in as a prospective buyer, cannot see anymore than beyond the small description, what this does and how it will help me. That is going to hurt your credibility with potential clients greatly.
Do some research on voids in the various industries and work to market/develop a software for that. Honestly, I would highly recommend something in government which has changing needs and would greatly benefit from a flexible system that can grow and incorporate elements that allow a diverse, but centrally strong system.
Feb 1, 2014
Christopher, Thanks for you advice. Sorry due to some serve issue ablitiz.com is done but it will be up very soon. I will have your recommendation in mind regarding building a software in government field,
Jan 31, 2014
It sounds to me that you have marketing mix developing issue. Here is why I'm saying this; a marketing mix is the set of controllable variables that must be managed to satisfy the target market and achieve your organizational objectives. These controllable variables are usually classified according to the 4Ps (product, price, promotion, and place (channel of distribution). In other words, you must create or get someone to develop one for you because the marketing mix is the core of the business marketing management process to succeed in this business environment.
Dr. Gerald
Jan 31, 2014
Can't help you specifically. No international business experience. But, I have contacts in my Linked In contact list that you are welcome to use. Rohith Honnegowda is a software guy / friend of mine / originally from Bangalore. He is in the US. Connect with me on Linked In and look for his name in my contact list.
Feb 1, 2014
Angela, I have added you LinkedIn look forward to connect with there...
Jan 31, 2014
I have been involved with a wide variety of foreign firms who wanted to enter the U.S. market, and my advice has been the same as if an American company wanted to enter a foreign market. You eventually have to come here and meet with potential partners and "see" the dynamics of the markerplace for yourself. The internet is great for doing research and contacting prospective partners, but it is not a substitute for getting a "feel" for the market with feet on the street. If I can continue to be helpful, let me know.
Feb 1, 2014
Thank you for your advice Mr. Robert. Actually we are planning to have an officer in US (as most of prospect client from US put across this question to us "Do you have office or someone in available here in US") and your advice would certainly help. We are also open for having our partners there and I see you have already involved in same kind of activity i would love to get more help from you here....I also request you to first have a look at our website www.heurion.com and than give you valuable feedback/advice on the same.
Jan 31, 2014
Any strategy related to your business should come directly from the vision for that business. If you have clearly mapped out your vision, then you can choose the main routes to make that happen; projects that will support the strategy and tactics needed to complete the projects.
It looks like you have a great site with dynamic products but you are not utilizing your own tools to capitalize on those products (Such as being a web based business, but not using your blog since 2011 and not creating active "call To Action" items or landing pages that convert.) So I am wondering if the vision is clearly spelled out?
If you have a vision clearly defined and are willing to share it here I am more than happy to provide a more detailed response.
Feb 1, 2014
Nancy, I agree with you that we are not using our blog that actively that is the mistake i accept and would like to inform you that currently we are in the process of revamping our current website and will be having more focused website towards the problems and the pain areas we can help. The reason behind not active on our website was our focus on our product website TestimonialsFor - www.testifor.com...we have created this product and went live with the same last year only....Its an Online Review and feedback management system, which help business to get reviews via online and offline methods and directly promote them on their business website and social media site as well on a single click...
Jan 31, 2014
If it were only so easy to answer a question like this. :-) The truth is, it isn't that easy. Marketing needs to be directed to specific target markets. You have to identify those target markets before a plan can be designed. Who are your customers now? They they have specific demographics? Are they from specific industries? What kind of customers that you don't have now would you like to go after? I'm sure you're starting to see the kind of questions you must ask yourself before anyone could help you come up with a marketing strategy. You may want to consider creating a SWOT analysis (google if you're not familiar or let me know and I can help) and also determine what position you hold in your current markets. Sorry if I'm not much help at this point, but it's very difficult to give good advice without a lot of information and understanding of where you are now and where you want to go.
Feb 1, 2014
A lot thanks Chris for you advice. We have already created a SWOT analysis as we believe this really help you know where exactly you stand and what are your strength and weakness.....Let me know what all information you require before you can share your good advice with me...you can also have at my company website www.heurion.com to know what we do and what are our capabilities...
Jan 31, 2014
Dear
Very easy you issue or build your company site to Mob app . and all the services in mob app , try hard to make it easy so the client can use it easily
Jan 31, 2014
Who isn't your target client? Define that and THEN define who your target client is. Next define who target power partners are (the people who offer complementary services but aren't competing with you).
Once you know what you are and aren't looking for, then you can develop a strategy for connecting with the right customers, as well as with people who can be power partners and refer business to you.
From reading what you wrote, I'd say you're taking a shotgun approach to this and hoping that something hits. I'd stop doing that and take a good hard look at who you really want to do business with so that you can determine how to get in front of those people. A final question for you to consider..
What does your business do to help people? or to put it another way, what problems do you solve?
Jan 31, 2014
i, common problem all sales team faces. The root cause for failure, we as sales people work sales plans and go to market strategy but we don't focus on sales activities this is one of the major problems.
Cold calling and email marketing always speaks about your product and services which no one wants to hear because on a click of a button on Google they get tons of it, Rather than selling we should more focus on engaging, by creating a value ad article or blogs (refer a company called hubspot, which is an inbound marketing software I’m not asking you to buy one but look how well they engage with online users, with great content). Instead of investing on cold calling, I would suggest you to invest in online marketing not ad words but value based content marketing which is really useful which will not give you instant results, but will help you build brand awareness and sales pipeline
I read you are focusing worldwide to bring in new business, here I would request you to consider a Zoom out approach, I mean target a geographic where the need for technology is more, example Africa think about it for a moment, instead of competing in a red ocean, you can compete in an emerging geographic, even to tap in to the market, we need to work with partners who can bring in more business, this was a effective strategy my old company used when we were targeting US companies, we will not cold call the direct customers but we will call the companies in US to partner with us, this had a reasonable ROI, I would request you to think the same strategy for the African and other growing market.
My go to market strategy:
Build partners network (Industry specific)
Invest in Content Marketing
Invest in Online marketing
Narrow down your geographic location to accelerate the growth
Register in tender websites, to bid for tenders
If you are following all these or any one of this strategy ignore my suggestions
Jan 31, 2014
Dear Majunath,
I really appreciate you sharing your valuable experience and advice with me. I will try to implement few point mentioned by you (i.e Build partners networks and Target technology emerging market) at the earliest and hoping to get a good result out of it..Thanks again
Thank you so much for you advice Sloane....I agree with you that our website is basic but currently we are revamping our website and having a video on home is an nice Idea, would love to have a video created which tells about us and how we help business to grow...thanks again for your advice