Today we have an excellent guest post from an anonymous IT Industry Analyst! I'm not naming names, but this person is from a firm that sounds kind of like Gardener or Forest Rangers or something similar. Enjoy this article. As you would expect from someone who writes "planning assumptions" and »
Once upon a time, long, long ago, TypicalEnterpriseSoftwareCompany had a simple little price list. It could be described in a paragraph. Buy our server and pay $XX,XXX per machine. Buy our companion client-side tool and pay $YYY per instance. Simple. And then came the inevitable. Prospective Customer A started »
OK, you know you have to do Win-Loss Analysis. It’s one of the best ways to make sure you correctly understand the market and its problems—upon which you based, well, everything. But unfortunately, it is very difficult to get these customers/former prospects lined up for Win-Loss interviews, »
At most companies, everyone agrees that Win-Loss Analysis is very important. After all, without understanding why you are winning deals and why you are losing, how are you to know what you’re doing right and what you need to change? For example: Are your sales people blowing it by »
Earlier, I posted my thoughts on how to run an effective Customer Advisory Board (also called Customer Advisory Groups, CAGs, or CABs). Many readers of my post then contributed their own thoughts and advice... very good stuff. I've compiled their tips and tricks below. "Keep Customer Advisory Boards small if »
Two questions from readers triggered this post: "What is your opinion of the effectiveness of Client Advisory Groups, and do you think that PMs should organize and facilitate them?" and "Assuming you have an existing CAG, how do extract useful feedback and integrate it with the development process? A ‘rate »