There are many ways to organize a sales force for a software or hardware company. In my opinion, there is no one “right” way. There is only the BEST way for the unique circumstances of your current company. Like most aspects of developing a technology-based company, there are guidelines, but no exact road map to […]
Structuring Channel Discounts for Software and Technology Companies
Selling through sales and distribution channels of various types is very important to many software and hardware companies. Yet channel programs and specifically channel discount structures, are often thrown together quickly and haphazardly, without looking at any real hard data. Let’s examine some of the key items that are advisable to consider when structuring a […]
Channel Pricing Strategy for Software and Hardware Products
Pricing software products and SaaS offerings is always a difficult exercise. With high product development costs, but very low costs of goods sold, there are many different strategies that people have followed successfully (and not so successfully!) over time. Pricing hardware products is a bit simpler because there is generally a significant cost of goods […]
Business Models in the SMB Market
The SMB market is often a popular topic for hardware and software companies. Of course, first and foremost everyone wants to sell to the Enterprise market. But as a result, competition is fierce and standards are very high for these select large companies. If you get to the Enterprise market early with an innovation that […]
Selling Through OEMS
I’ve previously discussed selling through VARs as a distribution channel strongly favored (maybe a bit too much!) by many early stage technology and software companies. In this article I’m going to look at another “holy grail” channel that is often misunderstood and misused: The Hardware & Software OEM Channel. This channel can pay big dividends, […]