ARCHIVED CONTENT
You are viewing ARCHIVED CONTENT released online between 1 April 2010 and 24 August 2018 or content that has been selectively archived and is no longer active. Content in this archive is NOT UPDATED, and links may not function.Editor’s Note: It appears that organizations in data governance and data discovery markets that do not align appropriate marketing and sales engagement structure, plans, and techniques with market characteristics, needs, and trajectory should not expect to grow at any greater rate than the market’s aggregate combined annual growth rate. Additionally, it also appears that organizations in the enterprise software arena that make wholesale changes in their strategic framework should not expect results of those changes to have an impact on sustained revenue for at least six months for every major strategic change. Four of these types of strategic framework changes include:
- Changes in Objective and Message (What You Want Clients To Know About You)
- Changes in Organizational Center of Gravity (What Is Your Core And Priority Offering)
- Changes in Delivery Model (How You Sell And Deliver Your Offering)
- Changes in Influencer Profile (Who You Need To Influence To Accelerate Revenue Uptake)
Because of the direct revenue impact of alignment and change, it is more important than ever for organizations to understand the trajectory of a market or subset of a market. The following extract highlights an important trajectory element for SaaS offerings in 2017 and beyond. The element is distribution.
Extract from article by Rick Zullo of Lightbank
Given the level of transparency and competition in the enterprise software market (and the VC activity willing to fund enterprise software companies), traditional SaaS businesses often don’t present significant enough moats to prevent competitors from replicating/underpricing their solution and competing away their profits. As a result, we’re seeing a plethora of niche SaaS applications that unfortunately aren’t that interesting.
But there is still hope for enterprise software founders — and possibly more opportunity than ever before. As the next evolution of the software landscape evolves, we are seeing a pivotal factor unfold as one of the largest determinants of startup success: Distribution.
In v1 of the enterprise software landscape, bigger was better. Large installed sales team pushed behemoth corporations down the sales funnel and retained integration consultants to plug the product into an existing system. For a product to be credible enough for enterprise, it had to come from a BIG provider.
Read the complete article at Why I’m NOT a ‘B2B SaaS’ investor