

How do you market an offline product? - blaines

I've built a solid offline software product geared toward restaurants and retail. It seems like it's be hard to reach small businesses and harder to reach corporations. Does anyone have any experience in this area?
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ezrider4428
I think that there are a lot of things you can do to sell to your industry.
Having worked in restaurants and going to culinary school, I have had a first-
hand opportunity to see the inner workings of these places. Here are some
selling strategies that should work.

1\. Develop a list of your potential customers. Keep this local in the short
term, so it doesn't overwhelm you.

2\. Create a 2 page business brochure that has stats about the industry, the
problem you are solving and stats about where the industry is heading. Think
infographic. On page 2 describe how your product meets all those needs,
include some scenarios and a lot of screenshots. This needs to look good, not
too technical, not too salesy. Look at the datasheets from NCR
[http://ncr.com/products_and_services/self_service_kiosks/foo...](http://ncr.com/products_and_services/self_service_kiosks/food_service/ncr_xpress_orderandpay_fs.jsp?dtype=datasheet&lang=EN\(at)
a minimum they need to good this good)

3\. Take the list you created in step one and try and connections in your
network of friends to them, linkedin is good for the bigger companies. For the
SME's (small/medium enterprises) you need to think a little harder and maybe
even make some calls.

4\. Start making calls but DO NOT sell on the phone. People in restaurants
don’t have time to talk on phones they have too much crap going on that they
can’t be tied to the phone for 30 mins while you pitch. Only ask one question
to start "When is the Chef/Owner/Manager in?" If you get the
Chef/Owner/Manager on the phone ask them when is a good time to come in to
talk to them is. If they ask you why, tell them you want to show them a
product you developed for restaurants and you want to spend 5 minutes showing
them how it can help. If they keep probing then try and say as little as
possible about your product, focus on asking them questions about the need you
are trying to solve. So if your product is in a new ordering system then ask
them when they do there ordering from suppliers, are they happy with that
process, etc...

5\. Go there in person, be mindful how you look because before you even say a
word they will judge you based on appearance. Don’t dress to formal (so no
suit) or too casual (how you would look after 30 hours straight of coding).
Make sure your breath and you don’t stink because people in the restaurant
business have keen senses of smell (flavours are 10times smell, 1 times
taste). Hand them a brochure and ask if they have 5 minutes. Then give them 30
seconds to scan the brochure, you will know based on the look of their face
whether you need to continue your pitch or move on. If the face is blank then
it’s a 50/50.<br>

That’s just the foot in the door, after that you need to convince them to buy
your product or service. And the variability in that is too great to explain
without knowing what you are selling.

Hope this helps

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blaines
I think this helps a lot, and it's good to know that I'm already doing this.
I've built a list, tapped my network, and I just got done taking photos for
the brochure! Thanks!

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ezrider4428
Let me know if you want an extra opinion on your brochure. My email address
eric.bernhard@gmail.com

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roel_v
Haven't found a solution yet but I'm in exactly the same boat, down to the
target industries. My strategy at the moment is to find a partner with
experience in that industry who can do sales. I think it's crucial to get out
there actively, cold calling, not just in the beginning but as a fundamental
part of the business. I don't see myself doing it though, I need a partner to
make this work.

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michael_dorfman
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here.

What's an "offline software product"? You mean not a web app? And, why would
this make a difference in terms of your sales and marketing?

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blaines
Apologies for being ambiguous, I'm talking about a product that's not a web
app. How do you market software to people without a twitter/facebook account?
It seems the focus on everything launched here is web, and web-based. How do
you market technology for normal people?

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michael_dorfman
Are your users not on the web at all? If you're selling software in 2010, I'd
certainly expect so.

I'd recommend you take a look at Patrick's "Bingo Card Creator" posts for
inspiration-- he's been successfully selling software (up until recently, non-
web-app software) to about the least net-savvy bunch of users most of us could
imagine.

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blaines
I'll check it out. My customers are probably going to be googling yahoo (:D),
so they're not the most approchable crowd.

