Right, before I write this post, a little disclaimer. I have nothing against Nick Hodges, I've never met him, but he sounds like a really nice guy, and someone who I'd have a lot in common with. The reason I say this, is I've noticed that quite a few of my posts have been about something he's either said, or written about. I hope he can take some of what I write about as constructive criticism.
Where was I? Ah, my friend Nick! I'll keep this one short. Isn't rule one of any business, to know who your target audience is? Does Codegear know who it's target audience is? I'll go back to Nick's appearance on show #13 of the Startup Success Podcast.
Is your market the large enterprise level companies?
I quote :
- Each region prices the product based upon the market in that region.
- If you think the prices should be lower, provide that feedback to your sales representative.
- Contact your sales guy, and we'll see what we can do?
Or is it more the small to medium size business and hobbyist market?
I quote :
- We don't have a huge number of enterprise level sales.
- We keep our focus on developers.
So which is it? Regional pricing, a sales force, and the fact that it seems (may or may not be true, but it sounds like it) to get the best price, you need to speak to a sales person are all perhaps what the Enterprise expects, but something everybody else seems to hate!
If you're aiming for the developer, the small to medium sized businesses, and the micro ISVs and the hobbyists, take it from me, they don't like pricing per region, and they absolutely hate talking to a sales guy. All they want, is to get the best price possible. Save the money you pay that sales guy (and pass on the saving to us of course), and just put the product somewhere where we can buy it with a minimum number of clicks, and at a reasonable price, one which is the same whether I'm in Angola or Alaska!
By all means target both groups, but have a distinct strategy for each.
Again, sorry Nick, I'm on your side.... Honest!!!!
Posts
5 comments:
Everything to do with dealing with codegear whether it be
1: buying the product
2: "attending" coderage
or
3: viewing newsgroups
seems to be designed put off all but the most determined.
Also nick Hodges on his blog or when he responds/comments to threads on, for example, stackoverflow says very little, ever except for stuff we already know.
Nick has a difficult job. He's said many times, when you're on the inside things look a lot different than when you're where we are.
@anonymous:
I've received a great support from Nick regarding some licensing issue for D2009.
Maybe you should try to contact him directly, as he has already suggested in his blog. He may try to arrange some help for you e.g. forward to someone adequate...
I agree that it's a difficult spot! I think that right now they are trying to make progress on getting a consistent model and plan to move forward. Given the complexity, I would expect that it will take at least a year to get the direction adjusted. The new Embarcadero era is a shift in a new direction, and there have already been changes in the direction of the company. There's a crazy balance here, in that it takes time to look deeply and change profoundly. On the other hand.... Tick-Tock... Especially in this business environment, the changes need to happen quickly to make sure that the trajectory ends up in the ballpark.
Armchair quarterbacking... Next steps should be turbos and going after the educational market. Pascal has always been a good teaching language, and Delphi aptly combines the teachability and usability needed to be both an educational platform and a kick-butt tool for GTD.
Let's go Delphi!!!!!!
I have also found Nick Hodges to be helpful and patient in a case where I contacted him directly. His job is not easy.
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