TEAM LinG Software That Sells A Practical Guide to Developing and Marketing Your Software Project 01_597833 ffirs.qxd 5/6/05 8:49 PM Page i TEAM LinG 01_597833 ffirs.qxd 5/6/05 8:49 PM Page ii TEAM LinG Software That Sells A Practical Guide to Developing and Marketing Your Software Project Edward Hasted 01_597833 ffirs.qxd 5/6/05 8:49 PM Page iii TEAM LinG Software That Sells: A Practical Guide to Developing and Marketing Your Software Project Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-9783-1 ISBN-10: 0-7645-9783-3 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/SV/QV/QV/IN No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress control number: 2005012599 Trademarks: Wiley and related trade dress are registered trademarks of Wiley Publishing, Inc., in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 01_597833 ffirs.qxd 5/6/05 8:49 PM Page iv TEAM LinG About the Author Ed Hasted has worn most of the T-shirts in computing. He was intro- duced to his first computer in the days before PCs were delivered by the postman. Having completed a course in Engineering Mathematics at Bristol University in England, he went on to become the youngest PC dealer in the U.K. The firm soon grew to supply hardware to almost all of the country’s government departments. At the start of the 1990s, Ed set up a communications software house to write e-mail and groupware, pioneer- ing the use of the Internet. The soft- ware was implemented by companies of every size. It was one of the first products to be sold electronically online. Ed saw products through from inception to release, brought in 80 percent of the sales, and pioneered the use of teleworkers. On a roll in the late 1990s, he sold out to a U.S. corporation. Since then, he’s worked for Wang, helped run some of the largest networks in Europe, organized the system builds for London’s Metropolitan Police Department, and instigated best practices in Internet Operations. Book writing aside, Ed now works as a consultant, covering everything discussed in this book. Ed restricts himself to one wife, two children, and an unlimited number of PCs. 01_597833 ffirs.qxd 5/6/05 8:49 PM Page v TEAM LinG Credits Acquisitions Editor Katie Mohr Development Editor Marcia Ellett Production Editor Gabrielle Nabi Copy Editor Kim Cofer Editorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield Vice President & Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher Joseph B. Wikert Project Coordinator Erin Smith Graphic and Layout Technicians Jonelle Burns April Farling Denny Hager Julie Trippetti Mary Gillot Virgin Quality Control Technician Laura Albert Amanda Briggs John Greenough Leann Harney Brian Walls Proofreading and Indexing TECHBOOKS Production Services 01_597833 ffirs.qxd 5/6/05 8:49 PM Page vi TEAM LinG Contents at a Glance Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi Chapter 1: How Winners Spot Winners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 2: What Successful People Ask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter 3: Plan for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Chapter 4: I Want to Work Here! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Chapter 5: Raising Cash and Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Chapter 6: Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Chapter 7: How Not to Reinvent the Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Chapter 8: Programming without Tears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Chapter 9: Squashing Bugs at the Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Chapter 10: Scoring with Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Chapter 11: Before You Say “Go!”—The Release Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Chapter 12: Setting Up a Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Chapter 13: Pitching the Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Chapter 14: Promoting Your Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Chapter 15: Going For Higher Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Chapter 16: Successful Selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Chapter 17: How to Keep Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Chapter 18: Plugging the Hole in the Boat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Chapter 19: Handling Growth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Chapter 20: Preparing for Further Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Appendix A: Search Engine Optimization (or Winner Takes All) . . . . . . . . . . 321 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 02_597833 ftoc.qxd 5/6/05 8:53 PM Page vii TEAM LinG 02_597833 ftoc.qxd 5/6/05 8:53 PM Page viii TEAM LinG Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi Chapter 1: How Winners Spot Winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Where Winners Find Their Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 How to Bottle Eureka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Step 1 – Sit Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Step 2 – Stretch Your Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Step 3 – Make Sure Your Idea Is Well Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Step 4 – Open Up Your Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Step 5 – Check the Concept against Your Own Experience. . . . . . . . 5 Step 6 – Gather Your Inner Sanctum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Step 7 – You Are Only Human . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Why Development Pays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 2: What Successful People Ask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Who to Ask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 How Many People Must You Survey?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 A Task for a Professional? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Framing the Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 What Might You Charge? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Sales Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Competition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Office Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Sticky Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Types of Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Open Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Direct Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Comparative Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Non-Comparative Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Likert Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Pre-Testing the Questionnaire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Methods of Contact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Personal Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Who to Contact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 02_597833 ftoc.qxd 5/6/05 8:53 PM Page ix TEAM LinG [...]... ideas are They just have to be unique enough Pioneers who have “First Mover Advantage” are often able to charge a premium, however, this notional bonus is almost always swallowed by their promotional and educational costs Note Software is rarely copied by stealing the source code; that s illegal and too easy to spot What competitors do is look at your finished product and re-create something that is... If the answers are satisfactory, give yourself a green light If they are not, it isn’t all doom and disaster You just have to do a little more thinking Go back a stage or two and consider how you can transform a limitation into a decided advantage Step 6 – Gather Your Inner Sanctum So you’ve got your idea, expanded it, articulated it, and checked it with yourself Now you need to pass it by a few close... understand the A to Z of it, the healthier your project s chances, which is why I hope that you will eventually read the whole book Others have gone through ulcers, divorce, bankruptcy, firing, executive jets, and Las Vegas to put this information in your hands Let their hindsight be your foresight Conventions Used in This Book Software That Sells: A Practical Guide to Developing and Marketing Your Software. .. masochist tries to create it unaided To end up where you want to be, you and your team must navigate many crucial passages There’s nothing difficult in any of them As the chapters of this book explain in simple language, it’s mostly common sense This book is accordingly organized like an Atlas, with pages to guide you from one area to another So start at the part that concerns you and take it from there... place Backers have to be confident that you have a clear vision and direction The exercise of trying to encapsulate your idea, who will use it, and why in 30 words or less is salutary You will either discover that it just can’t be done, in which case your idea is almost certainly too complex to ever sell efficiently, or by trial and error with friends and relatives you will arrive at an explanation that. .. called it chatting Being able to build a business on bedrock facts is a colossal, potential business advantage I say “potential” because not only do you have to find out what the facts are, but you also TEAM LinG 10 Software That Sells have to be able to exploit them Market research, which only really amounts to asking convincing questions, can give you a competitive edge because the majority of software. .. probability Elementary market research can enable you to streamline your coding schedule by telling you which functions and features customers are most likely to pay for It can help you to discover how much you are probably going to have to teach the customers before they can appreciate your program Although there can be vast differences between what people say and what they do, market research can... Vincent Price as “Robur” went around the Earth in a giant airship to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilizations The perspiration was drawn from Roddenberry’s experiences as a bomber pilot, policeman, and his consummate plot and script-writing ability The result was Star Trek How to Bottle Eureka As previously mentioned, ideas that materialize in a flash can evaporate just as quickly... only want your idea to enter the public domain when you’re ready to put it there TEAM LinG Chapter 1 ✦ How Winners Spot Winners 7 Step 7 – You Are Only Human As you soar to paradise, remember, human error is the last thing to fall away However flattering people are about your idea, you are always prone to error You can’t even predict what your best friend will choose on a restaurant menu They may always... tiptoeing into consciousness, so to speak At the germinal stage, they easily vanish A harsh word or shrug is sometimes all it takes Even as they disappear, you may sense a loss of some merit So do not to be too hard on your thoughts, however ungainly Gather them reverently, and allow them to settle and find a niche Once you have enough, you are in a position to pick and choose Sometimes a concept arrives . ii TEAM LinG Software That Sells A Practical Guide to Developing and Marketing Your Software Project Edward Hasted 01_597833 ffirs.qxd 5/6/05 8:49 PM Page iii TEAM LinG Software That Sells: A Practical. informa- tion in your hands. Let their hindsight be your foresight. Conventions Used in This Book Software That Sells: A Practical Guide to Developing and Marketing Your Software Project uses a simple. accordingly organized like an Atlas, with pages to guide you from one area to another. So start at the part that concerns you and take it from there. The more you understand the A to Z of it, the healthier