Many of the companies which are involved in creating software solutions are asking and researching about steps of selling software development services. The second term that they are also thinking about is how to increase the revenue and organize the whole sales team.
Writing the code and developing the best software solution within the deadline is a hard process. But also selling software development services is consisted of different complex steps that every company needs to follow. In this case, the process is different from selling other products which are not abstract for example.
Developing the right strategy for selling software development services
- The first thing that every company needs to consider is creating and analyzing the target audience.
In simple words, the target audience is the demographic characteristics of people that are most likely to be interested in our software development services.
The more specific the target audience is, the better will be the results. While it is important to reach as many people as possible, focusing on the segmented groups is essential. Every company must know its target audience, characteristics, behaviors, interests, education, age, and gender, etc.
It is also a good starting point for our strategy to know who our target audience is not, to exclude this group of people from our further activities. After that we can create different groups based on similar characteristics and depend on interests and characteristics, we will develop different strategies in order to have great success in selling software development services.
- Communication with our target group is essential for creating long-term relationships.
The next important thing to consider in selling software development services is that we sell expertise provided by a group of skilled professionals. Every company needs to prove the expertise of the team or with simple words to promote the team.
- Create different case studies about past projects, customers feedback, reviews.
The potential client can see the challenges of creating particular software and how the team members effectively overcame them. Also, short webinars are an effective way for the potential client to know more about skills that possess every team member.
- A well-designed, informative, and user-friendly webpage is a must, especially in this industry.
A professional website with a section about services that we offer, which technologies our team members are using, portfolio page, contact page, and our team section is something that every company needs to consider at the beginning. Using clear headings, high-quality pictures and videos are the main points in creating an impressive website.
- As I mentioned before, it is critical to have customer testimonials, reviews, feedback.
A good strategy is to give our customers something for free. For example, a 14 free trial of the product, free assistance, or free access to new upgrades.
Defining and analyzing the competition
We need to define which companies are our competition and make research about them. The best strategy is to choose up to 5 companies and see how they offer and sell software development services, price range, check their website and online presence. Competition analysis should be our starting guide and not use this information for important company decisions.
Defining our potential markets in the future
A potential market is part of the market that at the moment we are not selling software development services, but we want to attract in the future. With expanding our services maybe in some other industry niches, using new technologies or developing other software solutions we might target new groups which are important for business growth. By defining our potential markets and striving to acquire them in the future, we will show that we have plans and ideas and think outside of the box.
Creating marketing plan
This is a guide on how to communicate with our target audience in order to have success in selling software development services. This guide is much more than only counting the goals that we want to achieve. This guide is more like an outcome that we desire, and we can achieve and what kind of strategies to implement. A comprehensive marketing guide is essential to find market needs for our product or services.
As main elements of every marketing plan, we should consider:
- Business goals
- Business strategies
- Metrics
- Report
It is very important to determine which added value our target audience will have from using our services or product and in what segment we are better than the competition. It is very important for our target audience to be aware that we understand their problem.
Many companies are struggling with finding experienced in-house teams of developers. In the last years especially in the developed countries, it is very hard to find a skilled team or if you find the costs are increasing year by year. The solution for this problem is to find remote outsourcing teams in another nearby country with fewer costs, similar time zone, and cultural characteristics. You can read more about nearshoring your IT services to N.Macedonia.
For example, our developers at Nearshore Macedonia are having great experience in the software development field. All of them are with +10 years of experience in this field using new technologies and working on different complex projects for different clients in another country.
Read more about the advantages of choosing a remote software development team in another country, what are the difference between offshoring and nearshoring, and what is your best option.
Learn more about our dedicated team, our finished projects, technologies that we used to create the best software solution for our clients.
Advertising software development services that we offer
Using one single strategy and advertising on only one channel is not a good idea. If you have a limited budget, you can start by searching forums in your industry. By offering your software development services or software product you need to solve some problems for the participants to the particular forum. You can also share a link from your website to learn more about the company.
The technology niche is one of the most promising and more competitive niches. Selling software development services in this niche is not an easy goal. Technology is not a static niche. There are still new competitors.
In many cases, text content may be boring and a good video can be a good replacement for the text content. But, with creating videos must be very careful. The video needs to be short, relevant, educational, and engaging.
Through social media channels, you can share useful knowledge and education instead of continually selling software development services.
Facebook offers many options for detailed targeting on your audience and offers high control of who will see your ad. Creating a business page is free and recommended. Here we have many options to share information for our software development services, share links from the website to increase traffic, share testimonials from satisfied customers. With one word this is an extremely powerful platform for advertising software development services worldwide.
Creating a Facebook group for this niche is recommended, because the company can connect with decision-makers of other companies who are searching for outsourcing teams in another country, to explain to them the benefits of hiring remote teams in other countries, sharing educational content, and creating trust with the target audience.
Every separate target audience is active on this platform in a different part of the day. It is useful to make initial research on which part of the day and which days our target audience is most likely active here and to post that period of the week and hour. Furthermore, this platform has excellent insights and reporting tools to measure and improve the results.
Google offers advertising options but is more expensive than Facebook. So, if you are in a lacking budget, you can bypass this kind of advertising in the beginning.
LinkedIn is a professional platform and a company that offers software development services may have the great benefit of using it. Here the profile should look professional. LinkedIn today is a place where is establishing communication between business professionals, connecting with decision-makers in different niches, and many other options.
Creating a blog page on the website and sharing useful content is a very powerful strategy. Quality and long content with included images, infographics, videos are important things to consider. Investing time in creating good content with creating a solution to some problem or giving advice in your niche is something that the people are willing to read and engage.
Building an email list and creating long-term relationships with the audience is also another powerful strategy. There are many tools to automate and easily manage lists with more than 1000 subscribers. There are a lot of options: to segment, the audience, send personalized emails without being too aggressive. This kind of strategy is low cost and with a high return on investment.
Conclusion
Selling software development services is not an easy task. In this case, the process is different from selling other products which are not abstract for example. Creating and analyzing the right target audience is the first thing that every software development company should consider.
There are many strategies to consider, and every company should avoid advertising only on one channel. A good strategy is to give to the customers something for free. For example, a 14 free trial of the product, free assistance, or free access to new upgrades.
Also creating a blog section and continually updating with long, unique, informative content is a very good starting point.
It is very important to determine which added value our target audience will have from using our services or product and in what segment we are better than the competition. It is very important for our target audience to be aware that we understand their problem. Many companies are struggling with finding experienced in-house teams of developers. In the last years especially in the developed countries, it is very hard to find a skilled team or if you find the costs are increasing year by year. The solution for this problem is to find a remote outsourcing team in another nearby country with fewer costs, similar time zone, and cultural characteristics.
You can read more about nearshoring your IT services to N.Macedonia.
Are you ready to take the next step in nearshoring your software development services?
Contact us at Nearshore Macedonia to discuss your requirements and get the best solution for your software development project. The team of Nearshore Macedonia consists of highly skilled and experienced IT specialists. Our added value lies in the development of challenging web solutions. We invest in long-term relationships and have extensive experience working with international clients.