SoftwareCEO Community

Time Trial vs Feature Limited Trial

imagicphoto — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:07:51 GMT

Hi, I am back after about half a year. Good to be back! I recently updated my photo software, and am struggling with the trial version I should put out. Of some of the other photo software that I have downloaded, I saw both 30 day trial, and save/print feature limited. Here are my thoughts and pros/cons of both:

For a time trial, photography enthusiasts might like to see a full output of the photo they spruce up, bring it into fotoshoppe and edit, or print it. Also, maybe a 20-30 day trial would make them 'dependent' on the software. Of course, time trials scare me at the same time, as this also makes some people forget they even downloaded it in the first place (yeah, I remember, that was cool... what was it again?)

For a save/print feature disabled trial version, I thought this would be good, as the desire to save a full output version of their spruced up photo might make the lean towards pulling out their wallet irresistable. Sort of like a teaser. Or it could go the other way, too (ahh.. cant open it in fotoshoppe.. forget it)

So, then I thought of maybe offering both.. A feature limited version - press the save/print, and a nice ad/dialog pops up, offering the link to either purchase, or if so desired, download a 7 day trial version. At the same time, offer a 7 day trial, and have an exit dialog showing "need more time to decide? click to download the feature limited version".

I guess I am having a hard time deciding between options 1, 2, or C. Any thoughts would be well appreciated, and relieve a lot of decision strain! :)

Sales Commission & Expenses

araskin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:14:58 GMT

Hi

The situation: Today when we calculate commission for our sales guy we substract expenses and then we commission on the remainder.

Example:
Customer pays us $100
We pay a contractor $20
We then calculate his commission on $80.

Hoewever when we dont use a contractor but use an employee it is more difficult to calculate cost. Obviously the employee has a wage but it is not easy to work out how much of his wage was paid for the work... i think you see what I am getting it.

1. What is normal? Do companies usually deduct expenses before calculating commission?
2. If yes, how do you deal with the situation where an employee does the work and there is no direct contractor work?

Regards,

Alon

Managing Sales Rep Activity

damian — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:13:44 GMT

Hi,

I have a senior level sales rep that is not meeting his monthly sales quota. I feel he spends too much time going after $500,000 opportunites (home runs) when we could get many $10,000 projects (base hits) every month that would allow him to meet his numbers.

He builds his pipeline by cold calling accounts and he is good at getting business and webex presentations using cold calling approaches.

However, I have noticed his activity for sending emails, direct mailings, and newsletters we create is very low compared to other sales reps.

I have heard some organizations mention requiring sales reps to make 30 touches per day and five face to face meetings per week. Is this possible?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback on activity numbers you would expect from a senior level sales rep.

Thanks,

Damian

Tactics to gain resellers of our software

Cwilson12 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:14:58 GMT

What are some tactics to bring on new resellers of our software?

Website advertisement?
Cold calling?
Google Advertising?
Direct Mail-Out?

Trying to increase our channel but unsure how to go about it. Any thoughts welcome.

Securenext software | Hire offshore web developers & programmers

securians — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:27:45 GMT

Securenext software | Hire offshore web developers & programmers

With offices in california, united states and in chennai, india our company consists of experienced programmers, website developers, graphic designers working in ruby on rails, php, .net, database management, providing agile business solution.
offshore, outsourcing, india, website, software, php, .net, ruby on rails, mobile applications, business solution

ref: http://www.securenext.com & http://www.rordevelopers.com

Sales commission rates

allanbc — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:05:26 GMT

We are planning to develop a product to be sold as SaaS with a startup fee. We have a partner in this venture who will handle all sales in certain regions (all the regions we will be selling in at startup, but not necessarily all later on).

Additionally, they are assisting with development through technical consulting (they are a consulting firm in a very specific genre which is also the target group for the product, meaning that basically all of their current and future customers are very likely to buy the product).

There will be regulations in the contract about the growth of sales, ie they have to keep up with a certain growth percentage/number.

They have suggested a model which basically boils down to them getting 33% commission on all sales AND the service fee (around 5-10% of sales price/month).

The model is obviously a lot more complicated than that, but the gist is that they get 33% of sales as a fee for their sales effort + consulting in product development.

How does this relate to typical deals? 33% is obviously very high, but we literally don't have a market without them, and they are invaluable in the venture.

We are to make a counter offer to start negotiations in a couple of days, and I am wondering what sort of numbers to throw at them and how firmly to hold onto them.

Sales Compensation Plan

tallsc — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:33:39 GMT

My company is about $10M in annual sales and sells a $5k-10k per system infrastructure software product.

My company has two junior inside sales reps and two senior outside sales reps in the United States.

The United States is divided into two geograpical territories with one inside and one outside rep in each territory.

Historically, most of the company's best leads that have resulted in real sales have originated from the company's website or 1-800#. Most of this business has been (Category 1) SMB end customers or small VARS with SMB customer opportunities or (Category 2) other ISVs that have bundled or OEMed our products with their product. About 45% of the current business comes from each category. The Category 1 accounts average < $10k per year and the average Category 2 accounts average > $50k per year. We also traditionally close two to three (Category 3) Enterprise Sales direct to end customers that are > $100k.

Traditionally our senior reps (outside sales) have gotten quota credit for all business within their assigned geographic territory which include all software, support, services, and renewals, regardless of deal size or customer type. The inside reps have been on salary only and performed mainly lead qualification.

Since the inside reps are now very experienced, the company would like them to qualify and close all Category 1 leads. They have already demonstarted they can close deals. The company would like the outside reps to close category 2 and Category 3 leads from the website and be aggressive "HUNTERS" that identify and close new Category 2 and Category 3 leads from their own prospecting activities. The outside sales reps have been reliant on the web leads in the past and have not been motivated to find new business on their own since they were getting quota credit on all deals.

The company would like to keep the current inside/outside sales team in tact and have the junior inside rep report to the more senior outside rep for mentoring purposes and day to day sales management.

Traditionally, the outside sales reps have received 4% of all gross sales within their territory regardless of category. Since the company wants the outside reps to focus on identifying and closing new category 2 and category 3 accounts, the following comp plan structure is being considered:

Outside Reps:
- 4% on all Category 2 and Category 3 sales
- 1% on all Category 1 sales (mentor, mange, and assist inside rep)

Inside Reps:
- 2% on all Category 1 sales

Internally, there is mixed opinion on this proposed plan.

Does anyone have any real world experiences with such a model or have a different model to propose?

Percentage of software products vs. in-house?

FourthWorld — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:38:19 GMT

I can't turn up a statistic that hopefully one of the members here can point me to:

What is the estimated percentage of software applications written which are commercial products, as opposed to custom apps used in-house within an organization?

I once read somewhere that commercial products comprise a minority of applications written each year, with most programmers employed making specialized in-house solutions. But alas, I can't turn up that statistic, or others like it.

Any pointers to good info on this would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance -

Individual sites

cgiscript123 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:10:11 GMT

I develop scripts applications for web sites. I have a number of products on my web site. Some of them took years to develop and some months. I believe the products I offer to be valuable and very useful.

Unfortunately only one product is making sales. Recently I've been thinking of moving the other products to their own web sites where each product will have it's own domain name and where the whole site for each product would just focus on it's niche. Would this increase web traffic for each specific product?

In an effort to make the other products sellable I think it would be best to move each product to it's own web site? I will then optimize these sites for Google.com - Would this increase sales for the products that isn't making sales?

Thanks for the insights.

New products?

Rich_CEO — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:00:19 GMT

Anyone have new software products that are brandable?