VP of Content Management
Jovan Marjanovic knows a lot more than I do about enterprise software sales. Not only because he opened and ran Oracle's offices in Russia or continues to run large sales operations elsewhere. He is just a naturally better salesman (he asks two questions almost every time we talk: "How is business?" and "Who is buying?"). Besides the business ties, he has become a very good friend.
A few years ago, we had a discussion about Quantum Art and the content management market. Jovan likes our product and likes our positioning, so in the process of the conversation we distilled a content management problem that Quantum Art addresses better than others. "When an SAP sales guy is selling a financial module," Jovan started, "he is talking to the CFO. When selling the HR module, he is speaking with the director of HR. When the manufacturing solution is on the table, the obvious decision maker is the VP of Product Development. So who buys content management software.?" This really seems to be the dilemma of this market segment.
So we came to a realization that there is no VP of Content Management. Most of the buying decisions are made by coalitions. And since content resides everywhere in the enterprise, everyone wants a say in what solution to adopt and how to approach the implementation. Ultimately, this results in very expensive shelfware or implementation costs that far exceed any initial estimates.
I had a call with a prospect today, which followed these findings to the letter. There were several people from Quantum Art on the call and several stakeholders (all geographically dispersed) from the prospect side. It seemed that everyone on the call had his or her own agenda, and the take-away from the meeting was that we need to meet another time. So I had to share the idea of the lacking decision maker with our primary contact at this large prospect. To my surprise, he responded: "Well, it's even worse. We are being pulled in even more directions." I guess, the representatives from those groups didn't make it to the call.
Finding a decision-maker is hard, especially in a large organization. It's twice as hard for a content management vendor. Luckily for Quantum Art, an idea of a content application server (vs. that of a webpage management solution) speaks to the heart of the IT folks that are the core of Quantum Art's customer base. I suppose, ultimately it boils down to Quantum Art being a technology company vs. a solution provider, thus elevating our products above the playing field and above the need for a VP of Content Management.
A few years ago, we had a discussion about Quantum Art and the content management market. Jovan likes our product and likes our positioning, so in the process of the conversation we distilled a content management problem that Quantum Art addresses better than others. "When an SAP sales guy is selling a financial module," Jovan started, "he is talking to the CFO. When selling the HR module, he is speaking with the director of HR. When the manufacturing solution is on the table, the obvious decision maker is the VP of Product Development. So who buys content management software.?" This really seems to be the dilemma of this market segment.
So we came to a realization that there is no VP of Content Management. Most of the buying decisions are made by coalitions. And since content resides everywhere in the enterprise, everyone wants a say in what solution to adopt and how to approach the implementation. Ultimately, this results in very expensive shelfware or implementation costs that far exceed any initial estimates.
I had a call with a prospect today, which followed these findings to the letter. There were several people from Quantum Art on the call and several stakeholders (all geographically dispersed) from the prospect side. It seemed that everyone on the call had his or her own agenda, and the take-away from the meeting was that we need to meet another time. So I had to share the idea of the lacking decision maker with our primary contact at this large prospect. To my surprise, he responded: "Well, it's even worse. We are being pulled in even more directions." I guess, the representatives from those groups didn't make it to the call.
Finding a decision-maker is hard, especially in a large organization. It's twice as hard for a content management vendor. Luckily for Quantum Art, an idea of a content application server (vs. that of a webpage management solution) speaks to the heart of the IT folks that are the core of Quantum Art's customer base. I suppose, ultimately it boils down to Quantum Art being a technology company vs. a solution provider, thus elevating our products above the playing field and above the need for a VP of Content Management.
posted by spiodin at 5:51 PM
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