Are you an Award winning company?

Are you an Award winning company?

Sure, oh look there is another post from Alistair with a MAP, sure that looks pretty, but who’s it for.?

Ok, this week I’ll not going to go on about how amazing we are, how many awards we have won, how we have great technology partnerships, and how, by having datacentres around the globe we are conquering the world one customer at a time.?

But I might just have done that ???

The reason I’m not, and the reason I don’t start every sentence with “We are an Awarding Winning…blar blar blar” is that our primary focus is 100% our customer.

You might not agree with this approach, which is fine, but this week I’m explaining why as a software company we focus more on our customer’s needs, and why we focus on helping you solve a problem with your data, along with why we help you get more from the data you have.

Please don’t misunderstand me, awards and partnership plaques decorating your office walls are very valuable when you run a service company, and if you do run a service-based company entering into partnerships and being put forward for different awards helps you standout above your competition.

But here at Mapsimise.com we don’t run a service company; in fact, you can buy and use what we do without ever contacting us, so we are a global available product-based company. ?

Think of us like an APP you might use in your daily activity, something that does what it says on the tin but because it works and does what you need, you have no need to build a dedicated relationship with the vendor, which is us.

Sometimes it is called SaaS (software as a service) sometimes it is called an on-demand company.

Many software companies focus on product fit, i.e., does it meet the requirement does it meet market demand and is there a requirement for what you do.

Our go to is customer testimonials, case studies and reviews, as potential customers are always looking for a solution used by other customers, and if you like you can see some of our reviews and what our customers say here on Capterra https://www.capterra.com/p/199076/Mapsimise/reviews/

As CEO of a software company, I know that our content in whatever form needs to highlight the benefits of what we do, needs to introduce you to us and how we solve those problems that you might have, along with how we can do it with ease and cost effectively.

?Having had the advantage of running both service and product companies over the years, I would not say one is easier than the other as in both scenarios building awareness and relationships is key.?

From my experience service companies tend to yield a higher revenue per customer even if it is a subscription-based service, as SaaS and lower cost high value product companies don’t always have the opportunity to engage with their customers and build one to one relationships, but as a software company we know we can build reputation through being online and through content like this newsletter.

?This being the case we focus of building great product that is managed and supported and obviously does not break or error.?

Sure, no software product is 100% bug free, but we try for 99% though rigorous testing and agile development.?We do this because we are also 24/7, but like you, I need some sleep, so the product and the platform must stand on its own two feet and be available all of the time in multiple time zones.

?So why am I sharing this and telling you about our approach, well there are several reasons really, firstly if you are running a product-based company then social media and social media content is still very much for you, building your product brand on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube has just as much value as any service company looking to build a connection and a relationship around a service.

?Ask yourself this question what other products like mapsimise.com do you see on LinkedIn; it is likely to be very few, ok you might see some adverts with no context or content, but product-based businesses can easily own a slice of social, with very little effort, well they can until everyone starts doing it.

?Secondly as a product company you will need social reach and you might be very tempted to advertise, to gain the reach and influence you need, but if you do, it’s going to cost you big bucks, and if you are a small vendor trying to break though then you are going to need more than just an advertising budget.?

Therefore, we focus on our customers needs and create content for them.?If you are going to ask the question do, we advertise, then the answer is YES and NO and I’m going to write a different article on this, but as a business we pay to promote content, but don’t run hard copy adverts.?

?Finally, as a product company that has carried the cost of development, we need to supply our product to 2000 subscribed customers, yes it might sound a lot or a little, but this is our project breakeven point, for growth and market fit,

I’ll not go into investor details here, but this is what is expected of us.?So, we must reach 100,000s of individual people to be able to do this and this is why focusing on our customers helps our customers promote us and being on social helps build an audience.???

?For us a one off award would be like an MOT on your car, and yes we could reference it, but 99.9% of our customers just want us to solve a problem they have right now, and this is why we are as a business 100% customer focused.

?As always thanks for reading, and drop us a comment below ??

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Alistair

CEO Mapsimise.com

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