SUCCESS IN THE VERTICAL MARKETS BY BRIAN G.  WILLIAMS

       One  of  the  most  lucrative areas in the world of computers is the
    vertical market place.  This article  will  give  you  guide  lines  on
    determining  your  market,  designing  your  programme  and making it a
    marketing success.

       When we talk of vertical markets  we  mean  specific  industries  or
    professions.   Programmes  like  dBase  II  or  Rbase and many more are
    readily available to anyone but the knowledge required to benefit  from
    these  programmes  is  unattainable  to  most business and professional
    people due to the time  involved  in  gathering  it.   Most  buyers  of
    computers  for  business  purposes  would be only to happy to find that
    piece of software that is tailor made for them.  So  this  presents  an
    opportunity to people proficient in programming to cash in on this void
    in the market place.

       Vertical software often fetches a price way above the off the  shelf
    variety.   And  as long as you have a good programme and can support it
    on an ongoing basis with updates  and  new  enhancements  there  is  no
    reason why you shouldn't be rewarded for it.

       Vertical software often fetches a price way above the off the  shelf
    variety.   And  as long as you have a good programme and can support it
    on an ongoing basis with updates  and  new  enhancements  there  is  no
    reason why you shouldn't be rewarded for it.

       DETERMINING YOUR MARKET

       Determining  your  market place is the first step.  This is probably
    the easiest part.  Look around the high street.   Many  retail  outlets
    have  special  needs like video rental stores who need to keep track of
    inventory, members, whose got what movie out, when it's due back, whose
    membership is due for renewal, keeping track of those people who bought
    a video recorder from them and at key points in time being able to find
    them so that they can make them a special deal on a new machine.

       Football clubs need a piece of software to run the ticketing side of
    things for them.  I recently spoke with the Data Processing manger  for
    the  Cowie  group  in  Sunderland  who  had  been  asked to investigate
    software for Sunderland F.C.  He told me that the only one he found was
    being used by Tottenham Hotspur and that it was a monstrous system that
    was running on machines that are not even made any more.  Tottenham are
    supposed  to  have  paid  over twenty thousand pounds for software that
    doesn't even come close to what they want.

       Once you've determined your market it's probably a good idea to do a
    little  market  research.  If your not to familiar with the industry or
    profession that you have chosen design a questionnaire and go  and  see
    some  of  them to find out what they need;  ask them what they want and
    design your system around that.  Simple.

       PROGRAMME DESIGN

       Good design of your programme is a key element to success.  Make  it
    easy  to  use  (otherwise the user may as well have learnt to programme
    himself).  Menu driven fill in the blanks are the  programmes  business
    people  are  looking for.  Keep as much consistency as possible between
    menus, like 0 always means quit from any menu.  Exiting from  any  menu
    always  takes  you back to the main menu.  Have as few input screens as
    possible and try and design them so that  data  that  is  edited  on  a
    regular  basis  is  always  at  the  beginning.  Again maintain as much
    consistency as possible between screens (don't use  SEARCHNAME  on  one
    screen and LASTNAME on another).

       The reports that come from your programme will usually make or break
    it.  Make them easy to understand.  Use  jargon  that  your  particular
    market place understands and again maintain consistency from one report
    to the next.   Have  the  report  that  they  all  want  (this  can  be
    determined  through  your  market research).  Think carefully about the
    people who will be using them (the stock clerk needs to know what  he's
    running  low  on  not  the quarters profits but the sales manager might
    need to know both).  A  programme  that  I  helped  design  was  geared
    towards  the  Financial Planning Profession in the USA.  The one report
    report that sold our programme more than any of the other features  was
    the  "CASH  FLOW  AND  TAX ANALYSIS".  Planners could at the touch of a
    button produce a report for any or all of their  clients  showing  what
    income  the  clients  would earn that year and what their tax liability
    would be.  This helped them  motivate  their  clients  to  invest  more
    dollars  to  reduce  their  tax liability and consequently increase the
    planners income.

       BETA TEST SITES
       If possible, get someone in your industry to use your programme  and
    give  you  feed  back as to bugs and possible enhancements.  This is by
    far the best method of determining the worth of your programme and  can
    be a powerful marketing tool later.

       THE MANUAL
       Lets  not  forget  the  manual.   The  biggest  single  criticism of
    software is its documentation.  Design your  manual  so  that  a  child
    could  pick it up and learn how to run your programme.  Its a good idea
    to start your manual with a tutorial  and  have  all  of  the  relevant
    reference sections follow that.

       DETERMINING YOUR PRICE
       This is very difficult to get right first time but as a general rule
    you should look around at other programmes in your market place and see
    how  much  they  cost and adjust the price of yours taking into account
    the features of the different programmes.

       MARKETING

       You can have geese that lay golden eggs, but if you don't  know  how
    to communicate the benefits of owning one you may as well have NOTHING.

       If  your  programme  is  designed well and it does the job that your
    market place needs your  marketing  will  be  easy,  having  said  that
    marketing  is  the  hardest job in the world and bad marketing has been
    the downfall of many a good product and its company (CLIVE SINCLAIR).

       Your marketing campaign should be broken  down  into  the  following
    areas:

       1.  Direct Mail & Cold Calling .

       2.  Dog & Pony Show.

       3.  Advertising.

       DIRECT MAIL

       Direct Mail is a fairly inexpensive way of getting your message over
    to people not only that but you can be sure  that  your  brochures  are
    getting to the people who should be seeing them.

       Your  accompanying  letter should be fairly brief but should include
    some reason for them to investigate the rest of the literature that you
    have  enclosed.   A  good idea is to make some special deal if they act
    within a certain time better still make them a  money-  back-guarantee.
    Include some of the reports that come from your programme and of course
    a brochure of some sort telling them Who You Are, What The  Product  Is
    and Why They Should Buy It.

       Follow  this up with a phone call to close the sale or arrange for a
    demonstration.

       DOG AND PONY SHOW

       A powerful arena to market your product  from  is  the  TRADE  SHOW.
    These  are  usually  run  by  the industry association linked with your
    market place and all those that attend are  potential  buyers  of  your
    product.

       WHAT TO TAKE TO THE SHOW

       What  you need to do is prepare meticulously what you want to happen
    when a person stops by your booth.  Have plenty of literature  on  hand
    (better to carry unused literature home than to run out) and product to
    sell.  If possible have a large monitor that everyone  can  see  and  a
    small P.A.  system along with other computers with regular monitors.

       HOW TO USE IT

       Prepare  a  canned  presentation of your programme.  It should be no
    more than 15 minutes long.  If possible have seats for  people  to  sit
    on,  get people into your booth sit them down and deliver your story to
    them.  Have some meaningful data in the programme and  go  through  the
    functions of the programme making sure that people have understood what
    you have told them at every stage of the presentation.  At the  end  of
    the  demonstration  invite  questions from your audience.  NEVER Repeat
    NEVER tell them the price in your demonstration, let  someone  ask  how
    much  it  is and if nobody asks, ask the question yourself out loud for
    all to hear (This usually raises a laugh).  Its a good idea to  have  a
    show  special  on  the price.  Let them know the retail price first and
    then tell them the special offer you have and emphasize  that  it  only
    applies to the show.

       Its  a  good idea to load your programme into ramdisk to make it run
    quicker (this is not to give the impression that your  programme  works
    faster  than  it  really  does but to keep their attention.  At a trade
    show all of the vendors are trying to attract the  attention  of  those
    attending  so you can bet there will be lots of distractions) If people
    ask questions in the middle of your presentation  tell  them  you  will
    deal with questions at the end of the demonstration and then at the end
    of the demonstration if no one asks a question you can turn  to  person
    who interrupted you and ask them what their question was.

       Finally let people know that you will be available for more detailed
    one on one demonstrations.  Right after the presentation is over.

       ADVERTISING

       Advertising in trade journals is the only real option you  have  and
    is  often  very expensive.  So your advertising pounds need to be spent
    wisely.  I would start with no more than a third of a page.

       Don't clutter your adds with every single feature of your  programme
    rather  look at the add as an opportunity to portray the image you want
    people to have of your programme and your company.  Your  product  will
    probably  be  above the price level were people just send you the money
    and receive the package in the mail.  Certainly  you  want  to  have  a
    response  mechanism  in there so that the people write or telephone you
    for more information.

       Have your literature ready to send to people who respond to your ad,
    there's  nothing  more  infuriating than requesting information about a
    product you have seen in a magazine and  having  to  wait  a  month  to
    receive  it.   If your prospect has to wait any length of time for your
    literature he may well have forgotten about when it  comes  and  wonder
    what it is or worst still in the mean time he has gone out and bought a
    competitors product.

       If the trade association affiliated with your market place dish  out
    awards  each  year  to  there  members  and  one  of them is using your
    product, run an ad congratulating  him  or  them  and  make  plenty  of
    reference to the fact that they are using your product.

       If the trade association affiliated with your market place dish  out
    awards  each  year  to  there  members  and  one  of them is using your
    product, run an ad congratulating  him  or  them  and  make  plenty  of
    reference to the fact that they are using your product.

       SUMMARY

       This  is by no means the only way to achieve success in the vertical
    market place because as we all know there is more than one way to  skin
    a cat.  But what we have discussed will work if its done properly.

       Remember  determine  your  market (make sure it exists), design your
    product well and get your marketing efforts well organized and you will
    undoubtedly have success.  Good Luck