Services
Perhaps we're a bit old-fashioned, believing it's better to grow a business by developing strong roots that will lead to long term stability, withstanding stormy weather, to successfully grow and bear fruit.
Having been through it many times, including high successes and low disappointments, we have the perspective and experience to help take your business to the next levels.
Parkerhill Technology Group will help you win, by participating in your business (to the extent needed or desired), including planning, execution, and review of the critical elements, including:
- Quantitative measures of revenue, expenses, sales pipeline,
and leads generation provide a snapshot of the company progress to
date and provides an objective measure whether the execution meets
the plan;
- Successful strategic marketing validates the market for the
product, and constitutes the battle plan for winning in your market;
- Management style and corporate culture are key to producing a high performance team and retaining key employees, the company’s most important asset.
We can work with you on a wide range of business activities:
- New venture planning
- Operations management
- Strategic marketing
- Business development and sales
- Product management
New Venture Planning
Whether you're a new startup or an established enterprise, it doesn't have to take a week locked in a room with no windows on some desolate island to come up with your Mission Statement, but you really do need a one.The basic question is why are you doing this business instead of drinking margaritas on the beach? That is, what do you and your customers really care about? Write it down, and then put it aside, and get to work digging into the details.
The next step is defining your market positioning statement. (See below). To be done right, this requires considerable research— who are your potential customers, who are your competitors, what do they want and expect, do you have it or can you build it?
Then there's the financial models-- revenue projections, operational expenses, projected growth, and capital requirements. And planning your channel development, partnering, and sales. And specifying product features and benefits, proprietary technologies, and licensing. And so on, constituting your Business Plan.
What we can do for you:
- Review and/or draft your business plan
- Assist raising capital, make introductions, and deliver presentations
- Conduct whiteboard sessions to identify and prioritize goals and objectives
- SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
- Assess risk factors and develop a risk management plan
- Uncover, review (and challenge) financial and planning assumptions
Operations Management
When it comes to operations management, Cash is King. We can help you maximize revenue and minimize expenses.We also have significant experience in other operations, including licensing and IP, human resources and benefits, customer support and training, and IT infrastructure and applications.
What we can do for you:
- Audit current cash flow
- Review or help secure intellectual property asset protections
- Review or help define employee benefit packages
- Establish or improve customer services
Strategic Marketing
In evaluating whether your company is poised for success, in addition to the quantitative financial statements and forecasts, we also must look at qualitative factors. Specifically, market presence, positioning, and visibility.
Most new products and young companies have not yet crossed the chasm between selling to early adopter visionaries versus pragmatist mainstream customers. These are very different sets of customers, with opposing requirements and expectations, and require completely different marketing strategies. Early adopters are very expensive to sell to and produce low volume, but can be considered a source of funding as they often have significant R&D budgets; whereas mainstream customers are eventually needed to meet planned volume and revenue targets.
Every product, especially at smaller highly focused software companies, is part of a solution, but not a whole solution in itself. You have a component technology that will be implemented in the context of a larger project, and thus requires custom integration, addition of 3rd party connectors, translators or gateways, and conformance to industry standards. But customers require solutions. In short, you must try to offer a complete package which satisfies the compelling reason to buy.
How? Through strategic partnering, listening to customer requirements, and engineering the product for easy adaptation. At first, preferably focus on just one market niche, and certainly not more that three at a time. You should choose a limited market and fulfill all the requirements of this market the best you can.
Why? Because each market niche has unique requirements and is a community unto itself. It is too much to try and address all the requirements of many markets all at once. Your engineering resources can't keep up. Your marketing budget will be spread too thin. Your partnering activities will seem unfocused. The press and analysts will lack a hook to categorize you. And your name will not get the visibility it requires.
One of our first steps would be to look at, and speak to, your current customers (and key prospects) and report how they view the need and opportunity for your product and your company.
What we can do for you:
- Strategic market analysis
- Conduct customer and market surveys and informal focus groups
- Develop your market positioning statement
- Identify the range of market niches and choose the "low hanging fruit"
- Identify and quantify the compelling value proposition (e.g. ROI)
Business Development and Sales
The life blood of any business is its customers. Especially for small young companies, it is essential to earn the trust of your customers (and prospective customers) and partners, and back that up with credibility by delivering on your promises. Keep the communication flow open and honest. Develop trust and you'll develop business.
An important strategy is to find and nurture an internal evangelist (technical sponsor) for your product at each customer and partner company.
Further, to meet revenue targets, success with early customers must be replicated and rolled out to a growing sales organization and/or distribution channel. This requires formulating a sales kit (product sheets, case studies, pricing models, contracts) with clear and consistent messages, value propositions, and reference accounts.
What we can do for you:
- Sales pipeline review
- Establish sales management procedures
- Participate in the sales process, closing
- Participate in strategic partnering activities
- Develop and improve your sales kit
Product Management
Sometimes a small technology company gets so enamored with its inventions that they loose sight of why someone would want to buy the thing. All major product features must be validated by customers. Often, customers will tell you exactly what they need (but they may not say it twice), so listen carefully, and ask probing questions.
Product management is at the interface of Marketing and Engineering. Before your product ships, product managmeent is researching the customer requirements and translating them into feature specifications, conducting Alpha testing (feature validation), focus groups, and perhaps arranging some custom work early on.
Product management may also be part of engineering project management, securing schedules, enforcing deadlines, establishing change-order procedures, defect (bug) management, and feature prioritization (deferral).
When a product is ready to launch, product management may include release management, Beta testing (functional validations), physical packaging (e.g. CD manufacturing), early release to channel partners, web site, and marketing communications.
After release, product management may involve critical customer care, problem escalation, technical sales support, and special integration projects. It also involves monitoring customer feedback, and planning for the next release, when the process cycles over again.
Huh? Sounds like your whole business?! For a single product company, yes, the executives are largely product managers.
What we can do for you:
- Product planning and engineering audit
- Project development lifecycle "sanity check" and review
- Conduct Alpha and Beta testing
- Formal assessment of customer and market requirements
About Your Positioning Statement
Geoffrey Moore, the high-tech marketing guru, offers time tested insights into the problems and dangers facing growing software companies, and a blueprint for survival. His classic text, Crossing the Chasm, (first published in 1991) is widely accepted as “the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets.”
Moore suggests the following format for crafting your "elevator pitch" or positioning statement. Replace italicized items with those appropriate to your business.
For (target customers), who are dissatisfied with (the current market alternatives), our product is a (new product category) that provides (key problem-solving capability), unlike (the product alternative), we have assembled (key whole-product features for our specific application).
Download (pdf, 277k) our executive summary of Moore's book, highlighting key advice we find especially relevant today.