Beacon customer-go out of software Workshop: how to become a regular army for development with a dozen guns from three to five people (March 13)

In the past, we had been working on projects. That is to say, we had nothing to do. We had solutions first, and the solution customers agreed to sign the tickets before they began to research, design, develop, test, install, train, and support. The marketing department is also familiar with this model.

However, we started to make products from the past year. That is to say, there are no clear customers and no specific customer surveys. The customers do not need to know whether they need to buy or not pay for the purchase, and the customers do not know how much money they want to buy. This leaves the marketing department with no foundation.

The product cannot be left in the R & D department. I have to think about it. Both the boss and the marketing department agree that the company should upgrade from project-based products to products for sale, but no one has any experience. They are all from major accounts and big projects. In addition, the current project is also doing well, and there are software lists caught, the customer relationship is also good, the customer and friends are all taking the initiative to introduce the list, the company's revenue and growth is also good, as a result, R & D products have become an ideal that everyone recognizes, but sales are another thing. Why bother?

What a person is not familiar with is a natural denial, just as we walk a path never passed in the dark and always think that we will be in the dark.

Although I have written many internal articles to elaborate on new products, I don't know how many people think about them. When I had dinner at noon, I also deliberately clicked and asked, but the answer was almost similar: I have read it, and it's good to write it. Or read it, but it's too busy to read it carefully.

I can't help but suggest to my boss many times, hoping to tell the marketing department a new product. The boss has done this several times. At the opening of the quarterly meeting, I mentioned it again at the executive meeting, so that everyone reached a consensus: on Monday afternoon, the R & D department trained the marketing department on new products.

The training was also done, And everyone discussed this afternoon. The marketing department also put forward some suggestions for the products. We wrote them down. However, we have finished the modification, but we still haven't completed the following. You can think about how difficult it is to promote a new product. Therefore, the R & D phase of a good product is actually very simple and very short. Design, coding, and testing are not challenging tasks. A good product must be recognized by the marketing staff, the boss, the Implementation Department, and the Support Department, is the support of many operators and personnel in various stages. Many new developers once reflected their frustrations with me. I said these are common tasks. After product R & D, only 10% of product success is achieved. It is common for a product to die in the company. Why do we want everyone to support you? Just because you are R & D, he is marketing, and he must cooperate?

At the New Year's meeting, I proposed the promotion and sales of new products. During the annual meeting, I conducted another training for all the employees. The boss also attended the training and felt that the product had been doing well for so long. It was time to sell it. As a result, when opening a marketing department meeting, I assigned a task to the Marketing Department. The sales of new products must be included in the sales plan for the new year, with sales tasks to specific persons, sales assessment is required.

This can lead to Trojans. The marketing department can also be seen in the waves when customers make a single order. No one has ever seen the trend for a while, no question. Many Marketing Department staff have joined the crowd to seek help from their marketing experience and customer experience, the product defects are justified. The boss is not sure, but still said: we are sure to push new products this year. However, we can not use it as a sales task, but the specific owner should be clear.

The sales department has a specific product owner. However, the person in charge is just a new sales person, and running a sales project is just an assistant. He has never done any product sales (he can think of the Sales Department's plans ). New product owners are very nervous and busy installing software learning software.

However, the sales person in charge of this product does the following:

1. He tried the software and he felt not easy to use. He thinks that he is an ordinary user, and he feels that he should be uncomfortable with customer changes. It is recommended that developers modify it. I have not paid much attention to it, and I cannot say that people do not know anything about it. In this way, the developer starts to change. The UI color, icon, font size, text name, operation method, and instruction document are all changed as required.

2. The responsible salesperson, who felt the software was unstable, called some sales personnel for testing. It is estimated that the test will start without reading the manual. The bug was not found, and the Sales Department started to PK. He said that his operation method is more in line with the customer, and he said that the process he understands is more accurate and realistic. At the beginning, the salesperson started to compete with other sales personnel. After all, the previous changes to the software were all modified under the framework of his ideas. This time, other sales personnel made different opinions, isn't that consistent with him. Since he is responsible for this product, he thinks that he understands this product more deeply. However, the customer experience of other sales personnel is better than that of others, and sometimes others do not know whether the customer thinks that way. So I came up with some agreements: they are all right. First, let us know what we can do to make changes for developers.

What should I do? I said, just stay tuned and let them have internal PK first.

In the past two months, I have not made any sales moves, so I have to make changes and tests at home. New sales personnel have become product designers and project managers, and control the functional design, progress, and quality of new products. This is really a strange role. I have seen this phenomenon in the QQ group. Some netizens say that their organization form is like this, and the product definition belongs to the product department. This organizational structure was originally correct, and Microsoft's software design was proposed by the program manager. Microsoft's program manager is equivalent to a product manager, most of whom are MBA students. However, the problem is that Microsoft's program managers have a deep understanding of software and are also very profound in software marketing. I was surprised that a person from Microsoft's management position had such a deep understanding of the specific technology of Microsoft's development tools. In China, similar organizational structures are often divided, but corresponding persons cannot be matched. For product design, we often do not understand software. Software developers often only write code. A person who knows both software and products, if there is no visible success story, is also seen by others as a person who does not understand software or products.

I gave my boss a suggestion: You can go to the customer service to investigate the problem. Don't stay bored at home. Let's hear what customers say first.

Therefore, the sales team listened to the boss's instructions and contacted familiar customers for research.

However, the research process has made everyone fall into the eye. I heard from my developers that I did not go into research, but went to sales.

This is a kind of sales Thinking inertia.

Of course, the final result is that the customer left the demo version for trial use. However, the following information is still unavailable.

I mentioned the quarterly meeting: our software products are not built behind closed doors in the house. Our software design also draws on the existing systems of many customers in the early stage, I have been communicating with customers online for a long time, and I have also learned a lot from other similar software. When we are a donkey or a horse, we pull it out and walk it out. Can you swim? You can't learn it at the pool. One kick into the water, throw a few mouthfuls, can't die, but will soon learn to swim.

The boss also asked about the survey, but the sales newbie could not say many important reasons, so the boss personally traded.

The new owner is a typical sales model. Software Bug? Microsoft also has bugs. Incomplete software? Improved how to upgrade.

When it comes up, he keeps making phone calls to his customers. After the cold answer, he asks about the usage of the existing system and then leads the current product according to the customer's current situation. Once the customer heard this, well, we want to have such a function. The old sales team said that our system has already been used for many trials and has a good response and can be seamlessly connected with our system.

After the call is completed, the demo version and manual are delivered to the customer. The three axes of old sales have also been used up. But no one has ever made product sales, and I don't know how to push new products. What should I do next?

I said, as a beacon customer. They interact with each other and are well-informed. First, let the affected customers first use it. It is much easier for us to promote the promotion to other customers. In addition, the customer of the beacon has a great influence. If you are afraid of failure at the beginning and are afraid of difficulties, you will have to make small customers first. Instead, you will not be able to make much effort after half a day. It's better to stick your teeth to the top of your teeth. I think of the scenario when I worked as a beacon customer in another company nine years ago. At that time, I was looking for a small customer. It was very fast to go online and I didn't change much, however, it has not improved the maturity of the software, and has little influence in the industry. The amount of bills has been signed, but the last Support Service has not been called, in addition, the customer's limited IT capabilities sometimes need to appear. Alas, everything comes down to the first customer. The customer picked us up and said that we had to deliver the experiment mice we had made to the west. In addition, the local customers who are deliberately looking for the signatures are designed to reduce the cost for implementation. But since then, a bad implementation problem has also been formed, that is, the implementation mode for programmers to implement and change the program on the spot. The formation of this model lies in the fact that programmers are responsible for serving as beacon customers, who write code and who implement beacon customers, and immediately get rid of customers' demands on the spot, we hope to improve the software quickly. However, this has formed an inertia, and the implementation of the second beacon customers is still the same. Finally, the beacon customers have done several services that cannot be delivered to the Implementation Department. Almost changed the Development Department into a department with full functions of development, implementation, and support. After a great deal of effort, we have made a transitional transformation, but now we have no small problem.

He asked me how to choose a beacon customer?

I said, first find customers who like innovation. Products also have a life cycle. In the beginning, you cannot find a large customer or a small customer. Our system is just a startup, and large customers will control us and influence our future development. Small customers have little influence after completing the process. Therefore, we need to select innovative customers from the middle of the market. Customers who do not like early adopters have no enthusiasm for application. Instead, they naturally doubt and reject new things.

This innovative customer also needs an influence in system construction. Some customers like business innovation, but they don't want to think about whether the system can be implemented. Instead, they want to say more, but the system cannot be implemented. This type of customers often see it. Therefore, we are looking for customers who like innovation and system construction, and the customer needs to be medium-sized. This is a typical beacon customer.

Only the lighthouse customers have set a benchmark, and the influential and important customers can pay attention to it during promotion. This is like the rivers and lakes. The leaders of the rivers and lakes do not pay attention to the small ones, but they are the second and third leaders, because they will surpass those who are not careful.

Beacon customers are the first in the life cycle, major customers are the second in the cycle, and the third in the circle is to watch the innovative radical and big customers apply well, so those with doubts will flock to the market. This type of customers are like penguins, and no one is in the water, afraid of seals in the water. Wait until other penguins get into the water.

The sales veteran really focuses on a few good customers who like innovation and system construction. Don't worry about it. You can definitely do it. Can you lend me a week of developers? I'm sure I will sign the order to go to the site and change the development for them.

I'm a bit hesitant, and I'm afraid to share the same mistakes. However, the list of the first customer is so precious. After all, we must take the first step.

I want to go for a week, but I have to say it is only one week. No matter whether it is finished or not, it is just one week. In addition, I need to contact an implementation manager. You are a project manager, but you cannot design products over time. You are responsible for customer communication, coordination, online promotion, and implementation manager and developer scheduling. Developers cannot directly face customers. All customer needs must be collected and organized by the implementers according to our formal implementation process.

So the three men are on the road. In this process, the sales team serves as the project manager, implementation manager, and developers. I tried my best to control it, but I still did not avoid talking to the customer and everyone. I severely warn developers that you cannot develop without my confirmation. Even a small change must be reported back to me. Even if it is an MSN report or a telephone report.

I keep them sticking to their respective roles. In that week, I spent a lot of energy constantly differentiating their colors and balancing the customer's requirements with the three of them, instead of turning all three of them into demand personnel and implementers.

A week has arrived. The sales team said that he has signed the list. could you keep the developer for another week.

I said I 'd like to see how much work is left. So I asked the developer to report the work list and workload estimation. I also listened to the implementation manager's implementation results and progress report. I also checked the sales staff's work list to see if it was like this. After the three are confirmed, I have extended the deadline for three days. In the last three days, I had to arrange all the work that developers would do and leave. The implementers follow the formal implementation process and cannot be implemented on site indefinitely. Otherwise, the customer will always say that they will not. Training and Examinations should be arranged in three days, and the current one-on-one training cannot be conducted.

The three days were very tiring. The sales team needs to persuade the customer to leave three days later, compile training courses and test content for implementation, and ensure that tasks are completed on time. No one is easy and everyone is under great pressure.

Finally, developers and sales are back. The implementation manager stayed at the site and I sent another implementation training personnel to follow up. Finally, the implementation process is consistent with that in the past. Although the customer still serves as the project manager after the sales return, the sales team tries its best to listen to the customer, but the implementation is transferred to the on-site implementation manager. Developers are still modifying the list of requirements generated in the implementation process, which is consistent with the previous development process and implementation process. It has not changed because of this special nature. Of course, the implementation manager made several calls to developers in a hurry, but I asked the developers to record them and add them to the requirement management tools. This process is of course painful. Without further management, developers become implementers and support personnel, and may need to rush to the site to save fire.

Finally, the first lighthouse customer went online for acceptance. The second lighthouse customer was led by the Implementation manager, who did not engage in sales or development. It is the same as the previous implementation.

I said: you also need to bring an implementation manager and training specialist.

The implementation manager asked me why? If there are more people, how should the two implementation managers divide their jobs.

I said: another group of implementation teams only need to prepare training course courseware, training, and examination. You have managed the project progress and requirement coordination.

As a result, four people are on the road.

The second beacon client went smoothly and the implementation time was shortened. Formal implementation documents and courseware have been created, and new product implementers have also been taken out. Developers in the office, I do management guidance, professional testing on a daily basis, software quality is also guaranteed.

Now, this product has been sold normally, and the development process and implementation process are still smooth.

The first step is to shape the model and never handle special things. Otherwise, the special processing will easily become a habit of handling things and will no longer be able to return to the normal process.

The first step is very important to keep the Development Department from being the Implementation Department.