Uniqueness Only Matters If It Drives Value
I’m sure we can agree that it is critical in any sales cycle to identify what is truly unique about our software, so we can use that uniqueness to drive the business case for buying our software. But how do we really know what is unique, versus what we claim to be unique?
Barbra Streisand’s nose is unique and everyone recognizes her, in part, because of it. Being a market leader, such as SAP in upmarket ERP or Salesforce in enterprise CRM, in and of itself isn’t unique. Even a truly unique feature is only noteworthy, if it drives the business case in a way others cannot.
I recently was involved in helping a customer develop their business case, but they struggled to name the specific features that uniquely drove value. Their overall message was solid, but not specific enough. So how do we know which features are unique?
Let’s start by asking our existing customers why, specifically, they subscribed to the product. If we ask enough customers, we will see a common thread. For example, at LiquidFrameworks, every customer believed that hierarchical pricing and offline CPQ were unique and valuable, as they drove the elimination of revenue leakage.
Next, we need to check the competition, in case they do something similar enough that they drive similar value but in another way.
Finally, let’s understand the dollar value of our market tested unique features; if a feature is unique but doesn’t drive value, its uniqueness is irrelevant.
Ultimately, in order to be able to leverage a unique feature, the market needs to acknowledge that it is unique and that unique feature needs to definitively drive value, eliminating the need to compete solely on the basis of having the lowest price.
If your SaaS company struggles to properly identify the unique (and valuable) features of your product, email dave@moicpartners.com.
Barbra Streisand’s nose is unique and everyone recognizes her, in part, because of it. Being a market leader, such as SAP in upmarket ERP or Salesforce in enterprise CRM, in and of itself isn’t unique. Even a truly unique feature is only noteworthy, if it drives the business case in a way others cannot.
I recently was involved in helping a customer develop their business case, but they struggled to name the specific features that uniquely drove value. Their overall message was solid, but not specific enough. So how do we know which features are unique?
Let’s start by asking our existing customers why, specifically, they subscribed to the product. If we ask enough customers, we will see a common thread. For example, at LiquidFrameworks, every customer believed that hierarchical pricing and offline CPQ were unique and valuable, as they drove the elimination of revenue leakage.
Next, we need to check the competition, in case they do something similar enough that they drive similar value but in another way.
Finally, let’s understand the dollar value of our market tested unique features; if a feature is unique but doesn’t drive value, its uniqueness is irrelevant.
Ultimately, in order to be able to leverage a unique feature, the market needs to acknowledge that it is unique and that unique feature needs to definitively drive value, eliminating the need to compete solely on the basis of having the lowest price.
If your SaaS company struggles to properly identify the unique (and valuable) features of your product, email dave@moicpartners.com.
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