Geoffrey A Moore's classic "Crossing the Chasm" is probably the single most influential high-tech marketing book to be published in the past 20 years. It describes the rites of passage that B2B companies have to undergo if they are to move beyond their initial early adopter customer base and cross the chasm into the mainstream market.
Moore helps us recognise the markedly different influences that drive buyer behaviour on either side of the chasm, and offers time-proven prescriptions for bridging the gap. He wrote the book at a time when most markets had healthy early adopter communities that allowed promising new vendors to at least generate a little modest pre-chasm momentum.
The chasm is closer than you think...
There's no doubt that the chasm still exists - but the current market climate, combined with increasingly risk-averse buying behaviour, means that the share of most markets represented by early adopters has shrunk dramatically - leaving an even higher percentage of available budgets in the hands of pragmatic mainstream buyers.
As a result, promising new companies now have less time than ever before to work out how to address these conservatively-minded, risk-avoiding buyers. They have little option other than to find high-value, "must solve" business problems for which their offering can provide a provably superior solution. They need to move - urgently - from pitching technology to solving problems.
Impact on go-to-market strategy...
The impact on go-to-market strategy is profound. With so many fewer prospects willing to stick their neck out and speculatively invest in new technologies, vendors have to quickly identify critical business problems that their technology can solve, and craft compelling sales and marketing messages based on solutions to clearly expressed business needs.
Even start-ups are having to learn the language of business rather than the sometimes more comfortable vocabulary of technology innovation. Fortunately, there are ways in which this process can be accelerated. We work with our clients to help them identify their most promising prospects, the problems they have a compelling need to solve, and how and why they choose to buy.
Here's how we might be able to help...
Achieving sales and marketing alignment is particularly important to any organisation that is trying to achieve a step-function improvement in marketing effectiveness or sales productivity, to out-perform strong competitors, or to successfully launch new products or enter new markets.
We've been able to help a growing number of B2B organisations to realise their ambitions by diagnosing and dealing with the constraints that have been holding them back. We may be able to help your company achieve the same. You can learn more about our approach by browsing this website.
When you are ready, please complete our contact form, drop us a line at info@inflexion-point.com or call us on +44 (0) 845 519 0295.
We look forward to finding out more about what you are trying to achieve, to sharing some ideas - and to helping you achieve the benefits of alignment throughout your sales and marketing organisation.