This morning I received an email from Bob Harper, CEO of MORE! Software saying that he’s retrenching to concentrate on the younger practices where MORE! can get involved with practice marketing.
At the same time, Bob advised me a of a new service he’s launched called Crunchers. This is aimed squarely at the outsourced micro-business book-keeping market.
I must admit to sympathy for Bob’s decision. It will mean that some practices will no longer get support from MORE! but then it allows the company to concentrate on the all important problem of onboarding clients for those practices that do ‘get it.’ Bob believes that many practitioners see onboarding as a hassle and so lose the opportunity to consider it a marketing opportunity.
This is a two-edged sword. The opportunities to provide micro-businesses with value add services are limited though I’d argue that in a downturn, there are more opportunities than might seem apparent. Even so, Bob is finding that many practitioners are stuck in a past where time is all important as the measure of value.
Onboarding clients for software is never easy as many have discovered. It requires an understanding of market dynamics, what matters to clients and overcoming the inevitable usability objections. On-demand software offers a range of possible counter arguments that should make life easier. But as always, it comes down to the marketing vision of both the vendor and the practitoner. If they’re aligned, then both can do well. If not?
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