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What do you do if you make a B2B product that gives your customers such a big competitive advantage in the market that they won't talk about your product, activ

What do you do if you make a B2B product that gives your customers such a big competitive advantage in the market that they won't talk about your product, actively hide that they use it, and refuse to let you tell others that they use it?

thefalcon 10y ago
Raise your prices/get acquired?
- danieltillett 10y ago
  I am not sure how raising prices will help solve the keep-it-to-myself-problem. Being acquired for megabucks does sound nice though :)
blazespin 10y ago
Find ways to make your b2b product market itself by how it integrates (publishes content that is available on the web, REST APIs you can integrate with, etc). As your users derive and extract value from the product they will naturally advertise it for you.
- danieltillett 10y ago
  This is the problem - my customers extract the value and want to keep all the value to themselves.
  - blazespin 10y ago
    Yes, but by extracting value they are forced to integrate with the ecosystem at large. In this way, the ecosystem becomes aware of your product.
    - danieltillett 10y ago
      I am not sure what you are suggesting here. Could you be more specific?
nsgoetz 10y ago
Sounds like a great sales pitch if you have the numbers to back it up. Walking into a meeting saying we saved a certain company so much money that they're scared to tell their competitors about it is pretty convincing if you can show them the numbers.
- danieltillett 10y ago
  It is hard to back this up when the companies using it don't acknowledge they are using it.
beat 10y ago
Is this an actual case, or an imaginary what-if scenario?
- ikeboy 10y ago
  I use a B2B software from a startup and I would hesitate to tell anyone about it that I thought might go into the market. They're adding features based on my input, and I'm seriously considering developing the same software myself or outsourcing it so that it's not publicly available or the public version takes time to catch up to my own. (It's not about the costs.)
- danieltillett 10y ago
  Real product. I actually wrote about it over a year ago [1]. The number of customers now is twice as large and this is still a problem. 1. https://www.nucleics.com/why-do-only-5-of-the-93-dna-sequencing-facilities-using-peaktrace-acknowledge-using-it/ https://www.nucleics.com/why-do-only-5-of-the-93-dna-sequenc...
quickConclusion 10y ago
Then you want to bargain a discount, a faster delivery, a whatever, for being a public reference. In other words, if they want something, and want it badly, instead of monetizing it with $$, monetize it with a case study. Personal favor also. You go the extra mile for one user/infleluencer/decision maker in a customer company. Then ask to return the favor: "could you spend 15 minutes talking to this prospect of mine, it would help me a lot". They can say no, find an excuse. But it will hurt them because they know you helped them unreasonably in the past, it was valuable to them, and you may be less willing to do so in the future. Some will say yes. You just need one or two.
- danieltillett 10y ago
  I have tried to do this quite a bit, but they are all reluctant to be that person. Interestingly social proof seems to be unimportant in my industry, but it is a pain I can’t do case studies on my customers. One of the more amusing things is different divisions of the conglomerate that owns my main competitor are among of my largest customers. I am always amazed how little internal communication there is within large companies.
- mck- 10y ago
  We also encountered some customers like that - true evangelists but refuse to partake in public endorsement for fear of losing competitive advantage. We even offered discounts, but to no avail. On the contrary, we found the European and Australian customers to be completely different; competing companies in the same local markets seem to be quite chummy and will share such information freely. Obviously not to be generalized. We have North American evangelists too.
seanhunter 10y ago
Have you considered changing your pricing model so you get paid some % of their "success" however defined? Edit: to explain my thinking - the idea here is it may actually be that if you're getting paid alongside them that you don't need to grow to other customers. You can get all the revenue you need from getting this one customer to dominate their market.
- danieltillett 10y ago
  This is is actually what is currently happening in my market. My customers are increasing their volume each month while those that aren't using it are going down. The only problem is the market is quite fragmented so this approach only works if I have a customer in each market. I am working on solving this problem :) Edit. I should add that I have offered a discount in return for being able to publicise their use. Unfortunately, everyone has declined the offer.

thefalcon 10y ago

Raise your prices/get acquired?

danieltillett 10y ago
I am not sure how raising prices will help solve the keep-it-to-myself-problem. Being acquired for megabucks does sound nice though :)

blazespin 10y ago

Find ways to make your b2b product market itself by how it integrates (publishes content that is available on the web, REST APIs you can integrate with, etc). As your users derive and extract value from the product they will naturally advertise it for you.

danieltillett 10y ago
This is the problem - my customers extract the value and want to keep all the value to themselves.
- blazespin 10y ago
  Yes, but by extracting value they are forced to integrate with the ecosystem at large. In this way, the ecosystem becomes aware of your product.
  - danieltillett 10y ago
    I am not sure what you are suggesting here. Could you be more specific?

nsgoetz 10y ago

Sounds like a great sales pitch if you have the numbers to back it up. Walking into a meeting saying we saved a certain company so much money that they're scared to tell their competitors about it is pretty convincing if you can show them the numbers.

danieltillett 10y ago
It is hard to back this up when the companies using it don't acknowledge they are using it.

beat 10y ago

Is this an actual case, or an imaginary what-if scenario?

ikeboy 10y ago
I use a B2B software from a startup and I would hesitate to tell anyone about it that I thought might go into the market. They're adding features based on my input, and I'm seriously considering developing the same software myself or outsourcing it so that it's not publicly available or the public version takes time to catch up to my own. (It's not about the costs.)
danieltillett 10y ago
Real product. I actually wrote about it over a year ago [1]. The number of customers now is twice as large and this is still a problem. 1. https://www.nucleics.com/why-do-only-5-of-the-93-dna-sequencing-facilities-using-peaktrace-acknowledge-using-it/ https://www.nucleics.com/why-do-only-5-of-the-93-dna-sequenc...

quickConclusion 10y ago

Then you want to bargain a discount, a faster delivery, a whatever, for being a public reference. In other words, if they want something, and want it badly, instead of monetizing it with $$, monetize it with a case study. Personal favor also. You go the extra mile for one user/infleluencer/decision maker in a customer company. Then ask to return the favor: "could you spend 15 minutes talking to this prospect of mine, it would help me a lot". They can say no, find an excuse. But it will hurt them because they know you helped them unreasonably in the past, it was valuable to them, and you may be less willing to do so in the future. Some will say yes. You just need one or two.

danieltillett 10y ago
I have tried to do this quite a bit, but they are all reluctant to be that person. Interestingly social proof seems to be unimportant in my industry, but it is a pain I can’t do case studies on my customers. One of the more amusing things is different divisions of the conglomerate that owns my main competitor are among of my largest customers. I am always amazed how little internal communication there is within large companies.
mck- 10y ago
We also encountered some customers like that - true evangelists but refuse to partake in public endorsement for fear of losing competitive advantage. We even offered discounts, but to no avail. On the contrary, we found the European and Australian customers to be completely different; competing companies in the same local markets seem to be quite chummy and will share such information freely. Obviously not to be generalized. We have North American evangelists too.

seanhunter 10y ago

Have you considered changing your pricing model so you get paid some % of their "success" however defined? Edit: to explain my thinking - the idea here is it may actually be that if you're getting paid alongside them that you don't need to grow to other customers. You can get all the revenue you need from getting this one customer to dominate their market.

danieltillett 10y ago
This is is actually what is currently happening in my market. My customers are increasing their volume each month while those that aren't using it are going down. The only problem is the market is quite fragmented so this approach only works if I have a customer in each market. I am working on solving this problem :) Edit. I should add that I have offered a discount in return for being able to publicise their use. Unfortunately, everyone has declined the offer.