On December 28, 2005, The Wall Street Journal reported that the yield on long-term bonds had dropped below the rate on short term bonds — an unusual occurrence that often precedes a downturn in the economy.

Just what the much-beleaguered software industry needs — more bad news!

The economy may be beginning to slow, which comes on top other problems facing the software industry: maturing industry with slower growth and accelerating mergers and acquisition activity. Earlier, I wrote of the malaise afflicting the software industry. Now I would like to share a solution for software CEO’s:

Change the role of Marketing in your company.

Traditionally, Marketing’s job has been to turn product features into benefits and stimulate demand via webinars, events, and more. It has always been to take what R&D develops and the “elevator pitch” of senior leaders and turn them into tangible offerings. This “bullhorn approach” needs to change. Customers ought to hold the bullhorn and Marketing needs to listen.
For a great example of the new approach to Marketing, take a look at a fast growing software company, FileNet. Their CEO, Lee Roberts (above), told their customers at a recent user meeting that FileNet asks “What do YOU need?”

In turn, their Chief Marketing Officer, Martyn Christian, (below) has documented a role he calls ‘Vice President, Worldwide Industry Marketing.” The crux of this role is to answer Mr. Robert’s question, “What do YOU (customers) need?” Go ask.

This is a field sales/marketing role. The job entails looking at a vertical market, such as telecommunications, researching it, interviewing executives, and designing Go To Market strategies. This “military intelligence” is then used throughout the company — educating salespeople, feeding R&D and tailoring marketing messages. This breaks down the wall between Marketing and Sales and provides invaluable intelligence for top executives.

FileNet is on to something — and I advise software CEO’s to emulate this idea. Every marketing department ought to have very senior outside people who spend most of their time on the road with customers and key partners — listening and asking questions, while selling nothing. The intelligence gathered will be invaluable to all your leadership.

For companies looking for best practices in b2b lead generation who wish to improve the way they acquire new customers, Find New Customers is the place to go.  CSO Insights says companies need to improve the way they generate sales leads and implement processes for business to business lead generation.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” Check out the online show every Friday at 11am ET, “Laugh and Learn with the Fearless Competitor.” Find New Customers is one of few lead generation companies in New York. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @fearlesscomp.

Find New Customers helps companies like yours (with 50 to 5,000 employees and complex products) implement lead generation programs to improve the way you find and acquire high quality sales leads using best practices in online lead generation. Quality leads matter. In fact, a recent study found that sales teams with fewer, high quality sales leads closed more than sales teams with more leads of dubious quality.

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