Audience, Timing, and Opportunity Often Matter More Than Product

The "best" product doesn't always win. The reason is simple:

- You aren't in front of all audiences simultaneously, meaning it's not a debate between market segments.

- All audiences don't have the same definition of best. What's relevant to one may be completely irrelevant to another.

- Fighting against an incumbent is infinitely harder than finding Blue Ocean where your competition hasn't uncovered a need for your product.

In short, a simpler product in front of the right audience can easily outpace a more complex, seemingly feature-rich product.

I see many software companies trying to sell to the same exact market segment as their large incumbent competitors with a "superior technology" message, thinking that "N+1" feature will be the one that makes the difference.

It's usually a huge mistake. I almost always encourage software leaders to do two things instead:

1 - Find a beachhead market where your competition is not as entrenched, or hasn't noticed. The right entry point in the market means both the right audience and message -- either on its own is not very useful.

If you find this situation, I guarantee your current product is already "enough" because adoption of your type of technology has not become saturated in that segment.

see also: Crossing the Chasm.

2 - In a competitive segment, consider building a slightly adjacent product. I always find this question quite valuable when designing new products:

"What could I sell that I'm good at that 100% of my competitive installs would need, which is built to coexist with that product?"

Instantly you have an extension of your line, which could even end up being a larger business than your current one. And you get completely out of "zero sum" thinking.

And often you can be surprised if you can get a foot in the door, and offer better service, "vendor consolidation" is a real thing that IT departments and Finance teams think about. You can win business in accounts you could never have won previously just because you are in the door.

See also: "land and expand" sales strategy ;-)

One more for you.

Often, timing trumps all. There are sometimes watershed events that happen that completely shuffle the priorities of a market where something becomes a "must have". An example might be Amazon introducing a new ad format... or your operationally-focused product could suddenly gain new life in a market focused on profitability and customer experience.

It's often difficult for a slower, much larger competitor to react to changes - due to inertia and politics. These are your golden opportunities to gain share.

This is doubly true if there is significant doubt about the prospects of the new feature in the wider market, but you have a different set of data than your competition. While it may mean you toil in uncertainty for a while, if you're proven right, you may have just created a new category.