The Bandwagon
I have all of our competitors in a custom search on Google News. This helps me to keep on top of things that I might need to during the course of a week to make sure I’m as prepared as possible when questions come my way about something that one of them is doing.
This happened this week.
Ever since Google Base came out, it’s been catching a lot of buzz. I’m a believer in the wait and see, especially with stuff like this. Some of the companies we compete against jumped right on the bandwagon as soon as Google made the release announcement. We did not, and I wasn’t about to start pushing for it.
Have we had clients inquire? Yes, 1. Will more do so? Yes, probably. So, why not jump into the fray and run a press release that our products now support Google Base? Because, that would be bandwagon jumping, which is not always the best strategy to play.
As I mentioned above, I’m more of a wait & see type guy, and I really think that the hype here will blow over. Is the app really generating TONS of traffic for those using it? I can’t see that being the case. Can I see it eventually being an effective component in a shopping comparison strategy? Yes.
Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t have plans to support the app in the new year; we do. It will just not be right away, and that’s not a bad thing. Small companies (especially those in software) tend to rely too much on doing everything their clients ask for at the drop of a hat, and we need to step away from this reactive approach. When you have a very strong product, Sales needs to rely on the existing feature set (and yes, maybe in some cases, the high-level road map), but every deal can not have a feature element to it, otherwise you’ll hit a ceiling when you try to scale.
At least, that’s what my short-time in this business is telling me. What do I know? I still have so much to learn, it’s a little daunting.
