Welsby
Lync Software is just moving now from product development into the sales and marketing stage.
By executing our channel strategy we expect to address a large part of our market very fast. Part of our strategy is to offer a product such as DeviceShield (security for removable media) that is attractive for partners to resell rather than compete with. They will make more money by selling it than by trying to reinvent.
Our next step is to knock on the door of potential partners, introduce them to the product and then sell them on its value. We will also equip them with marketing materials to make it easy for them to sell.
Welsby
What is the most difficult aspect your company has to deal with when it comes to growth—meeting demand or keeping a lid on costs?
Malone
Software has one unique characteristic that makes it very different to most other products—you produce it once and sell it an infinite number of times, whether it’s downloaded from the Web or delivered on DVD, the packaging is very low cost.
The biggest costs for growth are all bound up in marketing and people—experienced staff who can manage your partner channel internationally are expensive and hard to find. Support personnel to provide rolling help 24 hours a day are also very expensive and a
management nightmare.
The problem with growth is it’s almost too easy to meet demand and very difficult and expensive to create and maintain appropriate infrastructure.
The world is a small place now and if you let people down with support or your channel partners lack adequate training and resources, the world will quickly learn of your short comings and demand will drop.
In an ideal world you would have more infrastructure resources than is required to meet demand and then you would have time to keep developing whatever resources are needed to support your growth. The answer to this is always money.
Malone
What do you see as the most critical factors to managing growth?
Welsby
One key is to ensure our DeviceShield software is reliable and does what it is meant to. Another is to build up the sales resources to achieve our goals.
The biggest barriers to growth are finding the cash to fund it and attracting the right sales and marketing people.
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