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We released our software late November, 2009 we got our first sale after 2 weeks, then another sale after one week. and everything was promising.

But from late December till today, we haven't got any customer inquiry or sales or anything at all, it's like everything got frozen one time.

We are setting ads on Google, but waiting for approval as it takes some time, so hopefully it can help.

My question is, is it normal that when you release you get sales and many customers asking about features, then suddenly everything stops for over a month?

Another question, we are planning to release minor version next month, shall we do that, or wait a bit more until we get more feedback?

http://www.ims-system.com

Thanks,

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8 Answers

What's wrong? With all due respect, I would say you need to do a lot more work on your marketing. I visited your home page - it was hard for me to tell exactly what you are offering - I googled "Inventory management software" and you're nowhere to be seen, up to page 4 at least.

I would suggest the following:

  1. Get Dharmesh's book. Read it. Do what it says - it works!
  2. Decide what your target market is - you need something to differentiate yourselves from the rest of the pack - there seem to be dozens of solutions in your space, and you need to set yourself apart by some means or other (e.g., type of customers, customers' business sector, size of customer, etc.). It needs to be a market where there is sufficient revenue opportunity and growth potential for you and where you have some sort of edge.
  3. Update your website to reflect your strategic target market.
  4. Go after that market for all its worth.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck!

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Sorry - I should have added - you could also do with working on your on-line identity - your company name is easily confused with your product name (not a bad thing if it's a little funky, but in your case not a great situation) and with many other companies in this space - as you can see when you page through the Google search results. – Steve Wilkinson Jan 20 '10 at 14:31
I bought the book. I'm looking for some good advice and a book to read that will hold my interest... – Scott Feb 18 '11 at 21:03

Impossible to say without some sort of idea of your traffic. If you're getting a million visitors a day then there's something wrong, if you're getting 1 then it's just low traffic. Your website could certainly do with some work, the rotating image is annoying beyond belief. You also seem to be selling your product rather than selling the scratch to someone's itch which is a fairly typical mistake.

Here's what I'd do to start with:

  1. Get the book suggested in Steve's post, it's well worth the read.
  2. Remember you're selling a solution to a problem, not a neat widget. Base your marketing around this principal and redesign your website/content accordingly.
  3. Decide on a target market and get to know their pain, mould your website accordingly and try to get involved with relevant industry groups, online forums, etc etc
  4. Proof read your website, there's spelling errors right through it, it looks unprofessional and doesn't make anyone want to download or try your product.
  5. Give it time. I took 2 years before I began to think I was starting to understand what my customers wanted, how to make my website better, the sort of content I needed to generate, and how to make my products convert better.
  6. Give it more time, here I am 7 years later and the more I learn the more I realize I dont know. You'll be super lucky to hit on an application that will go from 0 to a million in a year or two, it's all about incremental growth and constant work.
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I think it is the annoying updating/rotating on your homepage...

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If the website is the only/primary channel to sell your product then as mentioned before you would have to focus quite a bit of your time and energy on it.

I wonder how you received your first set of orders. If there were from the web then you would certainly want to investigate how you got those leads.

There is a good deal of information on the site but is not presented or geared towards your target audience. I have briefly looked at your FAQ and IMS System/Feature (this top level menu has to be re-labeled) and I found some good information.

I do agree with other posters that you need to focus on getting more sales and receiving feedback before you start working/releasing other versions of the product. Btw, I looked up your forums and there is nothing going on there. So, it is another indication that you need to build more traction.

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I have asked a question earlier in the forum on what should be the Elements of a good web app/site design and Claus Schwarm wrote a very good answer. It is a good read. Looking at ron M's answer you would need to understand the above answer and have the time, right resources and budget to make the necessary changes. Now, what makes a website from mid 90s is a good question to ask. – AKA AK Jan 24 '10 at 20:56

I have to agree with some of the other comments I'm afraid.

I really don't like the website and I don't think it shows your software off very well, it is not professional enough. The design really needs to be improved, the overall feeling that the design conveys is that it is shoddy and the attention to detail is quite poor. This then rubs off onto your software product, which may be fantastic but I have not gained any confidence from the site design.

The home page animation thing is very badly done unfortunately, it is not possible to see the screenshots properly, the animation is not slick, it jerks around, is not readable and I can't see what is going on at all (I know you can click on the screenshots but I wasn't looking forward to what might happen when I did click on them).

Please look at other websites that sell software and web-based applications to see how they present themselves, how nicely designed and professional their sites look and compare them to your own. Have a look at the market leading sites such as www.basecamphq.com, www.freshbooks.com, www.campaignmonitor.com, www.huddle.net, etc.

Please also test your website thoroughly, there are validation errors, your website is not standards compliant (either with section 508, WCAG 1 or WCAG 2), and there are some issues regarding browser compatibility too.

At this point I wouldn't do any marketing until your website is up to scratch, as sending people to the website will not do your brand any favours at present unfortunately.

This is not meant to be a dig at you at all, I really think your website needs work so that it gives the right impression and drives sales and converts visitors rather than hinders your software product, which is what it is doing at the moment.

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Many decicion makers are on holidays from (roughly) dec 20th to jan 10th. When they come back, they have more important stuff to care for (all the things that have to be done at the turn of the year).

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The website could do with a little more polish, but you've obviously put a lot of effort into the development, so congratulate yourself. Now you need to focus on Marketing rather than cramming more features into your product.

You are in a competitive market, so take your time and build slowly. I'm sure success will come.

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I'll be brutal: your website looks like something from 1996. Get a web designer, freelancer, firm, whatever and re-do the entire website.

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