Marketing the Technical “Orgasmatrons”
Posted in Uncategorized on May 1st, 2009 by JackI recently saw the following on the Linked In group for Cloud Computing. Miha Ahronovitz quotes Dave Corley (I’m assuming he’s the Dave Corley who’s a director of engineering at Cisco):
I am not sure if Dave Corley text below is just a post, a poem, a witty note in beer hall wall, a musing, a spiritual seek.. Whatever it is, is memorable and worth quoting.
Miha
——-start—
Every ISV on the planet is moving to this service model. It was borne of the original “techies” at salesforce and google and webex and other companies who understood that ubiquitous access, higher feature velocity, lower development expense and recurring revenue make a lot more sense than selling bundled software packages through retail and traditional distributors, then supporting same on the back-end of the lifecycle.
Having lived half my civilian life as a product manager and the other half as an engineering manager, Ive observed that most market transitions are driven by the likes of “techies” like Sergei Brin and Mark Andreesen….folks who realize the market value of the orgasmatrons they create. Marketeers in the case of SaaS added the value of changing the monetization and channel models to something that _notionally_ yields more more predictable, less “bumpy” revenue stream through a subscription service model.
While the subscription Software as a Service monetization idea is not yet wholly proven (ask Netsuite and salesforce how profitable they really are), the engineerng value of higher, more predictable feature velocity and lower development costs due to reduction of version control nightmares is palpable. “aaS” is here to stay. Marketers, you’ve just got to figure out how to make money at it and not interrupt or talk down to the folks who produce what we in the industry are going to get rich on. So, figure out how to make money with the orgasmatron and stop trash-talking the engineers. [...] aaS “technology” will not fail. Look at the early days of the various transportation services industries….just a different kind of communications service delivered today. Those who survived figured out how to make money at it.
So, when that red-eyed “techie” comes out of a dark, dank lab/cube at 3am, with the shiny new orgasmatron, trash the condescending attitude and know that, as a marketeer/sales guy you have a golden, orgasmatronic opportunity at your fingertips. For your sake and hers/his, don’t screw it up.
Like Dave, I’ve split my professional life between engineering and marketing, and my observations parallel his.
I do note, however his taking the engineering side: “trash the condescending attitude and know that, as a marketeer/sales guy you have a golden, orgasmatronic opportunity at your fingertips”. The truly successful entrepreneurs know that each functional area and person is critical to the success of the product/service and the company. To discount any one group spells doom.
Yes, marketers must show respect for the “red-eyed techie”. By the same token, the engineer has to show respect for the marketer. The product doesn’t get to the customer all on its own, and the company doesn’t get paid without the effort of many different skills (embodied in many people with many roles) all working in concert.
