Book Review Department Editor Warren Keuffel

Marketing and Selling Software

Paul Freedman

The Product Marketing Handbook for Software, 4th edition by Merrill R. Chapman, Aegis Resources, 2005, ISBN 0-9672008-6-5, 690 pages, US$69.95.

Some readers might recognize Merrill Chapman from his book In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters (Apress, 2003), which I just happen to have on my bookshelf. And although poking fun at history is always enjoyable, learning how to keep your business going is, well, something that can keep you up at night.

But Chapman’s Product Marketing Handbook for Software—first published in 1993, now in its fourth edition—is completely different. For starters, you can only get it directly from the author. This contribution is best described as encyclopedic, both in its breadth and length. The 13 chapters run the gamut from product descriptions to promotional strategies and selling tactics. Each chapter features a focus story that describes real-world scenarios with stories about word processing products, CAD tools, and even software development middleware. An accompanying CD contains a series of checklists, templates, and forms to make it easy to adapt Chapman’s advice to suit your own company’s needs.

Clearly, the book isn’t meant to be read in one sitting, just like an encyclopedia (unless you’re preparing for a spelling bee or a Scrabble tournament). As for me, I needed many hours over many weeks to digest everything. Luckily, the professional but light-hearted tone made that enjoyable.

To get started, let’s remember that marketing is trying to have what someone would want to buy, while sales means trying to find someone to buy what you already have, according to Theodore Levitt’s The Marketing Imagination (Free Press, 1986). 

Of course, real businesses are always doing both at the same time. And, despite the title of Chapman’s book, the contents cover sales topics, too, including descriptions about pricing, selling techniques, and negotiating strategies. There’s even some discussion of associating software services with software products. I found his advice on trade shows (a chapter in itself) on par with a professional half-day course that I attended last year (at a much higher cost than the price of Chapman’s book, I might add).

Still, the software products world is vast, and I found that Chapman’s book moved a little too quickly from retail products that cost little and are largely sold through many levels of resellers (even retail stores) to enterprise or high-end products that cost lots and often require dedicated sales staff or specially trained distributors. (The author doesn’t use the sometimes useful B2B and B2C labels.) Furthermore, most of the focus stories and the author’s anecdotes about his professional experiences concern consumer-facing software products.

Another weakness is the original publication date (1993) and earlier editions. As a result, most of the examples are from the ’90s (or earlier). Chapters about the Internet and Web site design and promotion, while somewhat updated for the new edition, could be better. For example, many pages focus on banner advertising, but just two paragraphs cover pay-per-click advertising. I also found the warning that your Web site’s visitors might well be using a 28.8 K modem for dial-up access to be a little dated. As for Customer-Relationship Management tools, that topic rates just one paragraph.

Although an appendix includes suggested reading, Chapman directs you to his Web site for additional resources. There, you’ll also find a streaming-video interview about the book and a radio interview, if you prefer to rest your eyes while you learn. I prefer books that are more self-contained and would have welcomed footnotes or endnotes, along with a more extensive bibliography. 

So, who should read this book? Chapman suggests in the introduction that “while there are many books that describe various marketing theories and concepts, what has been missing is a book that assists marketers in executing programs and evaluating results. [This book] fills that gap.” And yes, for sales and marketing people at software products companies, this can serve as a handy reference. I’ll no doubt be taking it down from my bookshelf from time to time.

But I also think that newly promoted “techies” would find Chapman’s book to be a useful introduction to the new world of software sales and marketing, even though the going will be slow in parts because some acronyms (for example, “net present value”) aren’t defined.

Paul Freedman is president of Simlog. Contact him at paul.freedman@simlog.com; www.simlog.com.