I had an interesting meeting with 3 representatives from Microsoft a few weeks back. Although it was not the topic of conversation, Sharepoint was discussed for a little bit.
I had previously visited Sharepoint’s homepage looking for a definition of what it is. This is what I found:
What is SharePoint?
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 makes it easier for people to work together. Using SharePoint 2010, your people can set up Web sites to share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions.
Trust me, this is a better description of what it is, compared to what they had there a few months back. However, this does not really tell me anything, or help me in any way to make a better business case to sell it to an organization.
Also, as part of the conversation, I asked them to tell me what Sharepoint was, and how to define it. Surprise! Each gave me a different answer, with nothing in common between them. I told them what I thought, that it had no clear definition of what it was or how it was useful.
So, one of them told me something that is true: “It is selling like hot cakes”.
His comment made me think: Who really cares how your product is defined, if it is a best-seller? Who cares what people like me think, when they can’t keep up with the demand for implementations at organizations big and small?
Is it really that important to have a clear message for your audience, for your target market, when it is selling better than expected?
What do you think?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s a really good point you’ve raised here. I’ve never really had a clear idea where the buzz around SharePoint came from and to be fair there have always been pretty adequate alternatives to most of its functionality and potential. If anyone has a clear understanding of what its USP is I’d really like to hear it.
This might be true in popular and trusted companies like microsoft is. Sometimes they dont need any marketing stunt to sell out their products. Their name and following alone will do it. But for a striving ones out there really need the best strategy available in order to get the desired results.
I see the logic in your statement, but the best answer to the question that you asked is. “What do you want SharePoint to be?” SharePoint is so versatile, that it can do pretty much whatever you want it to do. If it’s an easy file colaboration and versioning option that you want in your organization, it can do it. If you want to have an intranet to have documents, training materials, HR information… It can do that.
I currently use it for an Internet portal for our customers to access customized reports and documents. We also have an Intranet for each department. There are so many applications that it can be applied to, that no two companies will use it for the exact same purposes.
This is where consultants will assess what the business needs and tell you want SharePoint can do for you…
Thanks for your comment Matt. I checked your website, I like it. One of my concerns and a scary trend I am seeing is that this is becoming the “cure-all” recommendation for everything and may become overkill for many smaller organizations’ needs.
Again, thanks for your comments and looking forward to more conversations with you and other experts about this.
Andrés Vivas.
Where to and how to market the SharePoint?
What is the right marketing strategy for this?
I work In a Microsoft gold certified company and i’m in marketing not in sales.
So i want a little guidance how to start marketing for it.
Hi Satyendra. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
What type of marketing are you looking forward to do?
As you know, Sharepoint has a lot of capabilities and your company could do many things with it. What, specifically, are you trying to market?
Andrés Vivas.