What makes people buy software?

Most Important Criteria for Purchasing Software according to US SMBs (Forrester Research, June 2005):

• Features and Compatibility with existing systems
• Price
• Ease of implementation
• Vendor reputation

This info is interesting but what if you have no famous name (vendor reputation) and a lot of competitors who try to sell the same features and compatibility for less money. Do you still have a chance? Yes, you do.

First of all, customers can answer why they buy software but this does not mean you will get the real reasons. Why? No, customers will not lie to you. They will tell you what they consider to be true. But it is still not the real data.

Customers will tell you that they buy your software to solve a problem. That is your software has features required to solve the problem.

However, features are not enough to sell software. When people need features, they use open source products. The same features for less money, in fact for free. Features are not everything. Many developers do not understand this. It’s great if your software has unique features. But if it does not, you can still sell it pretty well.

You do not compete on features and price. Features and price are important but these are not the main factors that make people buy your software. Yes, you can compete with open source and freeware. People believe you have to pay money to get something of value. And it’s great. Moreover, higher price lets you offer better service: customer support, upgrades, etc.

Vendor reputations. Do you buy only from well-known companies? Why Chinese goods are so popular on our market? Startups with no name recognition still have a chance. Famous name is a big deal but you can leave without it. Moreover, if you try to market a small program, forget about creating a brand. It’s useless to spend money of image advertising in this case. And yes, you still can live happily without a brand.

So, you have competitors who do the same for free and enjoy a better-known name. It’s a common situation. As long as users know about your software, love it and you are ready to go an extra mile with them, they will buy from you.

Let people know about your software. This is marketing. If nobody knows about it, nobody can buy it. Obvious! But developers still dream about purple cows and try to create something so wonderful that it will sell itself. Before writing software, ask yourself how you will let prospects know about it. How many interested people you can inform about your software?

If you are good in writing, create a blog. If you know how search engines work, optimize your site and get search traffic. Study marketing, study advertising. And do not expect that something will happen on its own.

Well… you know how to get your software to people. How do you make them love it? Software must be pleasant and easy to use. The user must know how to use your software before installing it. Usability is a must. Great design is a must.

Ease of implementations is of tremendous importance. If I have to read your PHP code to install your script on my system, I can do this. But I will hate you while doing this. No sale for you.

People buy software because they love it and want to own it, not because of features, price and your reputation. Emotions make people buy software; logic helps them justify the purchase.