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Acumatica VARs – Stop Selling Accounting Software

By Candyce Edelen

It's time for Acumatica VARs to stop merely selling ERP software and sell their expertise.

In my last article, I talked about the importance of a niche focus. This is crucial to your success. You select your target niche based on your own business experience.

Deploying a new ERP platform creates a huge risk for a company. Rollout failures are common, and they’re often at least partially blamed on implementation partners. I’ve little doubt that your prospects know this.

They have to figure out how to best manage risk to ensure a successful rollout. Choosing an implementation partner is critical to making the ERP selection process and deployment go smoothly. YOU are KEY to their success.

Stop Diluting Your Message

But you can’t make them successful if you’re not focused. For example, if your firm has 30 people and your website says you serve manufacturing, distribution, government sector and not-for-profit, you’re not going to engender a lot of confidence for any of these sectors. In fact, your website makes it clear that you have no focus, no specific expertise to help make a client’s deployment a success.

Acumatica’s Geoff Ashley says that this is a huge issue. “VARs are chasing prospects away from their websites because of this diluted messaging. Don’t dilute the message trying to be all things to all people. It defeats the whole point of your business.”

Find Your Ideal Customer Profile

So how do you select a target niche?

Look through your customer list and identify your happiest customers. It doesn’t matter what product they’re using – it could be Acumatica, Sage, or some ancient technology. What matters is what you do for them…what problems you’re helping them solve. Go talk to these customers. Ask them why they work with you, what you’re helping them accomplish.

Then dig deep into what they said to understand the specific business problems. Focus not on features they’re using, but what they’re doing. Focus not on what you sold them, but how you help them.

Figure out what your team is really good at, based on successful deployments. Again, the product you deployed doesn’t matter here. It’s about the business problems. Then look at similarities between those happy clients. Find the business problems you’re really good at solving.

Now look for the kinds of companies that have that type of problem. For example, in my last article, Geoff Ashley points out the similar business needs of an oil and gas field services maintenance company, a local HVAC company, and the truck driver for a snack food company.  “They all have fleets of trucks, carry inventory, use GPS, need to be able to reassign drivers’ routes easily, and need to communicate changes to drivers and customers along the route.” Use this similarity to figure out your ideal customer profile.

Demonstrate Your Expertise On Your Website

Once you have that figured out, start revising your website. Most VAR websites are far too general. They focus on product features instead of giving detailed accounts of how they can help prospective clients. Here’s your chance to stand out.

Describe, in detail, how you help that ideal customer profile. Focus on how you make a difference for clients because of your unique experience, the unique talent on your team. Tell your prospect what you’ve done for clients. But this is not about deploying specific features. It’s about delivering business value. For example, are you really good at decreasing inventory on hand while improving just in time delivery?

Stop Selling Accounting Software

Ashley points out, “It’s time to stop selling accounting software and sell results that clients are trying to achieve with an ERP deployment.” For example, most clients are looking to achieve one or more of the following business goals:

  • Improve productivity by making data available to everyone on the same platform
  • Improve employee collaboration by letting them see the big picture across departments
  • Improve decision making with better data and insight
  • Reduce human error such as missed orders, inventory mistakes or miscommunication
  • Reduce waste by improving inventory tracking and workflow management
  • Reduce cost by highlighting wasteful practices and workflow
  • Increase throughput by eliminating manual interventions

If you can go into details about how you help clients accomplish these goals, they’ll trust that you also know which features in an ERP platform will help make that happen. But they care about outcomes, not features.

So make sure that when they land on your website, it’s very clear why you’re the best choice. For the prospect, this decision isn’t about Acumatica. It’s about their business.

Our next article will talk about how to build your brand around this niche strategy.

If you’d like to get a copy of all these articles in a single PDF,

For More Information

PropelGrowth specializes in helping Acumatica VARs define effective business and go-to-market strategies that facilitate long-term growth in revenue and business value. If you’d like more information about how we might help your firm, contact us or call us at +1 970.300.2280.

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Candyce Edelen
CEO at PropelGrowth
Candyce is the founder and CEO of PropelGrowth. She brings more than twenty years of experience in managing technology companies and has founded four companies prior to PropelGrowth. For the past ten years, Candyce has focused exclusively in the capital markets industry, launching two financial technology companies. Now, she helps financial technology vendors improve their marketing strategy, publish compelling content, and drive revenue through marketing and sales enablement. Contact Candyce at +1 970-300-2280.
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Filed Under: Acumatica, PropelGrowth Blog

About Candyce Edelen

Candyce is the founder and CEO of PropelGrowth. She brings more than twenty years of experience in managing technology companies and has founded four companies prior to PropelGrowth. For the past ten years, Candyce has focused exclusively in the capital markets industry, launching two financial technology companies. Now, she helps financial technology vendors improve their marketing strategy, publish compelling content, and drive revenue through marketing and sales enablement. Contact Candyce at +1 970-300-2280.

Company Profile

PropelGrowth helps companies improve their marketing and sales. We start with in-depth buyer research. Then we develop a marketing and sales strategy and customer-centric messaging. Then we coach your team and help you execute on the strategy by developing thought leadership programs, content for every stage in the buying process, sales collateral, and tools to help buyers buy.

Figure out why and how your buyers buy

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Recent Posts

  • 4 Steps to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Sales Prospecting
  • The Reality of Cold Calling for B2B Sales
  • Can Inbound Marketing Generate Enough Leads?
  • How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Using LinkedIn for Prospecting
  • Tips from 8 ERP Resellers on How to Leapfrog Your Competition​
  • How to Win 74% of Your ERP Deals
  • Buyer Persona Research, the Key to Niche Marketing
  • 8 Ways a Niche Strategy Improves the Value of Your Practice

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      • Integrating PR
      • Creative Design
      • Back
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      • Content Marketing for the Buying Process
      • Content Marketing Programs
      • Thought Leadership In The Buying Process
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      • Back
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      • Back
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