Highlights from Softletter's Free Use (Freemium) and Trial Access Survey

February 16th: Time: 12:00PM to 1:00PM, EDT/EST

Presenter: Rick Chapman, Softletter Publisher and Managing Editor
 

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This videocast will analyze the results from just the upcoming release of the Softletter Free Use (Freemium) and Trial Acceess Report.  The Report covers free and trail access metrics and conversion to sales numbers for SaaS (Software as a Service) companies.  The report provides extensive benchmarks and metrics that  enables you to  measure your company's performance and achievements against your peers (and competition). The reports breaks results down by size and development stage of company.

This session will look at benchmarks and metrics from the report focusing on:

• Monthly Subscription Revenue 
• Use of Free vs. Trail Access
• Methodology and Business Practices of Free vs. Trial Access
• Product upgrade structures and special offers
• Results from use of Free and Trial Access programs
• Conversion results (percentage and time)
• Follow up marketing programs used and success rates
• Marketing programs used to promote Free and Trial Access
• Account deactivation practices

Rick Chapman, Publisher and Managing Editor, will be giving this informative, information-packed session. VPs and Directors of Marketing and Sales should find the session very interesting and timely as companies try to maximize the effectiveness of their marketing budget.

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Key Highlights from Softletter's Telesales Compensation and Efficiency Report

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Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009; Time: 12:00PM to 1:00PM, EDT/EST


Presenter(s): Softletter Editor and Vice President of Research Randy Hujar

This session will analyze the findings from Softletter's recently released Telesales Compensation and Efficiency Report. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of current practices in software industry direct telesales compensation and success measurements. The report provides extensive benchmarks and metrics that enables you to measure your company's performance and achievements against your peers (and competition). The compensation report breaks companies out by revenue size and four basic categories: Desktop/Retail, OEM, On Premise, Client/Server and SaaS.

This session will look at compensation metrics from the report focusing on:

• Compensation models
• Quota and variable pay
• % of reps exceeding quota
• Base vs. variable ratio
• Base salary
• Quota overrides
• Comparisons against numbers and metrics for direct sales groups

And more.

Randy Hujar, Softletter's Vice President of Research, will be giving this informative, information packed session.  VPs and Directors of Sales of marketing should find the session both timely and engrossing as the end of the fiscal year for most companies creeps nearer.

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Silly Fog: How to Prevent Cloud Hype from Damaging Your SaaS Sales and Marketing Programs

October 29th, 2009; Time: 12:00PM to 1:00PM, EDT/EST

Presenters: Softletter Vice President of Research Randy Hujar and Managing Editor Rick Chapman

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Over the last several months as Cloud hype has reached unprecedented heights, many companies and conferences have begun to confuse SaaS and the Cloud.  The result is growing confusion as potental SaaS customers begin to wonder what the "Cloud" is, the nature of its relationship with SaaS, and whether a SaaS product must be "Cloudy." And a confused customer is a non buying customer!

This session will examine current trends in SaaS infrastructure, analyze the relationship between the Cloud, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and SaaS. Effective ways to discuss the Cloud and SaaS so as to not confuse customers and freeze wallets will be discussed and analyzed. Selected highlights from Softletter's 2009 SaaS Report will help attendees understand current Cloud and platform trends and optimize their sales and marketing operations so as to preserve sales growth and avoid market uncertainty. Best (and worst) examples of how to use interest in the Cloud to help drive sales will be examined and dissected for their potental impact on your business.

If you want to understand how to use the Cloud to drive sales and not get rained on, this session is a must attend.

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The Windows Vista Positioning Disaster: An Analysis of the Biggest Marketing Meltdown of the New Millenium and What You Should Learn from It

October 15th, 2009; Time: 12:00PM to 1:00PM, EDT/EST

Presenter: Softletter Publisher and Managing Editor Rick Chapman

In the first and second release of "In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters" author Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman stated the fundamental reason for Microsoft's success over the years was that the company avoided ever making a major stupid marketing mistake.  With the release of Windows Vista, that changed!  The development and launch of Vista has been a disaster from both a  PR and financial standpoint. But the Vista catastrophe was ALSO entirely predictable! With the launch of Window's most infamous version, Microsoft repeated deadly marketing  mistakes first made twenty-five years ago by hapless MicroPro, publisher of long vanished WordStar, and repeated since by such companys as Borland, Novell, IBM and many others.

This entertaining and informative session will analyze what fundamental positioning mistakes Microsoft made, what it should have done, and what it's doing with Windows 7. Enlivening this videocast will be ads, products, and advertising samples from the past which will amuse and enlighten you while helping ensure you never, ever, make the same mistakes Microsoft made.

SaaS and the Death of Software Product Management (Or, While You Weren't Looking, Your Product Manager's Job Became a Zombie)

September 30th: Time: 12:00PM to 1:30PM, EDT/EST

Presenters: Softletter Publisher and Managinge Editor Rick Chapman, Plex CEO Mark Symonds, Quantum Whisper CEO Barry Paquet
 

The growth of the SaaS business model spells the end of product management as it's been defined in the software industry for the last thirty years. After SaaS ERP vendor Plex transitioned from client/server to SaaS, it jettisoned its entire product management/product marketing management framework. Current product management functions such as tick list herding, MRDs, PRDs,  "Agile" product management and the concept of no responsbility, no accountability, and no authority will soon be as relevant to SaaS companies as DOS 3.0 and floppy disks.

But is there something that comes after product management? Attend this ground breaking session to understand what's happening in SaaS, why, and what will replace your product management job.

Senior executives of SaaS firms, discover why you should not be spending a dime on:

• Out-moded product management training courses
• Current product management research, reports, and publications
• Theories on "Agile" product management, "visionary" product managers and the "stragtegic" value of product management

Learn more about how to begin the process of optimizing your SaaS community, monetizing it, and creating community management positions that boost the bottom line and provide benchmarks and metrics you can use to evaluate community management performance. Participating in this special hour and half program will be Plex CEO Mark Symonds, startup SaaS provider Barry Paquet of Quantum Whisper, Softletter publisher and managing editor Rick Chapman.

To enable as much interaction and as many live questions as possible, an extra half hour for Q&A has been added to the program.