Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Girl from Ipanema and the SaaS value proposition

The girl from Ipanema and Spinal Tap were stuck in my head - an unusual soundtrack that continuously looped through an entire weekend.

You know how that happens with a song. You catch a fragment in a supermarket or an elevator. And then without warning, there's a smooth bossa nova swaying through your brain and you can't turn it off.

As for Spinal Tap, an announcer on Sportscenter used the phrase, "he turned it up to 11." That set off the memory of spontaneously combusting drummers, a ridiculously tiny Stonehenge replica, and "it's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

When songs or movies pop into my mind, it's tough to get them out. Sometimes what works is to go directly to the source - listen to the whole song or watch the entire movie. Fortunately, that's easy to do now.

Thirty seconds and 99 cents later, "The Girl from Ipanema" was playing on my iPod.

A couple of clicks on two different remotes, and I navigated my way from Sportscenter to Netflix on Demand to watch "This is Spinal Tap."

What I want, when I want it. Instant gratification.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) offers this same kind of instant gratification for information and applications.

Sales compensation information, marketing program ROI data, job applicant tracking, or an email newsletter service...all are just a click away.

Using SaaS applications like these, you can quickly get to whatever's on your mind or on your to-do list - anytime, anywhere. All you need is a browser and internet access.

There's lots of value in this instant access.

Too often though, the SaaS value proposition is focused on the cost advantages. But there's so much more to SaaS than that.

Make instant access part of your value proposition. Explain the benefits and advantages of solutions that are easily available anytime, anywhere.

Instant gratification... customers will pay for that.


Creative Commons License

This work by Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.