Know your customer
A five slides presentation from the
Team at Portfolio Software

Know your customer
Research your customers, know
their pain points
1. Research the customer market
2. Understand their problems and their
priorities
3. Speak to them and understand their needs
and wants, distinguish between the decision
maker and the user
4. Work out how much value they would
attribute to the problem you will solve
5. Research the number of customers with
similar problems, use a CRM to record all
history and contacts

Know your customer
Solve their problems
1. Give your customers what they want, not
what you think they need
2. Don’t overcomplicate your solution, make it
easy to install, use and support
3. Give added value wisely, don’t let an added
value become your sales pitch
4. Understand the true benefit to the customer
in terms of business benefit
5. Don’t allow your solution to create more
problems than it solves

Know your customer
Know their suppliers and know why
1. Understand the products your customer currently
uses, it tells you what they need, and how much
they are likely to pay
2. If your suppliers have a foothold in the market, it is
more difficult to get in the door
3. Multiple suppliers probably mean it is anybody’s
race
4. Check out your suppliers, they may provide the
best widgets but not necessarily the most up-to
date
5. Your customer does not simply select a supplier
because they have a good widget, they choose
them because they are trusted in some other
way, find out what

Know your customer
Understand their domain
1. Live and breath in the same circles as your
customers
2. Get noticed from more than one angle, not
just the one selling the widgets
3. Trust is important, the more customers that
know you in a single domain, the more they
are likely to trust you
4. Follow the trends and speculate on the future
5. Be active but balance it with objectivity.

Know your customer
Empathise with the user, sell to the
decision maker
1. The decision maker is unlikely to make a
decision without consulting the person who
needs your product
2. First build trust with your potential user, the
decision maker will listen to them more than
you
3. Your product needs to solve their problems and
make them better, cost is the least of their
problems (generally!)
4. Add value, don’t add risk
5. Break down barriers, build bridges, the more
bridges you have, the easier it is for your
customers to get to you

Portfolio Software was formed in 2002
We deliver great software solutions - you won't get what you
expect from Portfolio Software. You'll get more.
We take a different approach to software development, blending the strengths of
best practices and methodologies - not just limiting our options to one. Our long-
range vision focuses on your immediate needs first, developing a solution and a
roadmap for future expansion.
We work successfully with distributed teams - we recognise that
the world is flat
We are well versed with delivering solutions with teams distributed across 5
continents. We recognise the need, mitigate the risks and embrace the complexity.
We use industry standard processes - successful Delivery of Your
Solution is our Prime Directive
Whether Agile or Waterfall, we pick the best method and process for the delivery of
your solution. We manage the full lifecycle and have an open and transparent
working policy which means we keep you with us every step of the way.
Contact us:
Tel: +44(0)845 644 7855
Email: info@portfoliosoftware.co.uk