Dear Colleague,

It’s hard for me to believe, but the MarketCapture Newsletter has reached its first anniversary.  During this year, it has become a vehicle of ongoing communication with a growing circle of people who share an interest in software marketing.  On many occasions, the communication has turned into a conversation and spurred creative thinking, hopefully on both ends of the dialogue.  Our current issue is a reflection of some of these conversations with our readers. 
 
As we reach this first anniversary milestone, we ask for some more feedback and input from you, the readers.  Please take a moment to complete our short Reader Survey.
 
The first article of this issue, Find the Royal Pain, is contributed by our reader Joe Barkai, following an e-mail exchange triggered by the January article The Fallacy of Qualified Leads.  In the article, we spoke about the need to find a real problem and target decision makers.  Joe expands on these points and adds examples and insight from his extensive interactions with large enterprises. 
 
Speaking of targeting decision makers, the next article is brought by Rob Leavitt, who recently discussed the concept of Marketing to VITO (Very Important Top Officials) with none other than Anthony Parinello, the author of Selling to VITO.  I am sure you will find it enlightening!
 
More on the issue of qualified leads from a sales perspective in the next article - How to Move Up The Sales Lead Value Ladder.  This article was originally published in SoftwareCEO.com, a site with a wealth of resources for every software executive.  Accessing archived articles normally requires membership, but you can access this article courtesy of SoftwareCEO to MarketCapture Newsletter readers.
 
One article you will NOT find here is “The Silver Bullet to all Your Sales and Marketing Issues”.  Successful sales and marketing require many coordinated efforts in multiple areas coming together.  In our February issue, we wrote about the need for sales and marketing coordination.  But who actually owns this task?  Read what Chris Selland thinks about it in the last article of this issue - Who Owns the Space Between Sales and Marketing?
 
To make things even more complicated, marketing and sales success is also a moving target – some of the things that made you successful launching the company could hurt you when you try to grow beyond the early adopter customer base.  The role of management is to understand these dynamics, put together a coherent strategy, and manage its execution across the organization.  Easily said, tough to get done.
 
In the coming issues, we will continue to examine and explore what it takes to make it work in the ever-demanding enterprise software environment.  We hope you find it valuable and continue to help us make it so with your input and contribution. 
 
Until then,
 
Eran Livneh