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Open Source: A Contrast to the Commercial Approach
Selling commercial enterprise software isn’t easy. With average sales cycles lasting six to eighteen months, the upfront sales and marketing investment to drum up interest and get the word out can be high.
Contrast that with the model of Open Source and SaaS. Instead of expensive direct sales campaigns, these technologies are showing that it’s possible to be successful with a strong inside sales approach. Instead of countless meetings with sales people and sales engineers, Open Source and SaaS make it easy to test drive before jumping into a huge financial commitment.
Open Source lets the customer download, test, and become familiar with the product. SaaS vendors also usually allow customers to trial their software for free or at very low cost. If the software is good, companies are hooked and often more than willing to sign up for maintenance or to go forward with a hosted subscription.
With Open Source, the software vendor may not even be able to know when the sales cycle begins. Popular software will have thousands of downloads, allowing companies to experiment first to see if the fit is right. A direct sales model comes apart when there are that many leads to track. And the companies that do ask for more information typically are those that have already tried out the software and are already convinced that the software has value.
Spinning the sales cycle around so that customers come to the vendor rather the vendor having to engage in a seek-and-find game for new customers frees vendors up to concentrate more on their software. And that’s a good thing.
