It's About the Users, Dummy.

By Charles Gold, Demand Metric member

In the beginning there was technology. We talked about features (it’s got an x-57 flux interface!). Then there were benefits (tastes great, and it’s less filling!). We’re now in the Age of Me. People want products that specifically talk to their needs, and they want to be talked to as human beings. In the Age of Me, our B2B life is heavily shaped by our B2C experiences.

We need to make all of our marketing efforts more about the human beings who will use our products and influence or make buying decisions. By “marketing” I mean Marketing (from strategy to tactics) and by “all” I mean all. Product, pricing, promotion, distribution.

I’ve written recently about the future of enterprise sales. But it’s about much more than how we sell. It’s about what we sell, how it’s packaged, and how we talk about it. Humbly submitted, here’s my manifesto for the new age, the Age of Me.

Demand Metric member Charles Gold is a career software marketer who believes passionately that as the software market matures, marketing is rapidly becoming the thing that sets winners apart from also-rans. For nearly 20 years, he has worked with start-ups and established public companies as a senior executive in both marketing and product management. He currently serves at the Chief Marketing Officer at Sonatype, an enterprise open source software vendor. Charles lives in Fairfax Virginia with his wife, three kids, and a rescue dog.  You can find him on Twitter at @chasgold and blogging on software marketing at cgoldmarketing.com.