By far the most popular suggestion to software suppliers is to make software prices more affordable. More than 60% of respondents to the nFold/ITWeb Enterprise Software Survey endorsed this idea.

Click here for an alphabetic list of software suppliers, based on responses to the survey.

The next five most popular suggestions to software suppliers include:

• more flexible licensing options

One way to be flexible, would be to offer software rentals that reduce the financial risk to a customer of using your software. The advantage for customers is that they don't have to make a large capital expense, but can simply increase operational expenses slightly. The advantage to you is in building more predictable annuity income. So both parties can win from being creative.

• sell solutions not products
  Make sure that your customer has a total solution with everything needed to benefit from your products. By way of analogy, it's no use selling a computer without the keyboard, mouse and monitor. In the same way, your software product is no good to your customer unless you also provide the right training, deployment and support services.
  
• understand business needs
  Before you recommend a solution, be sure to understand what business benefits your customer would gain by deploying your solution. On a high level, typical business benefits are to reduce cost, improve efficiency, or increase turnover. Be as specific as you can.


• care about customers
  We all know 'the customer is king'. But do you really put your customers' needs first? Remember it's easier to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one. And a happy customer will recommend your company to a few friends, while an unhappy customer will tell ALL his friends about your bad service. So keeping your customers happy is not only nice - it also makes good business sense.
  
• enhance support
  Be sure that your support staff know your products well (or at least better than your customers do). They should also know how your customers are using the products. If your customer has to nag you to do something, then you're being too re-active. If there are any support issues outstanding, be sure to update your customer frequently on the status until all issues have been resolved to the customer's satisfaction. And be ready to escalate the importance of a problem and resolve it with the right level of urgency.