When developing a marketing strategy for a new product or idea aimed at a large organization - the key decision is should the marketing strategy be aimed at C-Level or grassroots. Who is the target of the marketing strategy?

The decision boils down to the following three points:

Budget:
It is a function of who would have the signing authority for that budget. If your product is a high budget item, then you should start from the top, get it into next year budget cycle and sell the senior management on the product idea/benefits.

While if your application is a small budget (something that a low end manager can approve) than start with the grass roots, get one group using it and make them the advocates for the product to other groups.

Authority:
If you can changing a core functionality of the organization (for example Billing for a Utility company or telecom) start from the top, since the grassroots will not have the authority to consider changing the product.

Pain Point:
Who would benefit most from the product, market it to them. For example if your customer is struggling with productivity improvement and your product significantly helps with that - you would start selling from the top. Alternatively if you have a product that improves how the quality of software developed for example and can be sold at a low individual license fee, you can start from the grass roots because that is where the key pain point is being addressed.

Selling into a large organization is more about integrating with their existing process, existing platforms, managing the customer organization politics - you should be willing to customize the product to meet their needs.

About the Author

Along with being a marketing ECO advisor at Entrepreneurcommunityonline.com, Pooja (CEO Blueknee Marketing) specialize's in developing marketing strategy, competitive analysis and pricing strategies.

You can follow my regular blog at http://blog.blueknee.com or contact me via email at pooja@blueknee.com.