I spent years as a software developer and project manager. Now I'm ready to begin yet another career: fortune teller. That's right. Thanks to my magic crystal ball, I can see into the future and am ready to report back on the state of software engineering. Long story short: the future isn't bright, and it's only going to get worse.

The writer

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/cruddy-programmers-are-the-future

I'm very interested in picking out prices. I firmly believe that if a company doesn't choose a pricing strategy carefully, it's likely to leave a lot of money on the table.

But many others disagree!

The band Radiohead received a lot of free attention for allowing customers

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/pay-what-you-want-works-sometimes

The word is getting out! With the imminent release of my book on software pricing strategy, everyone is asking me about what they should charge for their small businesses and startups.

Here's one conversation today.

Friend: I'm going to start offering classes. What should I charge?

Me: Fantastic! Who

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/how-much-can-i-charge-for-a-class

I recently spoke to a businessman about his project. He'd handed it off to a couple of programming teams and the result was the same each time.

Failure.

Every software engineer wants to be the one who can do what another guy can't, so I asked to so see the writeup describing his project.

I was shocked. Maybe that wasn't it. I was bemused.

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/business-of-programming

The sales funnel is a classic marketing tool used by marketers everywhere. It is also used incorrectly, causing wasted marketing dollars, lost potential sales and (most importantly) lost time.

So what is the sales funnel? It is a strategy for breaking down the sales process into a series of steps, each focused on a smaller number of sales

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/sales-funnel-no-sniper-scope-yes

One of my friends purchased a product. It was a small, resealable plastic box containing a piece of sandpaper and six pieces of sticky tape, each roughly a square inch in size.

Let's pretend that you own the company that sells this product. How would you price it?

If you were to price on cost, you would probably quote a price in the

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/pricing-of-tape

What would you say if I told you that I spent three times as much money as a friend who bought a bike? Not only that, but I bought a bicycle that is more fragile, less stable and is significantly less comfortable to ride?

You'd probably say that I made a poor buying decision.

I did not.

My friend purchased a mountain bike, designed for

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/bicycles-and-product-positioning

As a business owner, I often need to purchase products and services, so it makes me happy when vendors can clearly explain the benefits of their offerings. The better they can describe their wares, the more straightforward my decision making becomes.

Unfortunately, many salesmen try to control the sales process and attempt to channel potential

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/how-to-lose-a-sales-lead

Perhaps you've heard of the "Law of the Hammer". It's an expression that says that if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

On the surface, it makes sense to rely most heavily on your greatest strengths. If you are smarter than most, it makes sense to rely on your intellect. If you are an excellent marketer, it makes sense to

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/law-of-the-hammer

Someone asked me to explain why I'm so interested in marketing, so I told him the Parable of Bob.

Bob was a great statistician. His boss liked him, and his coworkers thought he was a mathematical genius. One day he decided to quit his job and start his own company. It seemed like a no-brainer. He had a great product - a mastery of

Episode link: https://taprun.com/articles/marketing-in-a-nutshell