The Reverend Foster says:

"Crossing the Chasm did three things for me;

from the "sales/reseller/consultant" side, it helped me determine how to sell into organizations who want to adopt/adapt technology.
from the "consumer" side (the guy being sold to by the sales person), it helped provide insight into what techniques they use on me
from the "internal sales" side (the crazy technology guy coming down the hallway to the CEO with another "crazy idea"..."You know, this CAD stuff might be useful"), it re-iterates point #1 above and helped me "sell" internal staff.

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Product Description

In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore, the world′s leading high–tech and communications guru, throws out old marketing ideas to clear space for the special realities of the high–tech market. Based on a revolutionary new model and filled with practical insights, Crossing the Chasm is a landmark book. This new edition has been updated to include comprehensive coverage of the Internet and World Wide Web.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52919 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Author Geoffrey Moore makes the case that high- tech products require marketing strategies that differ from those in other industries. His chasm theory describes how high-tech products initially sell well, mainly to a technically literate customer base, but then hit a lull as marketing professionals try to cross the chasm to mainstream buyers. This pattern, says Moore, is unique to the high-tech industry.

Moore suggests remedies for the problems that can help businesses meet their long-term goals. He coaches marketing professionals on how to move slowly through the gulf, teaching them to create profiles and target specific segments of the population rather than trying to plough right into the mainstream. He cites examples of successful chasm crossings by such companies as Apple, Tandem, Oracle and Sun, showing what they all had in common and exposing the different weaknesses in their strategies. Moore also assigns responsibility for success to programmers and developers by suggesting they design a "whole product model." Here, because integration tasks are daunting to the mainstream market, all the components of a technological product must be in one package. Moore also describes strategies for competing with rival companies and assessing the best distribution channels for penetrating the target market.

Written not just for marketing specialists but for all employees whose futures ride on the success of a technical product, Crossing the Chasm delivers crucial information in an engaging, readable tone. --David James

From the Back Cover
"Read this book or risk joining the others at the bottom of the high-technology abyss." Jim Kouzes, Co-author of The Leadership Challenge

"Crossing the Chasm should be the Bible for high-tech companies looking for direction with marketing and distribution challenges." Robert K. Weller, Senior Vice President, North American Business Group

"Geoff Moore's book is full of good medicine for bad marketing." ComputerLetter

"Crossing the Chasm... will change the way you think." Regis McKenna

About the Author
Geoffrey A. Moore is President of the Chasm Group in Palo Alto, California, which provides consulting services to clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Peoplesoft, AT&T, Oracle, NeXT, Sun, Silicon Graphics and Sybase.

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Customer Reviews

Indispensable book for Marketing Hi-Tech
In fact, not only for Hi-Tech... it is also applicable for any high-change industry

Implementing innovative high-tech solutions usually involves a significant change to customers. Mainly depending on the aversion to change/risk, customers can be classified from those willing to try the newest, to those most conservative that are the latest to adopt, if ever, a new solution.

Geoffrey Moore presents his particular view on the technology-adoption lifecycle model, introducing the 'chasm' concept. Based on this model, and using vivid examples, specially from the software industry, the book provides excellent advice on the strategy to success for hi-tech products.

Basic reading for the hi-tech enterpreneur, as well as for those willing to sell new disruptive concepts.

After this one, you will have to read 'Inside the Tornado'.. If you want to save further, add William Davidow's 'Marketing High-Technology'

A frighteningly realistic treatment..
I am reading this for the second time, this time much faster thanks to the useful highlighting that I had made in my first reading. Having been through a software development career in several start-ups, and looking back on the not so positive two years of IT economic depression, I find Crossing the Chasm particularly intriguing: The basic idea for a technology company to position its marketing and selling strategy to the right target audience, and more crucially, at the right time, and producing the right perspective.

First of all, I find some of the ideas in the book frighteningly reminiscent of my past experience, especially failures in marketing and sales strategy that our teams have undergone; Although many factors that contribute to the success or failure of an enterprise can be specific and circumstantial, Crossing the Chasm provides a thorough analysis of the generalised scenario. I also find some of the ideas in this book apply equally well to semi-autonomous groups within large organisations, as much as individual organisations.

Highly recommend to anyone who is interested in the technology entrepreneurship, and to the one who want to consolidate the past experiences in to learning instruments for the future.

A must for salespeople at the bleeding edge of technology
This book was a revelation for me. I had failed to understand the reasons that prospects didn't appreciate the latest greatest technologies and bought from vendors of outdated systems (in my opinion) instead. Crossing the chasm explains different characteristics of people and what they buy and when they buy it and the reasons behind those compulsions. It also highlights how to break into the marketplace with new products in the most efficient way and how to structure your organisation to cope with demand. I have noticed that some big organisations demonstrate the techniques from this book in their promotional literature and web sites.