A Word From Our CEO, Michael Hoffman
Most of you know that besides being an executive coach, I run a software company called LeanMail. But what many of you are perhaps not aware of is that we recently made a revolutionary change in our implementation model.
Previously, we sold LeanMail as a single unit that contained tools for prioritizing, archiving and planning. Today, you can purchase these as individual tools.
There are four reasons why we made the decision to modularize:
1. First, not everyone sees their challenge with email in the same way. Some see the frustration of not finding emails as the main culprit (solution: LM InstantArchive); some feel efficient but not very effective in terms of consistently focusing on the right tasks
(solution: LMPrioritize); while others want to be reminded about tasks at the right time and a way of ensuring that balls are not dropped. (solution: LM Plan). Still others have challenges with the volume of email they receive from externals. (solution: Inbox480). Dividing up our software into separate modules allows you to choose the part you want without having to deal with the rest.
2. Second, to eliminate the need of our customers to pay for something they don’t use. If, for example, you don’t use the planning part of LeanMail, why should you pay for it? Dividing up our software into separate modules allows you to choose the part you want without having to pay for the rest.
3. Third, to make it easier to understand the value proposition. One of our challenges with potential customers has been our Swiss Army Knife approach. We had all our solutions in one unit, which frankly made it very difficult to explain exactly how LeanMail helped individuals manage their inbox. It was just too much of a good thing. Dividing up our software into separate modules allows us to chunk the information we give you so that you are able to see the value in the part you are interested in without having to understand the rest.
4. Fourth, price and training. Even though most users will agree that LeanMail is inexpensive considering the great value it brings, dividing up our software into separate modules allows us to get you started for half the price, and instead of four hours of training, you can get started with just 50 minutes – and in some cases, just learn through watching a video.
LeanMail, no matter how you slice it, is a tool and methodology that is quickly becoming the standard for efficient and effective email management in Outlook. I hope that our new modularized approach will help those who have been interested in upgrading their way of working to take the next step and try maybe one part of it.
