Stats for nerds
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Three books that should get you into the consultant state of mind:
1. The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel
2. The Consultant's Handbook by Samir Parikh
3. Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
Good luck!
- Sure. Checked the site and yes, message and presentation is a bit off for B2B. Email me and I'll reply with my thoughts omid at Rennzer dot com
Also your sales process will need to be a little more expansive than just linkedin in mail messages. Download or buy "Selling to Big Companies" by Jill Konrath. B2B is a slow slog but there is some potential. Be advised that what you're proposing isn't really defensible from being replicated. There is no secret sauce. Broadcasters news feeds are already running through packaging scripts for the web, this would be the Facebook component. Companies may want to just put their own ads on a HTML5 player and keep 100% of the revenues. And they have the resources to get it done.
- Having been a hi-tech quota exceeding :-) sales rep for a number years, here is what I advise:
1. Hire two reps: one for each coast. Even two part-time reps at each coast I say is better than one rep running around from coast to coast. Time wasting and regionally differences do crop up.
2. Read the the book, Selling to Big Companies.
3. Yes sell yourself so you understand the issues involved.
4. "Salespeople are notorious for giving excuses when they don't meet the sales targets they agreed to."
This is usually when the owner does not understand the market or misestimates the market. Any good sales person will leave and stop wasting time with people that will not work with them to make sales happen. It takes a company to sell. Especially if you want the easy and lucrative referrals.
What is the price point for this product? Who at the customer site will ultimately say yes?
At one company, it was easy to sell since the network engineer was the main guy/gal that had to approve the technical aspects. I just made sure they understood the personal utility of our product as well so they had a personal stake on how their life would with us or a competitor's product.
read the book, it is totally awesome. Having done the job for a number of years, I still learned lots of usually things that I was able to use immediately.
In terms of what to offer, I guess it really depends. Realize in the beginning you are really doing business development not just sales. So there needs to be more of a salary cushion. A low end salesperson is usually 40/40. 40k salary and 40k commission. Realize that the you are hiring a profession and not asking them to necessarily do charity work. However, together estimate the metrics of sales and the where the number of sales at each level in the sales pipeline. Also come up with remediation plans. Say in 2 months, you expect the rep will have made 5 sales. What happens if they have only made 2 sales. Have everything spelled out so everyone knows the ramifications and there are fewer surprises.
- I found Selling to Big Companies (http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Big-Companies-Jill-Konrath/dp/...) helpful.
A referral is very helpful. That's not always easy but it's worth racking your brain to try and find a connection.
It's also worth aiming as high in the organization as possible. In large companies most people don't have the authority to purchase anything of significance.
It's not just an issue of money. If buying your product changes the way they do business in any meaningful way then some authority will be required to approve those changes. Does the person you're talking to have that authority?
It's much easier to start high and then have that person push you down to someone lower in the org to do the leg work than to find out after months of effort that the person doesn't have the authority to consummate the purchase. If VP X tells manager Y to look into something at least you know VP X thinks it's worth the time.
This implies that you need to craft your value proposition and benefits in a way that is appealing to someone further up the food chain.
- This all looks like superb advice - again, thanks!
- I will order 'Selling to Big Companies' tonight.
- Will make sure we all have a clear idea of the sales pipeline, targets
- Yes I have looked at the legal and trading issues - am being advised by a 'Big 4' firm who know the pitfalls
- Point about time to sell to large organisations is well taken. In fact part of the appeal of the system is that it gets round many of these problems.
- Am currently in discussion with some much larger established companies re licencing and distribution (one in London, one in Boston). They both love the product but are moving very slowly. I want to have a separate distribution channel as it's not clear at present which is going to succeed. However, having a distributor would certainly be easier than flying Australia-US each time a sales prospect needs me there!
- I really like the idea of low retainer/high commission. The business model is to charge a recurring subscription, so paying a high commission based on the first year's revenue won't impact so much on future cash flow.
- No equity on the table until they have proved themselves! At present I own 100% of the company (bootstrapped), but would consider giving someone with complementary skills in sales a portion of this if they had proved they could boost the company's value.
