Happy to help here. Selling is such an important part of any business.
I have helped Bitmovin (YC15) to scale over $20 Mio in ARR.
Here are the learnings out of this and how to do sales: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D366FMV5/
Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
91–98 of 98 posts
Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
#92As someone who has made lots of purchasing decisions for software (ERPs, Electronic Health Records, productivity tools) at places I've worked over the last 18 years: I don't want to talk to salespeople, only product designers, developers, executives, and support staff. They are the people who make the stuff and/or are left holding the bag for the product when the salesperson is jetting off to their next meeting. Same…
At a fundamental level, selling, or buying, expensive enterprise software is hard.
Primarily its hard because a large sum of money will leave a buyer (they're sad to see it go) and there's uncertainty if the software purchased will achieve the goals they are seeking. (Incidentally this is true regardless of the definition of "large".)
It's hard for the seller because the software is expensive. So customers are always inclined to do nothing, or buy something cheaper.
Buyers have procurement processes to try and hedge the risk. Some "standard terms and conditions" seem crazy to me (as a seller). Sellers are wary of buyers with unrealistic expectations, and buyers who aren't clear regarding their needs and goals.
The deal is seldom just "software off the shelf". There's usually a commissioning phase, services, support etc. Proper sales staff, and proper buying staff, learn to spot red flags, ideally before too much time is sunk.
Yes, there are bad sales staff, bad customers, just like there are bad everything else. But good ones are a pleasure yo work with, and add huge value, regardless of whether you are the buyer or seller.
Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work as an application engineer in the semiconductor industry; basically tech support for engineers. I get customers from "We're going to build a product" to "Design is finished and we're ready to sell our system". As such, I work daily with the field team who are out there winning business. I can say without a doubt that whatever a buyer's perception of their sales rep, that person is the best internal advocate th…
I was going to write a response and you wrote it all. Especially in SAAS companies, a "strong" sales team in my experience was an hidden fast-track to becoming an integrations company.
At the point where you need a sales team to sell the product, ie your product is expensive, and complicated enough, then you had better integrate with everything.
Apart from anything else, commoditizing your complement is good business strategy.
Customers are not looking g For silo systems. They're looking for things that play nice with sll the systems they currently have.
Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
#94As someone who has made lots of purchasing decisions for software (ERPs, Electronic Health Records, productivity tools) at places I've worked over the last 18 years: I don't want to talk to salespeople, only product designers, developers, executives, and support staff. They are the people who make the stuff and/or are left holding the bag for the product when the salesperson is jetting off to their next meeting. Same…
> I don't want to talk to salespeople, only product designers, developers, executives, and support staff. They are the people who make the stuff Designers and devs and makers too busy doing their jobs to bother with your arcane requirements and need to do an 'apples-to-apples' comparison on every bid, respond to hundred-page RFPs in nitnoid detail, buy you drinks so they can suss out why you don't actually know your…
> come to the table with your internal and external research done, with a clear list of requirements, an executive sponsor with actual decision-making power
Putting an executive on the phone is not going to happen that early. A lot of vendors don't seem to accommodate research starting with a demo set up by one engineer on a small team in the org who might have a corporate credit card for the search.
Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was going to write a response and you wrote it all. Especially in SAAS companies, a "strong" sales team in my experience was an hidden fast-track to becoming an integrations company.
At the point where you need a sales team to sell the product, ie your product is expensive, and complicated enough, then you had better integrate with everything. Apart from anything else, commoditizing your complement is good business strategy. Customers are not looking g For silo systems. They're looking for things that play nice with sll the systems they currently have.
I agree to some degree, it’s a question of extent. If you sell a very specific feature that no one else will use for a 20K annual revenue customer, then it’s not obvious at all it’s beneficial to the company at large. Personally I’ve seen too many cases here where individual sales people still campaign for the sale internally, supposedly for the commission.
Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
#96Crossing the chasm, repeatable revenue the challenger sale, start with why
Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
#97The Challenger Sale https://www.amazon.com/Challenger-Sale-Control-Customer-Conv... Founding Sales https://www.foundingsales.com/
Came here to recommend the Challenger Sale
Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?
#98As someone who has made lots of purchasing decisions for software (ERPs, Electronic Health Records, productivity tools) at places I've worked over the last 18 years: I don't want to talk to salespeople, only product designers, developers, executives, and support staff. They are the people who make the stuff and/or are left holding the bag for the product when the salesperson is jetting off to their next meeting. Same…
> I don't want to talk to salespeople, only product designers, developers, executives, and support staff. They are the people who make the stuff and/or are left holding the bag for the product when the salesperson is jetting off to their next meeting.
Lots of people overestimate their value in the process, including buyers. You don't want to talk with sales people, but from the other side, why should the sellers (in any function) talk with you?
I've purchased products. And sold them. Lot of waste from both sides, primarily when people aren't prepared, don't understand their problems, misunderstand use-cases, don't know product, etc. The list of grievances is long.