Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 171 posts

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#91

Post by notahacker »

michaelt wrote: post #45

#1. Name a Big, Relevant Change in the World #2. Show There’ll Be Winners and Losers Is it common someone will invite a Zuora sales rep to give them a presentation, if they don't _already_ think they want to launch a subscription product? I would have guessed most people attending sales presentations would be looking to fulfil a need they had already identified.

You're right about a significant proportion of sales presentations, but not everybody in a company being presented to is necessarily fully in agreement about the scale and imminence of that need.

The "insight sale" format - where you attempt to show something very big is happening to their industry which you just happen to have part of the solution for - works in some situations better than others. It's a much more interesting presentation at an industry event than simply talking about your product. It's good at persuading a sceptical senior management that the underlings who want to implement your solution are focused on the right priorities. It can be a snappy introduction to the "??? -> Profit" part of the presentation with the more relevant benefits and technical details when your presentation is targeted at more motivated customers (but it's not a substitute for nailing that bit and if you're still waffling on a high level about subscription economies when their tech team wants to understand why integrating your service is better than rolling their own, you probably screwed up)

Sure, on the many occasions where the potential client is going to have a far more specific reason why they want a subscription model and why a third party SaaS solution might be the most efficient way for them to implement it you can do a lot better than the generic example material in the article. A presentation/discussion which opens by understanding the client's specific Big Relevant Changes will be further ahead than one with a cool buzzword and examples as generic as Dollar Shave Club and IBM. But the killer bit isn't the buzzword or trend line, but emphasising that there are potential losers and winners (in that order) from business decisions related to buying your product, and not taking for granted that the client has already figured that bit out.

Bonus points for being able to amaze them with a stat when you switch from talking about losers to talking about winners (I bet Zuora's full client presentations have some compelling and market-specific figures showing client's sales revenue growth after switching billing model)

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#93

Post by enraged_camel »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #86
enraged_camel wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. I work in the enterprise software space. We definitely noticed a strong trend, starting around mid-2010, where prospective customers started shying away from one-time, upfront purchases and demanding a subscription model. The reason is simple: one is a capital expenditure, whereas the other can be categorized as an operational expense. With a subscription model, even if you end up paying more in the long ru…

I get the feeling this is something they always wanted, but the software business model had to catch up to that need. Thinking back to my first job as an EE in the early 90's, I clearly remember the new owner of the company who had been a CFO in his previous life, trying to figure out a way to move our hardware sales to a leasing-type model. His experience as a CFO led him to the conclusion that larger companies woul…

>>I get the feeling this is something they always wanted, but the software business model had to catch up to that need.

It's more that the need manifested itself with the economic crash, as companies realized they would rather keep as much cash as possible in the bank in order to more successfully navigate the uncertain economic climate. Subscription model satisfies that risk aversion.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#94

Post by gowld »

sfilargi wrote: post #62

Do you have any proof that the subscription economy trend is driven by the consumers? You totally jump the gun there!

It's a narrative flourish irrelevant whose accuracy is irrelevant to the pitch, except that it sounds attractive to say "customers want this" vs "customers are powerless to reject this". For a business, it matters that the trend exists; the cause doesn't matter.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#95

Post by a_t48 »

setr wrote: post #82
Illniyar wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

err... are you implying that there are no alternatives in the market to 3D TVs and bent TVs? As far as I know 3D TVs have basically gone out of market[1] because no one bought them. It is actually the exact opposite of what you suggested - they could not start a trend, even thought they tried to force it on people, because there was no demand for it. [1]- https://www.cnet.com/news/shambling-corpse-of-3d-tv-finally-..…

For about 5 years, any tv you found in an electronic store was 3D, and I have yet to find a single person who claims to like them. Today, every tv is a Smart TV, and yet again, I haven’t found anyone who thought they weren’t awful In cars theres the same issue with GPS systems: even luxury cars have awful interfaces. Presumably tesla’s is decent (never tried), but otherwise the only interface I’ve encountered yet tha…

I genuinely love my Smart TV. Its nice having the TV know about every input option, and not having to fool around d with multiple remotes.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#96

Post by jakelazaroff »

gowld wrote: post #90
jakelazaroff wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case it's unclear, the "one-off purchase equivalents" to Netflix and Spotify to which the parent refers are iTunes, Amazon, etc.

Those aren't one-off for the same product (full catalog unlimited access); those are pay-per-use instead of pay-per-calendar-month

That's true. Maybe magazines and newspapers are a better analogy: you can pay for single issues, but plenty of people still choose to subscribe.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#97

Post by H1Supreme »

CPLX wrote: post #42
ghaff wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobe is arguably the poster child for a software company for which subscription vs. one-time licenses is a particularly polarizing question among its user base. For companies, it arguably didn't matter much and access to the current versions of the entire portfolio was probably a win for many. At the same time, some Adobe software was and is widely, but often casually, used by a fairly wide range of consumers who we…

I mean, let's be honest... the major change that happened for Adobe users wasn't the shift to a subscription model, it's the fact that they closed the widely used hosts file loophole that enabled pretty much anyone technically savvy to use the full OEM version of the software without paying for it. My assumption at the time was they had no choice to go to a subscription model at that time, because the other option wo…

I always assumed that the choice was made due to piracy. I don't have any stats, but Photoshop had to be near the top of the most pirated software list, if not at the top.

On that side of the coin, I can't blame Adobe for going to the subscription model. On the other side, it's a real kick in the ass for casual users.

I worked in Graphic Design for 15 years, and always kept a personal copy of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I didn't upgrade every version, because right around CS2, the upgrades weren't worth it, imo. I still have a pre-subscription license that I hope keeps working, because as a person who only opens it up once a month, it's simply not worth the price for me.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#98

Post by TeMPOraL »

enraged_camel wrote: post #39
chank wrote: post #7

>Zuora came up with the phrase “subscription economy” to name the trend in which buyers increasingly choose recurring service payments over outright purchases. It's not a trend where buyers choose recurring payments, but where companies only offer services through recurring payments.

Not true. I work in the enterprise software space. We definitely noticed a strong trend, starting around mid-2010, where prospective customers started shying away from one-time, upfront purchases and demanding a subscription model. The reason is simple: one is a capital expenditure, whereas the other can be categorized as an operational expense. With a subscription model, even if you end up paying more in the long ru…

I keep hearing this "capex vs. opex" argument from time to time; are there tax benefits to this, or something else that justifies putting the same costs under different label?

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#99

Post by wesd »

tjoff wrote: post #29
Illniyar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A trend rarely happens on only one side of the demand-supply axis. There is definitely a trend towards subscriptions, especially for SMBs, but enterprise and individuals as well. It's so much easier to pay a monthly or yearly fee then up front, especially for companies - both in terms of cashflow , accounting practices and stability. Some companies has gone that route that have customers on both sides of the aisle -…

Sure they do. 3D TVs and bent TVs are two glaring examples of something people never wanted. The only way companies could uphold that view was by ensuring that no manufacturer had sensible alternatives - effectively forcing people that wanted a TV to buy it. And then pretending that the sales were proof that people wanted it. It is the exact same with the majority of subscription services. For a company I get that it…

>I walk twice around the earth before even considering a subscription service.

I can't imagine going back not having music subscription service. I don't have to make a decision which album to buy anymore and I don't have to worry about my kids pirating music.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#100

Post by setr »

a_t48 wrote: post #95
setr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For about 5 years, any tv you found in an electronic store was 3D, and I have yet to find a single person who claims to like them. Today, every tv is a Smart TV, and yet again, I haven’t found anyone who thought they weren’t awful In cars theres the same issue with GPS systems: even luxury cars have awful interfaces. Presumably tesla’s is decent (never tried), but otherwise the only interface I’ve encountered yet tha…

I genuinely love my Smart TV. Its nice having the TV know about every input option, and not having to fool around d with multiple remotes.

The actual feature (having netflix, amazon, hulu, etc natively available) is fine; the problem is that its slow, unreliable, prints useless errors, and no matter how much you spend, the interface is always a janky horrible experience. There are also other nuisances like forcing the framerate up to 60fps by frame interprolation, causing everything in 24fps (most content) to look awful, and in certain implementations, jitter.

Some of the things I noted have perfectly valid ideas, but just ..pathetic.. implementations (smart tvs, gps), and others are preferences that get forced onto you (aux port, web heavy-js, game graphics)

But the key is the suppliers collectively decided that this is exactly what the consumers want, and the only option left otherwise is to turn back to 1990 or look to the chinese knockoffs. The ability to signal to the market that this isn’t whats wanted is lost... except by entirely avoiding all recent technological advances.

And the truly strange thing is that there are few, if any, offering the same object but with improved interfaces (with cars it makes sense, the rest of the vehicle is more important; but tvs? video games? What the hell? These should be much easier to find variations on.

Post reply on HN