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

Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 115 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#71

Post by elorant »

Contrary to the main sentiment in this thread I've done B2B sales with no prior connections whatsoever. My approach is threefold. Build something that either doesn't exist or is considerably better and cheaper than competition. Give amply time for demoing, like six months free with no strings attached. Be patient.

If I had to choose one approach I'd say demo your service for months so they can get accustomed to it. Most companies I know give demos for very short time-spans. If you give a one month demo the client might not even get the chance to look at it because he has fifty other things to do. Let him get accustomed in using it, making it a part of his workflow.

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#74

Post by vinay_ys »

crmd wrote: post #27

I am the CTO of a “unicorn” B2B tech company that focuses almost exclusively on the global 2000. Sales are 95% about relationships and 5% about Product. If you want to sell into Citibank, you go hire the one guy or girl who previously sold $20M of X to Citi, who golfs with the VP of Procurement and goes to Billy Joel concerts with the VP of infrastructure operations. Once you hire this person it feels like cheating,…

Most big corps have anti-corruption policies that prevent decision makers or key influencers from letting sales people take them to golfing or to concerts.

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#75

Post by goatherders »

sk5t wrote: post #29
markbnj wrote: post #26

The advice I'll give is based on my experience as cofounder of an early online banking technology company back in the mid-90s. We started with three people in rented class-C space and over seven years did high six-figure deals with large and small banks including Fleet, Bank of America, Citi and others. There's not really a "how it works" for this. If I had to tell you how it works I'd say: it works by you making fri…

> But just bringing in a hired gun is unlikely to result in success imo. A thousand times, this is right on. Hired gun sales folk are generally going to follow the path of least resistance--they will try to get other people at your startup to do the boring/hard work they themselves ought to be doing. Or try to push through deals with lousy margins to get their revenue commission, or a dozen other pathological things.…

We tell our clients that they will always provide the last mile sales function (actually closing the deal). I say "people will always buy from the heart in the business over the hired gun outside the business. And the 'heart' is you."

If you are hiring for lead gen or biz dev then that's an investment like PPC or SEO...someone inside the building has to convert the sale.

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#76

Post by goatherders »

siruncledrew wrote: post #37
markbnj wrote: post #26

The advice I'll give is based on my experience as cofounder of an early online banking technology company back in the mid-90s. We started with three people in rented class-C space and over seven years did high six-figure deals with large and small banks including Fleet, Bank of America, Citi and others. There's not really a "how it works" for this. If I had to tell you how it works I'd say: it works by you making fri…

This is all good advice. A note jumping through the legal/paperwork hurdles with large companies: be prepared for it to take a long time. A very long time in some cases. It all depends on who you’re working with, how big the company is, and how much money the deal is worth.

Yes, this. I've had large enterprise deals that were 'closed' in days or even hours that then took weeks or months to get through legal.

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#77

Post by Lordarminius »

Spooky23 wrote: post #34
sergiotapia wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this - seeing it first hand. It's truly like magic or some kind of cheat code.

People don’t realize that big orgs are not markets, they are planned economies. There may be 500k people there, but 6 make the decisions for any particular thing. You need the magic salesperson or lobbyist because they know the right 6. Some things get sold to the CEO, other things can’t be because the people downstream have another agenda.

> Some things get sold to the CEO, other things can’t be because the people downstream have another agenda.

This describes why the vast majority of sales pitches for relatively good products fail. In many companies the agenda of the cliques and players and internal politics of the firm is the major hurdle.

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#78

Post by Lordarminius »

wolco wrote: post #20
zbentley wrote: post #6

Never underestimate the capability and connections of a good sales person. There are lots of ways to waste money on sales, but if you are careful to avoid them, a single experienced professional sales person can work wonders, even for a startup that is still a few pivots away from its final shape. This may not be the most HN-compatible opinion, and there are certainly many additional ways to sell to big companies, bu…

Wish I could offer more votes. Having the right sales (not marketing) person can be the difference between success and something else. The right sales person can target and create a relationship the wrong person will just waste resources. The most successful companies founders I've seen combo of sales and technical. If you are a technical solo founder get an experienced sales vp and give them 20%. Marketing is usuall…

Just curious because I've come across differing definitions of this. How would you define the differentiate between sales and marketing ?

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#79

Post by sandstrom »

elorant wrote: post #71

Contrary to the main sentiment in this thread I've done B2B sales with no prior connections whatsoever. My approach is threefold. Build something that either doesn't exist or is considerably better and cheaper than competition. Give amply time for demoing, like six months free with no strings attached. Be patient. If I had to choose one approach I'd say demo your service for months so they can get accustomed to it. M…

I guess this assumes that the product can be used by a single person, or a small group of people, and don’t require a lot of setup. For example systems monitoring, or a group-wide collaboration tool, makes things harder.

I still like the idea though!

Re: Ask HN: How do B2B startups sell to corporations?

#80

Post by unionpivo »

codeisawesome wrote: post #70
jimnotgym wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of the above, plus vanity projects. If certain people want a system, in many enterprises everyone below will bend over backwards to get it for them. I will give you an example. A few years ago every c had a BlackBerry. IT ran BlackBerry business server alongside Exchange. Everyone was happy. One day a non-exec got an iPhone from his other job and wanted his emails from your co on the same device. There is no way…

How do these people become so powerful..? What do they have to give in exchange?

they decide on peoples bonuses, and who gets fired/promoted.
Post reply on HN