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Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

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Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#71

Post by maayank »

Aromasin wrote: post #67
23B1 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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.

Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#72

Post by _bramses »

Developer Hegemony [1] will help your thinking on how to price software in a world that traditionally rewards business people, as well as being pretty emotionally revealing about the trade we’re involved in.

[1] - https://books.google.com/books/about/Developer_Hegemony.html...

Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#73

Post by teddyh »

jansan wrote: post #59
vismit2000 wrote: post #49

A great deep advice: Listen to your customers. Customer is always right, because he is the one paying.

> Customer is always right BTW, the original quote goes "The customer is always right in matters of taste"

No it doesn’t, that’s a later addition. IIUC, all the “original” or “full” versions of common sayings are later additions. It’s misinformation; a modern myth.

Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#74

Post by Crazyontap »

I recently read "Sell or Be Sold" by Grant Cardone. While the author might come off as a bit scammy, the book itself offers valuable insights. The key takeaway for me was the importance of genuinely believing in what you're selling. You need to be convinced that your product or service is the best possible solution for your customer, whether it's in terms of value for money, ease of use, or any other criteria. By selling it, you're actually improving their life.

As a programmer, I found this perspective particularly enlightening. It taught me that effective selling isn't just about persuasion; it's about conviction and truly understanding the value of what you're offering.

Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#77

Post by NikolaNovak »

Aromasin wrote: post #67
23B1 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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…

Can vouch that sales team is an immense advocate for customer and frequently pain in the kiester for people who are trying to do stuff.

Mind you, you absolutely Can get into a negative loop - needy customer with unrealistic expectations who over pressures the sales person, who then over pressures the pm, who then over pressures the team and you end up with unfeasible expectations and conittments. But sanity needs to prevail everywhere, it cannot be focused on the "good kind of salesperson"

(I will never ever ever be a sales person; and I share most people's frustrations, but I've also seen what the good ones do for the customer and teams so am slowly starting to understand both the value and necessity :-/)

Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#78

Post by Aromasin »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #77
Aromasin wrote: post #67

Earlier 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…

Can vouch that sales team is an immense advocate for customer and frequently pain in the kiester for people who are trying to do stuff. Mind you, you absolutely Can get into a negative loop - needy customer with unrealistic expectations who over pressures the sales person, who then over pressures the pm, who then over pressures the team and you end up with unfeasible expectations and conittments. But sanity needs to…

Absolutely. I work with salespeople I despise; ones who actively hamper the company's success because of their demands in pursuit of commission. Trying to explain to them that you're working on a problem faced by a 100M/yr account so don't have time to service their 1M/yr customer doesn't fly, so they jump over everyone's head shouting so loudly that a director or executive tells you to reprioritise to get them off their back. 1:N activities get sidelined, the high revenue but quiet customers get ignored and upset, but sales reach their design-win targets. It's incredibly frustrating and I think if they continue that behaviour despite warnings then they're not a team player and should be replaced.

Equally though, the old phrase "we all work for sales" always rings as true now as it ever did. The best engineer with the best product will make diddly squat if they can't sell the product. The best salesperson could sell rocks off the roadside if they're good enough - the product is often irrelevant. Personally, I wish more engineers went into sales because the best salespeople have deep product knowledge and are way more empathetic because we've gone through trials and tribulations.

Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#79

Post by mannyv »

gwbas1c wrote: post #39

Crossing the Chasm: Geoffrey A. Moore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm Basically, there's a lot more to sales than just "generate leads." You need to pick a "right-sized" market, tailor the product to the market (but not too much, so you can go after other markets,) and then as you grow, move to bigger markets. The markets you go after when your company is small are very different than when your compa…

Chasm is more about the meta process of sales and product. It's not really about sales per se.

It's worth a read just to understand it, but it won't help you with sales. It might help when your sales dry up, but 'traction' would also help because maybe the issue is your channel has dried up and you need another one.

Re: Ask HN: Any good essays/books/advice about software sales?

#80

Post by tweezy »

Optimal_Persona wrote: post #37

As 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 think those people can, and often times should, be involved in the sales process. Espcially for big ticket B2B sales. But really those people just need to be available for demos, technical questions, etc.

If those people had to do their jobs, plus manage pipelines, plus BDR work, plus chasing leads that went cold, plus negotiating over contract language and price. . . well you get the point.

For big ticket B2B stuff, you really need a sales person (sorry Account Executive) running point. It doesn't mean that's the only person you talk to, or really even the person you talk to the most, but an AE needs to own getting the sale closed.

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