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I want to bootstrap an SaaS company focused on enterprise / b2b soon and being bootstraped I can't afford to hire an sales rep/ account manager (or be one myself while working on the product) for what looks like a long process.
This is definitely a scary thought in my opinion.
Fingers crossed, I hope that's a good problem to have.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then I would never sell you a thing. Ever. Anyone that buys on price is a worse customer than a person that buys on education, and churn of bad customers is a silent killer. That doesn't make you a bad person of course, so please take no offense. It just makes you an unideal customer for pretty much everything I've ever sold in 20 years. High touch sales processes exist to provide certainty when making a big purchasi…
I understand your point, and you aren't wrong, but you are short-sighted. You may only sell to big clients now, but you are also leaving a lot of money on the table for yourself, not your company, yourself. You've been selling for 20 years? How many of your customers have you had for longer than 3? Now I can hear your mind churning, 'but I'm at a different company now! I don't sell the same thing!'. It doesn't matter…
But I don't think goatherders wrote anything to indicate he was in that category. I read his comment as saying he wouldn't sell to anybody who was completely disinterested in a relationship, not that he wouldn't sell to a less senior person.
This actually scares me. I want to bootstrap an SaaS company focused on enterprise / b2b soon and being bootstraped I can't afford to hire an sales rep/ account manager (or be one myself while working on the product) for what looks like a long process. This is definitely a scary thought in my opinion. Fingers crossed, I hope that's a good problem to have.
I'm not sure if this is possible in your niche, but we are partnering with a consulting company which provides services in the same industry/niche. We will give them a cut from the sales to do this exact process. Many leads will come from them as well. I could not imagine doing this any other way at the moment. Eventually we will certainly hire a full time salesperson.
edit: we got really lucky that this consulting company had some biz dev people who used to do SaaS sales at a previous employer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then I would never sell you a thing. Ever. Anyone that buys on price is a worse customer than a person that buys on education, and churn of bad customers is a silent killer. That doesn't make you a bad person of course, so please take no offense. It just makes you an unideal customer for pretty much everything I've ever sold in 20 years. High touch sales processes exist to provide certainty when making a big purchasi…
I understand your point, and you aren't wrong, but you are short-sighted. You may only sell to big clients now, but you are also leaving a lot of money on the table for yourself, not your company, yourself. You've been selling for 20 years? How many of your customers have you had for longer than 3? Now I can hear your mind churning, 'but I'm at a different company now! I don't sell the same thing!'. It doesn't matter…
My churn rate is low precisely because I take time to learn what they want then provide what they need. I work with clients that are a good fit in both directions and got out of the "anything for a buck" game years ago.
I work hard building my businesses, but I don't have to work hard at sales precisely because of what you said - I've built relationships and skills that make it fun for me to sell. I work about 5 hours a day, travel a ton and play lots of golf. ;)
This actually scares me. I want to bootstrap an SaaS company focused on enterprise / b2b soon and being bootstraped I can't afford to hire an sales rep/ account manager (or be one myself while working on the product) for what looks like a long process. This is definitely a scary thought in my opinion. Fingers crossed, I hope that's a good problem to have.
We are exactly at this stage right now. Bootstrapped, enterprise SaaS, ready for initial sales. This post could not have been more timely for me. I'm not sure if this is possible in your niche, but we are partnering with a consulting company which provides services in the same industry/niche. We will give them a cut from the sales to do this exact process. Many leads will come from them as well. I could not imagine d…
One of my companies builds the sales funnel for SAAS and digital agencies. We handle the entire top of the funnel (lead gen and nurturing) so by the time it's a qualified opp it's actually a prospect that has an identified pain, time line and budget to go with an understanding of our clients solution to their problem. But we dont ever close the business precisely because in digital and SAAS the results are so much better from the heartbeat then the hired gun.
I do Chef and Ansible development. I'd love to know how to sell and find more good customers. I have a long-term customer who's had me on what amounts to a staff augmentation project for 3 years. I know it won't last forever. How would you go about finding more projects like this?
> Common mistakes made by salespeople and founders: > - Thinking their goal is to close a prospect on the first call > - Giving a full demo and presenting pricing on the first call > - Prematurely trying to shorten the sales process These are mistakes? Having been on the receiving end of many "sales processes" I would say the shorter the sales process, the better. I often feel like companies who are too deep into doi…
These rules only apply for higher-cost products and / or enterprise clients (in which the latter implies the former, anyway). Your sales team can only spend as long on the customer as the ROI of having salespeople allows. If you're selling £19.99/pm software to individuals, you probably don't even need a sales team. But if you're selling enterprise software to Fortune 500, you'll need a dedicated salesperson, or acco…