5 ms·

Ask HN: What is the best way to initiate conversation with Enterprise customer?

3 points by pavlakoos 9y ago

We have tons of Enterprise users (they register with their corporate email address), but when we send them follow-up email, the response rate is not as high as we would like it to be. Any advice?

pedalpete 9y ago
It's difficult to give feedback without knowing what your emails look like. What specifically are you trying to get them to do? Why do you want to initiate a conversation? How are you getting them to sign-up? Clearly you're doing something right in getting the sign-ups, maybe you can tweak that process to get them to expect or initiate the conversation themselves.
- pavlakoos 9y ago
  Sign-up is super-easy: just give your email (or anything that looks like email) and here you start the free trial. Our follow-up email is professionally-styled. And short. Offering a personal free demo-call on how to operate our platform. The email is based on examples by other successful companies. So perhaps someone has gone though these roadblocks and can give an advice?
CyberFonic 9y ago
Do you track the usage of the free trial to the email addresses used to activate them? Better still do you track any interactions on your forum, wiki, etc? It is very easy for staff to create fake email addresses to get a free trial and kick the tyres. Unless they end up using your product they won't be interested in demo-calls, etc. Most technical staffers hate sales calls, so offers of demo-calls are more likely to be seen as pushy sales calls. BTW what is your conversion rate from free-trial to paid plans?
- pavlakoos 9y ago
  We have some events connected and we are using Intercom, so it is being tracked, yes. I need to give some background I guess. Our platform is a codeless development framework for mobile apps. So it is not easy process for users to actually make their goal come true = build the custom app they want. This is where our support would come in handy, but we need to talk to the user first, to find out what app he wants to develop. Then we could even prove him it is possible, by simply developing it in a few hours. But we haven't found a formula to make those enterprise users actually start talking to us...
- pavlakoos 9y ago
  Actually yes - it is "technical staffers" who come and check our platform. Is there a good way to reach out to this "type" of people? We really want to help them, by saving a lot of their time.
  - CyberFonic 9y ago
    I am intrigued by your product and marketing problem. I did a quick Google search and found several firms that are taking a consulting approach to your solution space. Ok, so you have some sort of on-line web app that lets you create mobile apps? So does Intercom tell you that people have tried using your product once, deemed it too confusing and have ditched it? Since I don't know which of the many products that the Google search came up with is yours -- you do have paid ads? -- I can only broad brush presume that the product promises more than it can deliver and thus is quickly discarded after one failed attempt. If the persons trying out your product wanted consulting services, then there are number of firms who explicitly are offering that approach to solving the mobile app creation requirement. Perhaps you could provide a wiki / FAQ / forum which is only accessible using the email that was used to activate the free trial. Then with a bit of instrumentation you might be better able to discern the steps that evaluation users take.
    - pavlakoos 9y ago
      Yes, it is a web app, which allows to create mobile apps. I wouldn't say it promises too much, because it indeed enables developing mobile apps. But I have to fully agree with another sentence you wrote: the product is quickly discarded after failed attempt. The product is good. But because it is powerful, it comes with a learning curve. Imagine Photoshop - nobody is a master right after starting to use it. How long would it take a human being to learn how to develop apps? Let's say a few months or years - because it requires to learn how to code. With our product learning how to create an app and actually creating it, takes a few hours in total. But still, this is a few hours you need to invest. So what I would like to achieve with those enterprise prospects, is to get them speak to us right after they fail, instead of discarding. Any advice on how this can be done?
brudgers 9y ago
[random advice from the internet] The proven method of talking to individuals in enterprise is a 'meat eating' sales team walking into the lobby of the building where people work and talking to the receptionist. This is probably worth doing outside of enterprise, too. It is expensive. It is time consuming. It is valuable. On the other hand, I think most people hate most emails because every email is an item on their TODO list because every email must be processed and processing emails takes time. The most time efficient way to process emails is to mark them as spam and never see an email from that source again. For me, if a company sends me an automated email, that's usually what happens because if and when I want more information or to learn about updates, I can just visit the website (and odds are that the content of an autogenerated company email consists of links to the website). Good luck.
- CyberFonic 9y ago
  Agree with your observations. For some reason marketing types simply do NOT get that their carefully crafted email marketing missives are automatically consigned to spam. Do they read every email they are sent? Probably not, but their conceit is that their emails are special and should be read.
- pavlakoos 9y ago
  Thank you for your comments. Still, I don't think what I should do is to go to a lobby. When I'm in the lobby I still need to figure out which person I need to speak to... In my situation that person has already come to me. But I cannot convince him (it's usually him, not her) to talk to me. He is window shopping. He is just looking around and playing by himself, but whenever approached acts as if he wasn't there. These guys are on my website because they need a custom app. But I don't know what app, with what features and how I can help them. I'm looking for a hint on how to approach these guys and make them talk. Anyone?
  - brudgers 9y ago
    In the lobby, the person to talk to is the receptionist. The receptionist is the gatekeeper and can be an ally. Be nice. Make their job pleasant. Ask for information. Be polite. Thank them. Maybe you get a lot of useful information. Maybe very little. At least you know what getting past the front door entails.

3 points by pavlakoos 9y ago

We have tons of Enterprise users (they register with their corporate email address), but when we send them follow-up email, the response rate is not as high as we would like it to be. Any advice?

pedalpete 9y ago

It's difficult to give feedback without knowing what your emails look like. What specifically are you trying to get them to do? Why do you want to initiate a conversation? How are you getting them to sign-up? Clearly you're doing something right in getting the sign-ups, maybe you can tweak that process to get them to expect or initiate the conversation themselves.

pavlakoos 9y ago
Sign-up is super-easy: just give your email (or anything that looks like email) and here you start the free trial. Our follow-up email is professionally-styled. And short. Offering a personal free demo-call on how to operate our platform. The email is based on examples by other successful companies. So perhaps someone has gone though these roadblocks and can give an advice?

CyberFonic 9y ago

Do you track the usage of the free trial to the email addresses used to activate them? Better still do you track any interactions on your forum, wiki, etc? It is very easy for staff to create fake email addresses to get a free trial and kick the tyres. Unless they end up using your product they won't be interested in demo-calls, etc. Most technical staffers hate sales calls, so offers of demo-calls are more likely to be seen as pushy sales calls. BTW what is your conversion rate from free-trial to paid plans?

pavlakoos 9y ago
We have some events connected and we are using Intercom, so it is being tracked, yes. I need to give some background I guess. Our platform is a codeless development framework for mobile apps. So it is not easy process for users to actually make their goal come true = build the custom app they want. This is where our support would come in handy, but we need to talk to the user first, to find out what app he wants to develop. Then we could even prove him it is possible, by simply developing it in a few hours. But we haven't found a formula to make those enterprise users actually start talking to us...
pavlakoos 9y ago
Actually yes - it is "technical staffers" who come and check our platform. Is there a good way to reach out to this "type" of people? We really want to help them, by saving a lot of their time.
- CyberFonic 9y ago
  I am intrigued by your product and marketing problem. I did a quick Google search and found several firms that are taking a consulting approach to your solution space. Ok, so you have some sort of on-line web app that lets you create mobile apps? So does Intercom tell you that people have tried using your product once, deemed it too confusing and have ditched it? Since I don't know which of the many products that the Google search came up with is yours -- you do have paid ads? -- I can only broad brush presume that the product promises more than it can deliver and thus is quickly discarded after one failed attempt. If the persons trying out your product wanted consulting services, then there are number of firms who explicitly are offering that approach to solving the mobile app creation requirement. Perhaps you could provide a wiki / FAQ / forum which is only accessible using the email that was used to activate the free trial. Then with a bit of instrumentation you might be better able to discern the steps that evaluation users take.
  - pavlakoos 9y ago
    Yes, it is a web app, which allows to create mobile apps. I wouldn't say it promises too much, because it indeed enables developing mobile apps. But I have to fully agree with another sentence you wrote: the product is quickly discarded after failed attempt. The product is good. But because it is powerful, it comes with a learning curve. Imagine Photoshop - nobody is a master right after starting to use it. How long would it take a human being to learn how to develop apps? Let's say a few months or years - because it requires to learn how to code. With our product learning how to create an app and actually creating it, takes a few hours in total. But still, this is a few hours you need to invest. So what I would like to achieve with those enterprise prospects, is to get them speak to us right after they fail, instead of discarding. Any advice on how this can be done?

brudgers 9y ago

[random advice from the internet] The proven method of talking to individuals in enterprise is a 'meat eating' sales team walking into the lobby of the building where people work and talking to the receptionist. This is probably worth doing outside of enterprise, too. It is expensive. It is time consuming. It is valuable. On the other hand, I think most people hate most emails because every email is an item on their TODO list because every email must be processed and processing emails takes time. The most time efficient way to process emails is to mark them as spam and never see an email from that source again. For me, if a company sends me an automated email, that's usually what happens because if and when I want more information or to learn about updates, I can just visit the website (and odds are that the content of an autogenerated company email consists of links to the website). Good luck.

CyberFonic 9y ago
Agree with your observations. For some reason marketing types simply do NOT get that their carefully crafted email marketing missives are automatically consigned to spam. Do they read every email they are sent? Probably not, but their conceit is that their emails are special and should be read.
pavlakoos 9y ago
Thank you for your comments. Still, I don't think what I should do is to go to a lobby. When I'm in the lobby I still need to figure out which person I need to speak to... In my situation that person has already come to me. But I cannot convince him (it's usually him, not her) to talk to me. He is window shopping. He is just looking around and playing by himself, but whenever approached acts as if he wasn't there. These guys are on my website because they need a custom app. But I don't know what app, with what features and how I can help them. I'm looking for a hint on how to approach these guys and make them talk. Anyone?
- brudgers 9y ago
  In the lobby, the person to talk to is the receptionist. The receptionist is the gatekeeper and can be an ally. Be nice. Make their job pleasant. Ask for information. Be polite. Thank them. Maybe you get a lot of useful information. Maybe very little. At least you know what getting past the front door entails.