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>One turn-off for us for machine learning products was going to the website, wanting to try the software, and then finding a button that says "Schedule a demo"

by bauerd 6y ago

>One turn-off for us for machine learning products was going to the website, wanting to try the software, and then finding a button that says "Schedule a demo" or "Schedule a sales call". Share the sentiment but both of us are likely not the target audience for these kinds of funnels then. Decision-makers who go down the "talk to our sales team" route are more likely to sign big enterprise-y contracts in the end I guess

Jugurtha 6y ago
>Share the sentiment but both of us are likely not the target audience for these kinds of funnels then. Except I'm an engineer first who just happens to be able to make that decision, and I made the decision not to buy. Here's the thing: we've been making bespoke machine learning products for large enterprise for quite long. Not huge contracts, but say mid six-figures on average. We sit down with our clients but the key word here is "bespoke", which warrants these meetings and communications and calls. We build these solutions from scratch to solve their problems with their workflows. Anything that's not bespoke or where we don't have to discuss regulatory matters or where that conversation is not required by law is a roadblock for my purchase. One reason we're making our platform is to reduce that necessity and be able to deliver that value to companies without ever speaking to us. Heck that "speaking" is also included in the cost of the product, and all those "engineer.days" add up pretty quickly, making our client list exclusively composed of behemoths who sometimes happen to have internal ML teams but just need more help, or because we happen to have expertise on a problem and they're inexperienced despite their size. One of our biggest frustrations is that we could not serve smaller organizations, and I'm not even talking mom & pop's or SMBs, but even some organizations that seem large shy away from this kind of projects even though they want to leverage data. I find that these companies and products are targeting decision makers who do not consult with their teams and buy products nobody will use. They're targeting dysfunctional organizations which, I'll grant you that, may be a large enough segment to build a business around. Not my ideal to wake up and earn a living, though, but that's another matter.
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stiray 6y ago
The interesting thing here is that until I say "go" no one will "Schedule a demo" or "sales call" to them. While I will absolutely not do it for a fishy firm - and by putting something like that on the site they automatically get into "fishy firm position" - you would like to convince me with words instead of facts to buy your products and waste my time. No, thank you. Show me the facts, and leave my mind to decide what it is, not lie to me what you think will make the sale. It is just a waste of my time.
jen20 6y ago
This might be true but there are many engineers with decision making power. My pet hate (and a virtual guarantee of "no deal") is when I'm forced to talk to a sales person who is all hair-gel and swagger [1] who knows substantially less about their own product than I do. [1]: https://gist.github.com/CumpsD/696599d1bd4cd472a0565869672933da https://gist.github.com/CumpsD/696599d1bd4cd472a056586967293... - this is about (UK) external recruitment companies, but the same applies.
qppo 6y ago
In my experience the reason this is done is because customer acquisition is manual and the "schedule a demo" button is used for lead generation, and the reason it's all manual is because onboarding/support is high touch and you're not sure who the customers are yet. Free demos are my nightmare. I really don't have that much time to split between fixing existing issues, adding critical features for paying customers, and supporting or troubleshooting for users that aren't paying anything. That's not to say at a point in the future the organization could have the capacity for a sick free trial, it's just that free trials cost money.

by bauerd 6y ago

Jugurtha 6y ago

>Share the sentiment but both of us are likely not the target audience for these kinds of funnels then. Except I'm an engineer first who just happens to be able to make that decision, and I made the decision not to buy. Here's the thing: we've been making bespoke machine learning products for large enterprise for quite long. Not huge contracts, but say mid six-figures on average. We sit down with our clients but the key word here is "bespoke", which warrants these meetings and communications and calls. We build these solutions from scratch to solve their problems with their workflows. Anything that's not bespoke or where we don't have to discuss regulatory matters or where that conversation is not required by law is a roadblock for my purchase. One reason we're making our platform is to reduce that necessity and be able to deliver that value to companies without ever speaking to us. Heck that "speaking" is also included in the cost of the product, and all those "engineer.days" add up pretty quickly, making our client list exclusively composed of behemoths who sometimes happen to have internal ML teams but just need more help, or because we happen to have expertise on a problem and they're inexperienced despite their size. One of our biggest frustrations is that we could not serve smaller organizations, and I'm not even talking mom & pop's or SMBs, but even some organizations that seem large shy away from this kind of projects even though they want to leverage data. I find that these companies and products are targeting decision makers who do not consult with their teams and buy products nobody will use. They're targeting dysfunctional organizations which, I'll grant you that, may be a large enough segment to build a business around. Not my ideal to wake up and earn a living, though, but that's another matter.

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stiray 6y ago

The interesting thing here is that until I say "go" no one will "Schedule a demo" or "sales call" to them. While I will absolutely not do it for a fishy firm - and by putting something like that on the site they automatically get into "fishy firm position" - you would like to convince me with words instead of facts to buy your products and waste my time. No, thank you. Show me the facts, and leave my mind to decide what it is, not lie to me what you think will make the sale. It is just a waste of my time.

jen20 6y ago

This might be true but there are many engineers with decision making power. My pet hate (and a virtual guarantee of "no deal") is when I'm forced to talk to a sales person who is all hair-gel and swagger [1] who knows substantially less about their own product than I do. [1]: https://gist.github.com/CumpsD/696599d1bd4cd472a0565869672933da https://gist.github.com/CumpsD/696599d1bd4cd472a056586967293... - this is about (UK) external recruitment companies, but the same applies.

qppo 6y ago

In my experience the reason this is done is because customer acquisition is manual and the "schedule a demo" button is used for lead generation, and the reason it's all manual is because onboarding/support is high touch and you're not sure who the customers are yet. Free demos are my nightmare. I really don't have that much time to split between fixing existing issues, adding critical features for paying customers, and supporting or troubleshooting for users that aren't paying anything. That's not to say at a point in the future the organization could have the capacity for a sick free trial, it's just that free trials cost money.