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"People will buy a developer tool, but you can’t sell it."

• deepspace 3y ago
  That line caught my attention too, and it looked superficially true. I have certainly never purchased a tool based on a phone call from a vendor. However, that only pertains to cold-calling, which is the absolute worst way to sell anything. Advertising is a trillion dollar market for a reason – it works. The trick is to find the correct message and media for the audience. Effective advertising takes a lot of skill, a lot of money, or both. A large portion of HN posts (including this one) are contain "hidden" advertising, and they absolutely work. I have purchased more than one developer tool based on reddit and HN reviews, which originated as posts by the seller. On the "lot of money" side, a poster in the arrivals tunnel at SFO is an excellent way of raising brand awareness; even for developer tools.
• wrs 3y ago
  For me the killer quote was “if the prospect requires a demo, then they’re not worth going after” — because as a prospect, if your product requires a demo, I’m already halfway to no. I am so tired of “enterprise” products that have to be purchased as a pig in a poke because they can’t stand on their own during a trial period.
• nathanfig 3y ago
  I think HN will eat this up because few of us enjoy being sold to but like most absolute statements it's probably only applicable in specific circumstances. Enterprises sell tons of developer tools and move millions because of demos done well. AWS and Azure are definitely getting on planes and doing demos.