5 ms·

It if wasn't that important no one would buy it. Doesn't matter how good your sales people are, if the product doesn't solve a real problem, it's very unlikely

by dagi3d 2y ago

It if wasn't that important no one would buy it. Doesn't matter how good your sales people are, if the product doesn't solve a real problem, it's very unlikely you will sell it in a sustainable way.

johnisgood 2y ago
> if the product doesn't solve a real problem, it's very unlikely you will sell it in a sustainable way. I do not believe this. If you look around, there are many non-issues being sold as real problems[1], and people buy it. People buy all sorts of crap, that is just consumerism in effect. If you did sales, you probably know this. Same thing with "bullshit jobs". Perhaps "sustainable" is the keyword here, but I am not so sure about that either. [1] Snake-oils comes to mind. Pretty flourishing business.
- guiriduro 2y ago
  On the whole though, B2B sales (as this would be) are generally much more rational than consumer emotive/fantasy-driven marketing and sales. Its not like perfume sales. There are usually several people who hold each other to account and need rational justification for things, products need to demonstrate their value and meet several metrics that are reasonably objective. Not that emotion/status/gut holds no part, but that it biases the decisions to a much lower degree in B2B.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- fuckbrownpeople 2y ago
  [dead]
- iamacyborg 2y ago
  AG1 is a spectacularly good example of a marketing led product that doesn’t solve any real problems.
  - goatlover 2y ago
    (Would) Solve the problem of paying labor.
chamomeal 2y ago
This is sorta beside the point about color-grading, but I don't entirely agree about a product needing to solve a real problem. I worked a startup that had decent tech, but a shit product. Wasn't focused enough to really solve clients' issues. Maybe alleviated some issues, but also introduced more. It was disliked by the people who actually had to use it. But our sales guy was really good at convincing those peoples' bosses that it would make the company more money. It was a total top-down sales approach. Throw a bunch of buzzwords at the founder/CFO/boss, they force it on the people actually doing the work. I hated it, and it worked so well that fixing the product was never a priority. It was always new "features" to slap on more buzzwords to the sales pitch. I really think it could've been a good product, too!
- davidbou 2y ago
  We're still a rather small team of mainly tech people, we don't have a single sales person in the traditional way (not yet). Ghislain was able to develop an architecture that we could count on as being reliable while being able to quickly experiment in all directions and build on top of what was started. We were never really afraid of major failures as the system has been proven to be robust after the first 2 years (everything was started from scratch, including hardware). As we were able to very quickly respond to customer demands for anything special that they would need, they ended-up being our main sales channel by recommending the solution further. And nearly 10 years after, we're still pretty much on the same model, trying to keep up with the developments, delivering products and supporting our customers. The website is outdated and it's been years we're trying to make any progress there, eventually we'll succeed at that.
  - dr_kiszonka 2y ago
    Congrats on an incredibly impressive and technically complex product. Operating such high visibility events like the Olympics sounds pretty nerve-wracking. How much of an issue is security for you? Do you experience any attacks?
    - davidbou 2y ago

by dagi3d 2y ago

It if wasn't that important no one would buy it. Doesn't matter how good your sales people are, if the product doesn't solve a real problem, it's very unlikely you will sell it in a sustainable way.

johnisgood 2y ago

> if the product doesn't solve a real problem, it's very unlikely you will sell it in a sustainable way. I do not believe this. If you look around, there are many non-issues being sold as real problems[1], and people buy it. People buy all sorts of crap, that is just consumerism in effect. If you did sales, you probably know this. Same thing with "bullshit jobs". Perhaps "sustainable" is the keyword here, but I am not so sure about that either. [1] Snake-oils comes to mind. Pretty flourishing business.

guiriduro 2y ago
On the whole though, B2B sales (as this would be) are generally much more rational than consumer emotive/fantasy-driven marketing and sales. Its not like perfume sales. There are usually several people who hold each other to account and need rational justification for things, products need to demonstrate their value and meet several metrics that are reasonably objective. Not that emotion/status/gut holds no part, but that it biases the decisions to a much lower degree in B2B.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
fuckbrownpeople 2y ago
[dead]
iamacyborg 2y ago
AG1 is a spectacularly good example of a marketing led product that doesn’t solve any real problems.
- goatlover 2y ago
  (Would) Solve the problem of paying labor.

chamomeal 2y ago

This is sorta beside the point about color-grading, but I don't entirely agree about a product needing to solve a real problem. I worked a startup that had decent tech, but a shit product. Wasn't focused enough to really solve clients' issues. Maybe alleviated some issues, but also introduced more. It was disliked by the people who actually had to use it. But our sales guy was really good at convincing those peoples' bosses that it would make the company more money. It was a total top-down sales approach. Throw a bunch of buzzwords at the founder/CFO/boss, they force it on the people actually doing the work. I hated it, and it worked so well that fixing the product was never a priority. It was always new "features" to slap on more buzzwords to the sales pitch. I really think it could've been a good product, too!

davidbou 2y ago
We're still a rather small team of mainly tech people, we don't have a single sales person in the traditional way (not yet). Ghislain was able to develop an architecture that we could count on as being reliable while being able to quickly experiment in all directions and build on top of what was started. We were never really afraid of major failures as the system has been proven to be robust after the first 2 years (everything was started from scratch, including hardware). As we were able to very quickly respond to customer demands for anything special that they would need, they ended-up being our main sales channel by recommending the solution further. And nearly 10 years after, we're still pretty much on the same model, trying to keep up with the developments, delivering products and supporting our customers. The website is outdated and it's been years we're trying to make any progress there, eventually we'll succeed at that.
- dr_kiszonka 2y ago
  Congrats on an incredibly impressive and technically complex product. Operating such high visibility events like the Olympics sounds pretty nerve-wracking. How much of an issue is security for you? Do you experience any attacks?
  - davidbou 2y ago