Are you selling top down or bottom up? That makes a world of difference. Top down means you’re trying to sell managers and above who don’t directly use the too

Are you selling top down or bottom up? That makes a world of difference. Top down means you’re trying to sell managers and above who don’t directly use the tool. Usually they care about seeing case studies, logos of other companies, testimonials from their peers, etc. They want to look good and the way you help them with that is making one of their metrics look good, or giving them more budget to work with. Safe decisions are easier for them to make because they don’t want to get fired by making a risky bet, even if the risky bet offers more for less (“nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM”). Usually the way in with them is through partnerships, relationships, and education. Start with friends who work in that industry to get you a case study and logo or you could try to make friends at a conference if you don’t have any already. Or create some educational material around the problem and sell them consulting, using your tool as a solution. Almost always this starts off as more consultative as a relationship. If it’s bottom up, you’re selling to the individual contributors who don’t get a say about paying for the tool. That means you have to start with a generous free tier and try to get as many seats filled or usage as possible. It should bring enough value to the ICs and the organization that by the time they hit their usage caps in the free tier, the ICs are begging their managers to put a credit card in or asking to set up a sales call. If you’re not getting any usage at the free tier, then it comes back to finding where the ICs hang out and trying to integrate your tool as part of a workflow to common problems they solve. This is again about educating and making/leaning on friends to help spread the word and convince others to use your tool. In both cases, relationships matter a lot to get initial traction (existing customers, friends in the industry, partners). They will help you figure out what’s needed to sell into the market you want to sell into, what’s holding you back, and getting you early validation. I didn’t see you mention existing relationships you have, so maybe that’s a good place to start.