3 ms·

You should write a "Why my company isn't going to buy your startup's product" blog post. It would help quite a few people.

AndyNemmity 13y ago
There are a lot of reasons people don't talk about this stuff, and I shouldn't either. I'm being a bit too loose with my mouth already.
brandonb 13y ago
I would love to read that blog post too! It's great to understand how the other side thinks about things.
- eitally 13y ago
  It depends very much on the individual, their company, and their role/standing within the company. Anything with too much detail will end up being too specific and not very good general advice (imho).
eitally 13y ago
Another really common scenario is that the vendor doesn't offer an appealing pricing model based on the anticipated or intended usage of the product. For example, lately I've been talking to videoconferencing system providers. One of them has a really great feature that no one else has, but their only pricing option is per named user at roughly $800/yr. This is completely untenable at a 45,000 person company (even if you only consider the 20,000 of those people who are knowledge workers, or even if you only consider roughly 5,000 of them who might need VC. The problem I have is never knowing exactly who the named users should be.). Another vendor has a similar product, and offers both named user and concurrent user pricing options. A third vendor offers both cloud & in-room-hardware options where we can mix & match, with the advantage that hardware-based VC rooms don't consume a user license at all, so we'd only be paying for desktop/mobile connections. The first vendor lost a 6 figure deal just because they weren't willing to entertain an appealing pricing model. To expand on Andy's general point, and one josh2600 made earlier, it truly pays to get to know your target's corporate culture and bureaucracy. One of the first questions experienced sales reps ask at the close of the second call (or whenever the first demo is) is something along the lines of "what is your sales process like?" or "how does your department handle budgeting, and what is your fiscal calendar?" Oooh, before I forget, here's another big turn-off: yes, sales reps hop between companies more than engineers, but for goodness sake PLEASE keep your CRM updated so your target doesn't get repetitive cold calls from other reps at your company. This doesn't happen too often, but I still experience it about once a quarter and it leaves me fuming each time, especially if I already have a contractual relationship with the vendor.

AndyNemmity 13y ago

There are a lot of reasons people don't talk about this stuff, and I shouldn't either. I'm being a bit too loose with my mouth already.

brandonb 13y ago

I would love to read that blog post too! It's great to understand how the other side thinks about things.

eitally 13y ago
It depends very much on the individual, their company, and their role/standing within the company. Anything with too much detail will end up being too specific and not very good general advice (imho).

eitally 13y ago

Another really common scenario is that the vendor doesn't offer an appealing pricing model based on the anticipated or intended usage of the product. For example, lately I've been talking to videoconferencing system providers. One of them has a really great feature that no one else has, but their only pricing option is per named user at roughly $800/yr. This is completely untenable at a 45,000 person company (even if you only consider the 20,000 of those people who are knowledge workers, or even if you only consider roughly 5,000 of them who might need VC. The problem I have is never knowing exactly who the named users should be.). Another vendor has a similar product, and offers both named user and concurrent user pricing options. A third vendor offers both cloud & in-room-hardware options where we can mix & match, with the advantage that hardware-based VC rooms don't consume a user license at all, so we'd only be paying for desktop/mobile connections. The first vendor lost a 6 figure deal just because they weren't willing to entertain an appealing pricing model. To expand on Andy's general point, and one josh2600 made earlier, it truly pays to get to know your target's corporate culture and bureaucracy. One of the first questions experienced sales reps ask at the close of the second call (or whenever the first demo is) is something along the lines of "what is your sales process like?" or "how does your department handle budgeting, and what is your fiscal calendar?" Oooh, before I forget, here's another big turn-off: yes, sales reps hop between companies more than engineers, but for goodness sake PLEASE keep your CRM updated so your target doesn't get repetitive cold calls from other reps at your company. This doesn't happen too often, but I still experience it about once a quarter and it leaves me fuming each time, especially if I already have a contractual relationship with the vendor.