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I have come up with a lot of ideas to solve business problems, but I am reluctant to implement them for the concern that selling to such businesses would be a f

I have come up with a lot of ideas to solve business problems, but I am reluctant to implement them for the concern that selling to such businesses would be a far more difficult problem than simply creating something that works better than what they are currently using. Business often make stupid decisions based on relationships with sells people or brand recognition more than merit of the solution. Of course, this problem exists in the consumer space as well, but the market is so much larger (everyone is a consumer, not everyone makes decisions on what solutions to deploy in a business).

ef4 13y ago
In my experience, you have the difficulty backward. It's just fear of the unknown that keeps too many technical people from attempting it. If your product has a demonstrable return on investment, then it is far easier to sell to businesses. Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI, and consumers mostly don't. Remember that to make a fair comparison, you need to do it per dollar, not per sale. Even if it's 10x easier to sell to one consumer than one business, if a business customer pays 100x more money, then it is still vastly easier to sell to businesses.
- arbuge 13y ago
  This is only true if there is a cost-effective way to reach the businesses in question. Sometimes there is, sometimes it's less clear.
  - ef4 13y ago
    Sure, but the same objection applies to consumer-targeted products. If your product is for "everyone", you may need to spend large amounts of money to get attention.
- madiator 13y ago
  You are mostly right, but then there are other issues to consider: why would a business buy from you who is just starting out? They would like to have some guarantee you will be around after a few years..
  - TheHydroImpulse 13y ago
    Reputation definitely counts for something. But there's a slew of businesses that would likely buy from you in the early stages. They may be much smaller businesses, and possible not even in your long-term/medium-term target market, but it's a stepping stone. Selling can still be a challenge. But if you have a valuable product, and an A* sales team, it's much much easier.
- asdasf 13y ago
  >Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI They like to say they do, but they very frequently don't. I'd say easily 80% of the software and hardware purchases I've seen corporate clients make are based on things other than ROI. Things like "the sales person for product X always takes me to nice lunches" or "everyone else is using Y so we need to use Y too".
  - nikatwork 13y ago
    Thus the evergreen adage, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".
  - greedo 13y ago
    ie Gartner's Magic Quadrant...
hayksaakian 13y ago
That's why you need to sell first and build second. You have a good relationship with your first customer, who has a real problem and real money to solve it.
7Figures2Commas 13y ago
First, it should be noted that if you're actually in the industry you're targeting, chances are you have relationships that you can leverage. Your comment seems to imply that you're an outsider with no domain expertise who believes he has ideas to solve problems in various markets. If that's the case, you have the aforementioned domain expertise shortcoming. Second, far too many technical folks seem to believe that they have to sell what they've built. That's almost never the case. There are people who make a living selling all sorts of products and services in established B2B markets. If you have a product or service of merit, chances are you'll be able to find somebody with sales experience who will be interested in selling for you. Now here's the key: you must be prepared to invest money into your sales efforts. You're probably not going to find many good, experienced salespeople who will work on commission only. And depending on the market, you'll most likely need to budget for tools that will help your salesperson succeed (trade shows, etc.). Bottom line: it takes money to make money. If you're not willing to put cold hard cash on the line to sell your solution, you have no reason to expect results.
- 001sky 13y ago
  you have the aforementioned domain expertise shortcoming This seems a little harsh or judgemental. Big Co's don't care about your 10pc better product, because it may be 10% of a cost center that is maybe 15% of revenues. That makes it a 1.5% margin business for them, which is literally not material. Given the politics of BigCos, the top guys have limited bandwidth. They typically don't want the brain damage associated with taking on operational risk for non-material benefits on the upside. Its a distraction, and a fundamental conflict of interest for them. The quality of your sales guy, is only so good as he helps develope a product with lowe operationa implementation risk and has the already-in-place-relationships with a BigCo to de-risk their adoption. even in the best case, its a tough sell. The better bet is to show up with a 10x solution. That turns a 15% cost into a 1.5% cost, and creates a 13.5% increase in profitability. Now that you are moving the needle, you will get people's attention. Even at sr. levels...Just some things worth thinking about. As petet thiel rightly notes, there are varying abstractions of 'sales' skills that come into play, not all are of the door-to-door "sales guy" variety.
  - 13y ago
skarmklart 13y ago
FWIW, I am writing a book to get you some part of the way to your goal: http://www.howtofindsaasideas.com http://www.howtofindsaasideas.com It's about finding/extracting ideas (from domain experts) and then testing them quickly. (Apologies for the terrible landing page)

ef4 13y ago

In my experience, you have the difficulty backward. It's just fear of the unknown that keeps too many technical people from attempting it. If your product has a demonstrable return on investment, then it is far easier to sell to businesses. Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI, and consumers mostly don't. Remember that to make a fair comparison, you need to do it per dollar, not per sale. Even if it's 10x easier to sell to one consumer than one business, if a business customer pays 100x more money, then it is still vastly easier to sell to businesses.

arbuge 13y ago
This is only true if there is a cost-effective way to reach the businesses in question. Sometimes there is, sometimes it's less clear.
- ef4 13y ago
  Sure, but the same objection applies to consumer-targeted products. If your product is for "everyone", you may need to spend large amounts of money to get attention.
madiator 13y ago
You are mostly right, but then there are other issues to consider: why would a business buy from you who is just starting out? They would like to have some guarantee you will be around after a few years..
- TheHydroImpulse 13y ago
  Reputation definitely counts for something. But there's a slew of businesses that would likely buy from you in the early stages. They may be much smaller businesses, and possible not even in your long-term/medium-term target market, but it's a stepping stone. Selling can still be a challenge. But if you have a valuable product, and an A* sales team, it's much much easier.
asdasf 13y ago
>Because businesses actually make decisions based on ROI They like to say they do, but they very frequently don't. I'd say easily 80% of the software and hardware purchases I've seen corporate clients make are based on things other than ROI. Things like "the sales person for product X always takes me to nice lunches" or "everyone else is using Y so we need to use Y too".
- nikatwork 13y ago
  Thus the evergreen adage, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".
- greedo 13y ago
  ie Gartner's Magic Quadrant...

hayksaakian 13y ago

That's why you need to sell first and build second. You have a good relationship with your first customer, who has a real problem and real money to solve it.

7Figures2Commas 13y ago

First, it should be noted that if you're actually in the industry you're targeting, chances are you have relationships that you can leverage. Your comment seems to imply that you're an outsider with no domain expertise who believes he has ideas to solve problems in various markets. If that's the case, you have the aforementioned domain expertise shortcoming. Second, far too many technical folks seem to believe that they have to sell what they've built. That's almost never the case. There are people who make a living selling all sorts of products and services in established B2B markets. If you have a product or service of merit, chances are you'll be able to find somebody with sales experience who will be interested in selling for you. Now here's the key: you must be prepared to invest money into your sales efforts. You're probably not going to find many good, experienced salespeople who will work on commission only. And depending on the market, you'll most likely need to budget for tools that will help your salesperson succeed (trade shows, etc.). Bottom line: it takes money to make money. If you're not willing to put cold hard cash on the line to sell your solution, you have no reason to expect results.

001sky 13y ago
you have the aforementioned domain expertise shortcoming This seems a little harsh or judgemental. Big Co's don't care about your 10pc better product, because it may be 10% of a cost center that is maybe 15% of revenues. That makes it a 1.5% margin business for them, which is literally not material. Given the politics of BigCos, the top guys have limited bandwidth. They typically don't want the brain damage associated with taking on operational risk for non-material benefits on the upside. Its a distraction, and a fundamental conflict of interest for them. The quality of your sales guy, is only so good as he helps develope a product with lowe operationa implementation risk and has the already-in-place-relationships with a BigCo to de-risk their adoption. even in the best case, its a tough sell. The better bet is to show up with a 10x solution. That turns a 15% cost into a 1.5% cost, and creates a 13.5% increase in profitability. Now that you are moving the needle, you will get people's attention. Even at sr. levels...Just some things worth thinking about. As petet thiel rightly notes, there are varying abstractions of 'sales' skills that come into play, not all are of the door-to-door "sales guy" variety.
- 13y ago

skarmklart 13y ago

FWIW, I am writing a book to get you some part of the way to your goal: http://www.howtofindsaasideas.com http://www.howtofindsaasideas.com It's about finding/extracting ideas (from domain experts) and then testing them quickly. (Apologies for the terrible landing page)