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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

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.
- 7Figures2Commas 13y ago
  > This seems a little harsh or judgemental. It wasn't. My statement was prefaced with "If that's the case..." > 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. You're missing the point: you realistically aren't going to know what product to build, or be able to assess its value before you build it, if you have no domain expertise. An entrepreneur with domain expertise is far less likely to build a product that doesn't create enough value to be viable than an outsider who doesn't understand the businesses he's targeting. In other words, the entrepreneur who actually understands what he's doing because he understands the industry probably isn't going to build a 10% better product that is 10% of a cost center that is associated with just 15% of revenues.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
    - energyboy 13y ago
      i agree and am also a big believer in the notion that your product usually needs to be 10x better to displace the competition. however, sometimes there is benefit in not being a "domain" expert. naivety can drive an entrepreneur to do what industry insiders have been conditioned to believe is impossible. while young entrepreneurs are inexperienced, their age also works to their advantage in certain situations.
      - 7Figures2Commas 13y ago
        > i agree and am also a big believer in the notion that your product usually needs to be 10x better to displace the competition. Do you have any evidence whatsoever to back this notion up? Without much effort, I can think of a lot of markets in which this isn't the case. One example: eDiscovery software for law firms. There are young companies gaining traction in this market and they're absolutely not "10x better" than the competition as far as technology, usability and overall sophistication go. Some are actually less robust than the competition but are able to compete on price alone because there isn't always a need for the Cadillac offerings.
hef19898 13y ago
Sales is a bitch if you are not good in it. I complete agree that almost everyone can learn to become a mediocre sales person, yet this is not what you want foe your B2B start-up. But yes, chances are that you will ultimately find someone to sell your product. Even it is not a trivial task to do so. The pint where I realy don't agree are relationships the typical start-up founder can leverage. My impression is that this kind of decisions are met in a, for me, not really understandable way at levels a founder that worked for a couple of years in company X in industry Y is unlikely to have. These kinds of caontacts don't come from domain knowledge alone. Agree on most of the rest, although I would stress the importance of sales in a B2B environment even more. Would help to get really early on some good business guys for that. And I mean business in terms of I-did-sell-fridges-to-escimos sales people, not I-had-a-good-prof-during-my-MBA types.

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.

7Figures2Commas 13y ago
> This seems a little harsh or judgemental. It wasn't. My statement was prefaced with "If that's the case..." > 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. You're missing the point: you realistically aren't going to know what product to build, or be able to assess its value before you build it, if you have no domain expertise. An entrepreneur with domain expertise is far less likely to build a product that doesn't create enough value to be viable than an outsider who doesn't understand the businesses he's targeting. In other words, the entrepreneur who actually understands what he's doing because he understands the industry probably isn't going to build a 10% better product that is 10% of a cost center that is associated with just 15% of revenues.
- deleted 13y ago
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  - energyboy 13y ago
    i agree and am also a big believer in the notion that your product usually needs to be 10x better to displace the competition. however, sometimes there is benefit in not being a "domain" expert. naivety can drive an entrepreneur to do what industry insiders have been conditioned to believe is impossible. while young entrepreneurs are inexperienced, their age also works to their advantage in certain situations.
    - 7Figures2Commas 13y ago
      > i agree and am also a big believer in the notion that your product usually needs to be 10x better to displace the competition. Do you have any evidence whatsoever to back this notion up? Without much effort, I can think of a lot of markets in which this isn't the case. One example: eDiscovery software for law firms. There are young companies gaining traction in this market and they're absolutely not "10x better" than the competition as far as technology, usability and overall sophistication go. Some are actually less robust than the competition but are able to compete on price alone because there isn't always a need for the Cadillac offerings.

hef19898 13y ago

Sales is a bitch if you are not good in it. I complete agree that almost everyone can learn to become a mediocre sales person, yet this is not what you want foe your B2B start-up. But yes, chances are that you will ultimately find someone to sell your product. Even it is not a trivial task to do so. The pint where I realy don't agree are relationships the typical start-up founder can leverage. My impression is that this kind of decisions are met in a, for me, not really understandable way at levels a founder that worked for a couple of years in company X in industry Y is unlikely to have. These kinds of caontacts don't come from domain knowledge alone. Agree on most of the rest, although I would stress the importance of sales in a B2B environment even more. Would help to get really early on some good business guys for that. And I mean business in terms of I-did-sell-fridges-to-escimos sales people, not I-had-a-good-prof-during-my-MBA types.