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This advice may be good for someone selling a commodity, but for software, it doesn't make sense to me. Basically, OP says to sell a large volume of a commodit

by edw519 17y ago

This advice may be good for someone selling a commodity, but for software, it doesn't make sense to me. Basically, OP says to sell a large volume of a commodity product to many customers. Since you only convert 1% of your prospects, you'll have to do a lot of pitching. (100 * a large number = a really large number). Sounds like you'd be selling all the time with no time left for programming. I'd suggest exactly the opposite: Spend almost all of your time building a great product, and do one of two things with it: 1. Make it a niche product and sell it to a small number of tightly targeted customers. Your conversion rate should be much higher than 1% and you can charge much more, not needing so many customers. 2. Make it a web-based commodity and leverage technology (SEO, blogging, etc.) to reach a large audience. You don't "pitch" thousands of users, you just reach them and let your product pitch them for you. I just don't understand how someone who can program (which is the critical path for software products) should be spending all of their time selling.

samography 17y ago
"You don't "pitch" thousands of users, you just reach them and let your product pitch them for you." These are the same thing. Just because you're not taking each potential customer to a steak dinner, it doesn't mean you're not selling them. I don't see how you get customers without showing them the benefits of your product. No matter what the medium is (blogging, advertising, interviews, SEO) - Pitching, selling, it's all the same thing.
- edw519 17y ago
  From OP: "I talked to 100 clients last week and got 1 client." "Let's try for 500 clients this week. 100 clients per day is more than doable," you tell yourself. "I'll up my calls to 150 per day, and direct mail the rest to reach 2000 contacts this week." "2000 contacts produces 20 new clients." I dunno, "talking", "calling", and "direct mailing" in volume sound significantly different (and way more time consuming) than SEO, mass marketing, and word of mouth. Just different enough that a programmer can make time for the latter but not the former.
antidaily 17y ago
Mark Cuban says sales solves all problems. I think he's right. The company with the best sales (not the best product, best SEO'd website, most informative blog, etc.) will probably have the most success. Doesn't mean you have to cold call.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  To boil it down more, it's customer acquisition costs (CAC) and lifetime value of the customer (LVC). Great products help drive down the CAC and increase the lifetime value of the customer. Sales are great and an often overlooked aspect, but just one piece of the puzzle. You can have an awesome close rate, but if the product sucks and they leave, the LVC goes to shit. You can do a ton of sales as well, but if the cost to close those sales and acquire the customer is too large, you become unprofitable.

by edw519 17y ago

samography 17y ago

"You don't "pitch" thousands of users, you just reach them and let your product pitch them for you." These are the same thing. Just because you're not taking each potential customer to a steak dinner, it doesn't mean you're not selling them. I don't see how you get customers without showing them the benefits of your product. No matter what the medium is (blogging, advertising, interviews, SEO) - Pitching, selling, it's all the same thing.

edw519 17y ago
From OP: "I talked to 100 clients last week and got 1 client." "Let's try for 500 clients this week. 100 clients per day is more than doable," you tell yourself. "I'll up my calls to 150 per day, and direct mail the rest to reach 2000 contacts this week." "2000 contacts produces 20 new clients." I dunno, "talking", "calling", and "direct mailing" in volume sound significantly different (and way more time consuming) than SEO, mass marketing, and word of mouth. Just different enough that a programmer can make time for the latter but not the former.

antidaily 17y ago

Mark Cuban says sales solves all problems. I think he's right. The company with the best sales (not the best product, best SEO'd website, most informative blog, etc.) will probably have the most success. Doesn't mean you have to cold call.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
To boil it down more, it's customer acquisition costs (CAC) and lifetime value of the customer (LVC). Great products help drive down the CAC and increase the lifetime value of the customer. Sales are great and an often overlooked aspect, but just one piece of the puzzle. You can have an awesome close rate, but if the product sucks and they leave, the LVC goes to shit. You can do a ton of sales as well, but if the cost to close those sales and acquire the customer is too large, you become unprofitable.