Enterprise Sales | Startup School

Summary

Pete Kuman, socio fundador de Optimizely y YC Alum, comparte su experiencia en ventas empresariales para startups de software. En su charla, desglosa el proceso de cierre de clientes empresariales, desde la prospectiva hasta la implementación, brindando consejos tácticos y lecciones inesperadas. Kuman enfatiza la importancia de la venta como una habilidad aprendible, la ventaja de los fundadores técnicos en ventas y cómo evitar los errores comunes en el proceso de ventas, incluyendo la preparación de una hipótesis de ventas, la generación de demanda entrante y la gestión de la implementación para asegurar la adquisición de clientes valiosos.

Takeaways

• 🚀 El proceso de ventas es un conjunto de pasos secuenciales que incluyen prospecting, outreach, calificación, precios, cierre y implementación.
• 🛠 Las ventas son una habilidad aprendible y los fundadores de startups, incluso con antecedentes técnicos, pueden ser capaces de vender su producto.
• 💡 Los fundadores técnicos tienen ventajas en las ventas debido a su experticia en el problema y la convicción de que su producto resuelve el problema del cliente.
• 🎯 La prospectiva implica encontrar posibles clientes y se basa en una hipótesis de ventas que aclara a quién debe dirigirse.
• 🔍 Es importante identificar a las personas adecuadas dentro de las empresas potenciales y obtener su información de contacto para el outreach.
• 📞 El outreach tiene como objetivo agendar una reunión y es más eficiente cuando los clientes se acercan a usted en lugar de solo realizar llamadas frías.
• ❌ Evitar el antipatrón de hablar con cualquiera que tome la llamada, ya que esto puede llevar a perder tiempo con clientes no ideales.
• 📞 En la primera llamada, el objetivo es calificar al prospecto y agendar una demostración del producto, no hacer la oferta de inmediato.
• 🎬 Una buena demostración del producto se enfoca en la historia y la solución de problemas del cliente, en lugar de ser una visita guiada a todas las funciones.
• 💰 La fijación de precios no tiene una fórmula única y implica hacer preguntas previas y aprender de las reacciones del cliente.
• 📝 El cierre de un trato no es una conversación única, sino un proceso que incluye varias etapas, desde la decisión de compra hasta la realización de la compra.
• 🔧 La implementación es una parte crucial del proceso de ventas y los fundadores deben considerarla su responsabilidad para asegurar que el cliente utilice el producto.

Q & A

¿Quién es Pete Kuman y qué papel desempeña en Y Combinator (YC)?

Pete Kuman es un socio del grupo en Y Combinator y un exalumno de YC. Fue cofundador y CTO de Optimizely, una empresa que formó parte del grupo de invierno de 2010.

¿Cuál es el objetivo principal de la charla de Pete Kuman?

El objetivo principal de la charla es guiar paso a paso el proceso de cierre de los primeros clientes empresariales para startups de software, enfocándose en los pasos sucesivos del embudo de ventas.

¿Por qué es importante el proceso de ventas para los fundadores de startups en sus primeras etapas?

El proceso de ventas es importante porque permite a los fundadores, quienes a menudo tienen un trasfondo técnico, aprender cómo vender su producto y comprender que las ventas antes del hallazgo del mercado (pre-PMF) son fundamentalmente empresariales y requieren visión y credibilidad con los clientes.

¿Por qué los fundadores técnicos pueden tener ventaja al vender su propio producto?

Los fundadores técnicos pueden tener ventaja al vender su propio producto porque son expertos en el problema que resuelven y en el producto que construyen, y tienen convicción de que su producto solucionará el problema de los clientes, lo cual es importante en las ventas.

¿Qué es un hipotético de ventas y cómo ayuda en el proceso de prospectiva?

Un hipotético de ventas es una suposición sobre qué tipo de cliente tiene un problema determinado y cómo el producto puede ayudar a resolverlo. Ayuda en la prospectiva al aclarar quién debería ser contactado y cómo identificar a las empresas y personas que podrían necesitar el producto.

¿Cómo se puede generar demanda entrante y por qué es más eficiente que el acercamiento frío?

Se puede generar demanda entrante lanzando tempranamente y con frecuencia, creando contenido técnico, estableciéndose como experto en foros y participando en conferencias de la industria. Esto es más eficiente porque atrae a los clientes potenciales que están activamente buscando soluciones a sus problemas.

¿Qué es una mala práctica que algunos fundadores de YC siguen al acercarse a cualquiera que tome su llamada?

Una mala práctica es hablar con personas que son fáciles de contactar en lugar de enfocarse en aquellos que serían clientes ideales. Esto puede llevar a malgastar tiempo persiguiendo clientes que no necesitan realmente el producto.

¿Cuáles son las dos cosas clave que se intentan lograr en la primera llamada con un prospect?

En la primera llamada, se intenta calificar al prospect, es decir, determinar si tienen el problema que se busca resolver y si tienen el presupuesto y la autoridad de decisión para comprar el producto, y programar una llamada de seguimiento para una demostración del producto.

¿Cómo se debería realizar una demostración del producto para ser efectiva?

Una demostración efectiva se enfoca en resolver el problema del cliente, en lugar de simplemente mostrar las características del producto. Se debe contar una historia que muestre cómo el producto soluciona el problema, personalizando la demo para la empresa del prospect y evitando un recorrido de características sin contexto.

¿Cómo se aborda el tema de la fijación de precios en la charla y cuál es la recomendación principal para los fundadores de startups?

La charla sugiere que no hay una fórmula simple para fijar precios y que implica mucho tanteo al principio. Se recomienda a los fundadores fijar un número que les haga sentir un poco incómodos y prestar atención a cómo reaccionan los prospects, permitiéndoles negociar y aprendiendo de sus respuestas.

¿Qué es la implementación y por qué es crucial para el proceso de ventas?

La implementación es la fase en la que el cliente comienza a usar realmente el producto. Es crucial porque el proceso de ventas no termina hasta que el cliente utiliza el producto de manera habitual. Es responsabilidad del vendedor asegurarse de que la implementación se realice correctamente, ya que esto puede determinar el éxito a largo plazo de la relación con el cliente.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducción a la Venta de Software para Startups

Pete Kuman, socio en YC y ex CTO de Optimizely, presenta un tutorial paso a paso para cerrar las primeras ventas empresariales, enfocándose en los pasos del embudo de ventas: prospectiva, comunicación, calificación, precios, cierre e implementación. Aporta consejos tácticos y lecciones inesperadas aprendidas durante su experiencia en Optimizely. El discurso está dirigido a fundadores de startups de software que comienzan en ventas, independientemente del tamaño de sus clientes. Kuman enfatiza la importancia de que los fundadores sean capaces de vender su propio producto, especialmente en etapas tempranas, y desmiente la idea de que la venta es un arte oscuro, insistiendo en que es fundamentalmente ayudar a resolver problemas.

05:01

🔎 Prospectiva y Estrategias de Venta

El proceso de prospectiva consiste en encontrar posibles clientes y generar una lista de empresas y contactos específicos que podrían necesitar el producto. Se discuten herramientas para la prospectiva y la importancia de tener una hipótesis de ventas clara. Se sugiere identificar empresas por sector y usar herramientas como 'builtwith' para encontrar prospectos adecuados. Para obtener la atención de los clientes, se recomienda generar demanda entrante a través de contenido técnico y participar en foros y conferencias de la industria. Se advierte en contra de hablar con cualquiera que esté dispuesto a tomar la llamada, ya que esto puede llevar a malos clientes que no son ideales para la empresa.

10:01

📞 Comunicación Inicial y Calificación del Prospecto

El objetivo de la primera llamada no es vender, sino calificar al prospecto y programar una llamada de seguimiento para una demostración del producto. Se debe evitar hacer la presentación de inmediato y, en su lugar, hacer preguntas para entender el problema del cliente y su capacidad para comprar. Se enfatiza la importancia de escuchar y preguntar en lugar de vender de manera agresiva. Si el prospecto no tiene un problema que el producto pueda resolver, o no tiene el presupuesto para ello, es mejor descartarlo temprano y ahorrar tiempo.

15:03

💰 Estrategias de Demostración y Precios

La demostración del producto no debe ser una exhibición de características, sino una narrativa que muestre cómo el producto resuelve el problema del cliente. Se debe personalizar la demostración según la información recolectada en la primera llamada. En cuanto a la定价 ('定价', que parece ser un error en el texto original), no existe una fórmula sencilla, pero se pueden hacer preguntas previas para entender el costo del problema para el cliente y su presupuesto. Se debe tener en cuenta que los precios pueden ser un punto de prueba para determinar si el cliente realmente necesita el producto y se debe estar dispuesto a negociar los precios basándose en la reacción del cliente.

20:04

📝 Cierre de Ventas y Proceso de Adquisición

El cierre de ventas implica un proceso que comienza cuando el cliente decide querer el producto y termina cuando efectivamente lo compran. Se debe anticipar los obstáculos del proceso de adquisición, como revisiones de seguridad y privacidad, y tener un proceso de aprobación legal sencillo. Es fundamental mantener una comunicación constante con el cliente y utilizarlos como aliado para superar obstáculos. Se recomienda usar plantillas de documentos legales de código abierto y mantener el alcance y el tiempo fuera del contrato si es posible.

🚀 Implementación y Uso del Producto por el Cliente

La implementación es la etapa final donde el cliente comienza a usar el producto. Se debe evitar el error de pensar que la implementación es responsabilidad del cliente. Es crucial involucrarse en el proceso de implementación, construir planes detallados y gestionar el proyecto como uno de alta prioridad dentro de la propia empresa. La verdadera finalización del embudo de ventas es cuando el cliente utiliza el producto de manera habitual, lo que puede llevar a una relación de largo plazo.

Keywords

💡Prospecting

Prospecting se refiere al proceso de identificar y encontrar posibles clientes potenciales. Es una etapa crucial en las ventas donde se genera una lista de empresas que podrían necesitar el producto y de las personas específicas en esas empresas que podrían estar interesadas en comprarlo. En el video, se menciona que antes de empezar con el prospecting, es necesario tener una hipótesis de ventas clara que ayude a enfocar en quién se debe contactar.

💡Outreach

El outreach es el acto de contactar a los prospectos para atraer su atención y, usualmente, programar una reunión. Es una parte importante del funnel de ventas donde se busca establecer una conexión inicial con el objetivo de vender. En el script, se enfatiza la importancia de generar demanda entrante y de buscar introducciones cálidas antes de realizar un contacto frío.

💡Qualification

La calificación es el proceso de determinar si un prospecto es un potencial cliente viable, es decir, si tiene el problema que se quiere resolver, el presupuesto y la autoridad de decisión para comprar el producto. En el video, se indica que durante la primera llamada, el objetivo no es vender, sino calificar al prospecto y programar una llamada de seguimiento para una demostración del producto.

💡Demostración del producto

Una demostración del producto es una presentación interactiva que muestra cómo funciona el producto y cómo puede resolver el problema del cliente. Es una oportunidad para convencer al cliente de que el producto es la solución adecuada para sus necesidades. En el script, se sugiere pensar en la demo como un guion de película que cuenta una historia y debe ser personalizada para el prospecto.

💡Precios

La fijación de precios es el proceso de determinar cuánto costará el producto o servicio. No hay una fórmula única para esto y en el video, se sugiere que implica mucho adivinanza al principio y que se debe aprender de las reacciones de los clientes. Se menciona que los fundadores a menudo cometen el error de cobrar demasiado poco o incluso ofrecer el producto de forma gratuita en cambio de comentarios.

💡Cierre

El cierre es el proceso final de la venta donde se consolida la decisión del cliente de comprar el producto. Es más que una conversación; implica una serie de acciones que van desde el momento en que el cliente decide que quiere el producto hasta que realmente lo compra. En el video, se habla de los errores comunes que los fundadores cometen en esta etapa, como la sorpresa al darse cuenta de que un trato que parecía cerrado no lo es.

💡Implementación

La implementación es la fase posterior a la venta donde el cliente comienza a utilizar el producto. Es importante entender que la implementación no es solo responsabilidad del cliente, sino que también compete al vendedor asegurarse de que el producto se integre y se utilice correctamente. En el script, se comparte la experiencia de Optimizely y cómo aprendieron a gestionar la implementación como un proyecto de alta prioridad.

💡Hipótesis de ventas

Una hipótesis de ventas es una suposición o teoría sobre quién tiene un problema determinado y cómo el producto puede ayudar a resolverlo. Es fundamental para el prospecting y ayuda a enfocar el enfoque de las ventas. En el video, se da como ejemplo una hipótesis de ventas para Optimizely que identifica a los marketers en empresas de tecnología, medios y comercio electrónico como el grupo objetivo.

💡Filtro de calificación

El filtro de calificación es un proceso para determinar si una empresa o individuo es un buen candidato para la venta. En el script, se sugiere usar herramientas como 'BuiltWith' para filtrar a las empresas según criterios específicos, como el uso de herramientas analíticas y marcos de JavaScript, que indican una empresa sofisticada y preocupada por su sitio web.

💡Adquisición de clientes

La adquisición de clientes es el proceso de atraer y convencer a nuevos clientes para que compren el producto o servicio. Es un tema central en las ventas y en el video, se discute la importancia de que los fundadores sean capaces de vender su propio producto en las primeras etapas, ya que son los únicos que entienden completamente el producto y su valor.

💡Fórmula de precios

Una fórmula de precios es un método para determinar el costo de un producto o servicio. Aunque en el video se menciona que no hay una fórmula universal, se sugiere que los fundadores pueden hacer preguntas previas para entender el costo del problema para el cliente y usar esa información para justificar el precio de su producto.

💡Contratación

La contratación es el proceso legal y formal por el cual se establece un acuerdo entre el vendedor y el cliente. Incluye revisiones de seguridad, privacidad, aprobaciones legales y firmado por equipos de cumplimiento. En el script, se enfatiza la importancia de anticipar y comprender este proceso para evitar sorpresas y asegurar el éxito de la venta.

Highlights

Pete Kuman, un socio del grupo en YC y ex CTO de Optimizely, comparte su experiencia en ventas empresariales para startups de software.

El proceso de ventas se desglosa en etapas: prospecting, outreach, qualification, pricing, closing e implementation.

Ventas pre-PMF (Product Market Fit) son fundamentalmente empresariales y requieren visión y credibilidad con los clientes.

Los fundadores con antecedentes técnicos pueden ser buenos vendedores debido a su experticia y convicción en el producto.

La venta no es un arte oscuro, sino fundamentalmente ayudar a resolver problemas, lo cual los ingenieros son buenos haciendo.

Prospecting implica encontrar clientes potenciales y crear una hipótesis de ventas que clarifique a quién se debe hablar.

Utilizar herramientas como Builtwith para identificar a los prospectos que podrían necesitar el producto.

El outreach busca agendar una reunión, siendo más eficiente cuando el prospecto se acerca a usted.

Evitar el enfoque de vender a cualquiera que tome la llamada, lo que puede llevar a malos clientes.

La calificación en la primera llamada es crucial para determinar si el prospecto tiene el problema y la autoridad de decisión.

Las demostraciones deben contar una historia que muestre cómo el producto resuelve el problema del cliente, en lugar de ser solo una visita de características.

Personalizar las demostraciones con información del cliente para que visualicen cómo funcionaría el producto en su empresa.

La fijación de precios implica hacer preguntas previas y utilizar la retroalimentación del cliente para ajustar el precio.

Es común que los fundadores subestimen el precio de su producto; una tarifa más alta puede demostrar la seriedad del cliente.

El cierre del trato no es una conversación única; implica un proceso que incluye revisiones de seguridad y legales.

La implementación es crítica; los fundadores deben considerarla su responsabilidad y no dejar que sea solo el trabajo del cliente.

El proceso de ventas termina cuando el cliente utiliza habitualmente el producto, lo que puede resultar en una relación a largo plazo.

Recomendación de la lectura 'Founding Sales' de Peter Kazi para una comprensión más profunda del proceso de ventas.

El mensaje principal es comenzar a vender y aprender a través de los errores, lo que eventualmente se volverá una habilidad valiosa en varias áreas de la empresa.

Transcripts

[Music]

my name is Pete Kuman I'm a group

partner at YC and a YC Alum I was

co-founder and CTO of optimis Le in the

winter 2010 batch in this talk I'm going

to walk step by step through the process

of closing your first Enterprise

customers I'm going to do that by

focusing on successive steps in the

sales funnel prospecting Outreach

qualification pricing closing and

implementation I'll do my best to

include lots of tactical advice and

counterintuitive lessons I picked up

while I was learning how to sell at

optimized Le I'm going to focus on

Enterprise sales for software startups

but this talk should still be broadly

useful to any founder getting started

with sales regardless of the size of

your customers or what you're selling

why am I giving this talk well first I

know there's demand for this sales is

the number one concern during the the

batch for most of the founders that I

work with at YC second I know from

experience that sales is a learnable

skill my co-founder Dan and I both had

technical backgrounds we knew how to

build a product but we didn't know how

to get people to use it we figured it

out through trial and error and that's

the first big lesson I want to impart

today if you're the founder of an early

stage startup and you're building a

product that you're hoping other

businesses will buy you are capable of

selling it that's the good news the bad

news is that you're probably the only

person capable of selling your product

that is if you aren't able to sell your

product yourself at first chances are

you're not going to be able to hire

somebody else to do it for you now if

you're anything like we were you're

probably thinking there are lots of

talented salespeople out there wouldn't

it be faster to hire one of them than

try to do it ourselves after all that's

what you probably do with any other role

like designers or lawyers or accountants

the problem is that sales before you

find product Market fit is very

different from sales after you find

product Market fit sales pre pmf is

fundamentally entrepreneurial it

requires vision and credibility with

customers and lots of experimentation

and a tight feedback loop with the

people building the product this is a

role for Founders so does that mean if

you're a team of technical Founders

building a product you should go find a

business co-founder to do sales well you

probably don't need a business

co-founder to sell either I've worked

with many technical Founders who turned

out to be great at selling in some cases

very much to their surprise so why is

that well if you're a technical founder

building a product you have several

advantages that will give you a big leg

up in selling first you're an expert

both in the problem you're solving and

the product you're building and second

you have conviction you sincerely

believe that your product will solve

your customer's problem expertise and

conviction are surprisingly important in

sales this is especially surprising to

people who mistakenly think that selling

is a dark art full of psychological

tricks sales isn't about tricking people

it's fundamentally about helping people

solve their problems and Engineers are

great at doing that anyway now that I've

hopefully convinced you that you're

capable of selling your product let's

talk about how to do that like I said

we're going to go through the step in a

typical sales funnel together let's

start with prospecting prospecting means

finding potential customers the output

of this step is a list of companies you

think might need your product and the

specific humans at those companies you

think might buy it there are lots of

tools you can use for prospecting but

before you start you need a hypothesis a

sales hypothesis goes something like

this customer X has problem Y and our

product will help them solve it a good

hypothesis makes prospecting Easy by

clarifying who you should be talking to

for example at optimizely our initial

hypothesis was something like this

marketers at small and medium Tech media

and e-commerce companies want to run AB

tests on their websites but they can't

because offthe shelf experimentation

tools require users to write code

optimizely will enable them to run AB

tests without writing code and once you

have a clear hypothesis like that you

can get to work on prospecting start by

identif identifying companies that are

likely to suffer from the problem you're

solving one way to do this is to buy

industry lists of all of the companies

in a given sector and then use some

filtering criteria to qualify those

companies and narrow your target list

for example at optimizely we used a tool

called builtwith to figure out whether

prospects were using analytics tools and

JavaScript Frameworks because those were

signals that a company was relatively

sophisticated and cared about their

website once you have list of companies

you'll need to find the right humans at

those companies and their contact

information there are tools that make

this easier this video was recorded

during the winter 24 batch and many

Founders in the current batch are using

Apollo and Linkedin sales navigator for

that now that you have a list of leads

that is specific humans that are likely

to buy at the companies you're selling

to you'll need to get their attention

this step is called Outreach the goal of

Outreach is usually to schedule a

meeting with your prospect most Founders

think of cold Outreach as the primary

mechanism for doing this but the easiest

way to get a meeting with a prospect is

to get them to reach out to you even if

you're planning on using a sales Le

approach you should still do everything

you can to generate inbound demand

launch early and often create technical

content like videos and blog posts that

prospects can find while searching for a

solution to their problem build

self-served demos that people can share

find online forums where your customers

hang out and establish yourself as an

expert by answering questions there's no

one way to do this but the better you

get at grabbing your customers attention

and getting them to reach out to you the

more efficient your sales process will

be on that note if your customers all

hang out and Industry conferences you

should be there too find a way to get a

list of attendees ahead of time and set

up lots of meetings in advance once

you've identified a specific Prospect

you want to talk to start by trying to

find a warm introduction if you can look

on LinkedIn for shared connections and

ask for an intro sending cold emails is

usually the least efficient way of

getting prospects attention but it can

still be effective if you approach it

the right way start by writing each

email by hand make your email short and

to the point and make the ask clear you

should also make it clear why you're

reaching out to each recipient

specifically humans have built-in spam

filters and if your email looks like it

was sent to thousands of people it's

going to get deleted on this last Point

there's a handy rule of thumb to keep in

mind for cold emails only send emails

that you yourself would be excited to

read if you wouldn't be excited to get

the email you're about to send your

prospect probably won't either before we

move on I want to spend some time

talking about a particular anti pattern

I see with a lot of YC Founders many

Founders start by talking to anyone who

will take their call and the problem

with this approach is that it selects

for the people who are easiest to talk

to not the people who will be be great

customers so if you're not disciplined

about it you'll end up wasting all your

time chasing bad customers that are easy

to talk to I see YC Founders make this

mistake all the time and I get it when

you're starting a company it's hard to

get people to pay attention to you cold

emailing is a demoralizing grind so it's

tempting to go after the people who will

talk to you even if they won't ever buy

your product and the reason this mistake

is so dangerous is because talking to

bad customers gives you the illusion

that you're making progress when you're

not you'll get lotss of great product

feedback from people who think they're

doing you a favor but because you're not

actually talking to someone who needs

your product this kind of feedback is

useless at best and counterproductive at

worst in practice I see Founders make

this mistake in two ways first by trying

to sell enterprise software to startups

now if your product solves a problem

that companies only have when they get

big like for example an HR information

system then trying to sell it to

startups is a waste of time but Founders

still do it all the time because other

startups are much easier to talk to than

busy big company Executives and the

second is trying to go bottom up with a

product that needs to be adopted top

down and that's a little jargony so let

me illustrate it with an example imagine

you're building productivity software

like notion your product can be adopted

bottom up meaning that individual

employees or teams can start using it

independently without having to

coordinate with anyone else inside the

company and in this case talking to

individual contributors or their direct

managers is totally fine but what if

you're building building software for

large hospitals in order for a hospital

to start using your product you're going

to need a lot of different teams to

coordinate with each other so you might

need the CIO to sign off on your

security and compliance and you need

their software team to integrate your

product with their in-house systems you

need the doctors to enter billing codes

at after each appointment and you need

their Ops Team to manage Collections and

so on and so on and in this case talking

to an individual doctor won't be useful

you need to talk to a senior leader like

a CFO or a CIO to do a deal now there's

a meme that YC says you should sell to

companies who will buy quickly even if

they aren't good customers this is a

misconception you should try to find

companies that will buy quickly but you

shouldn't spend time trying to sell to

companies that don't actually need your

product or won't be good customers you

need to find people who have the problem

you're solving and the budget and

decision-making authority to buy your

product we'll spend more time on this

point later let's get back to our sales

funnel so you've managed to get your

prospect on the phone your job on the

first call is not to sell your product

that comes later in the first call we're

just trying to do two things first we're

trying to qualify our Prospect by

figuring out whether they have the

problem we're trying to solve and the

budget and decision-making authority to

buy the product and second we're trying

to schedule a follow-up call for a

product demo now many Founders face

plant in the first call by diving

straight into their pitch these Founders

are making one of the biggest founder

sales mistakes not asking enough

questions and they make this mistake

because they misunderstand how sales

work they think of the company they're

trying to sell to as a big monolithic

entity and they think of the sales

process as adversar

where it's their job to come up with a

perfect pitch that will break down their

targets defenses but outside of some

used car dealerships that's not how

sales works in the real world in the

real world you're almost always selling

to an individual human not a big

monolithic entity and that's good news

because humans are easier to understand

than organizations and that turns out to

be really important in the real world

sales is not adversarial it's about

deeply understanding a customer's

problem and help helping them solve it

and great salespeople spend most of

their time listening because that's the

best way to understand someone's problem

they ask all sorts of questions what

made you decide to take this call tell

me about this problem how long have you

had it how bad is it who else does it

affect how do you quantify the impact

why haven't you solved it already what's

your budget for solving it how does your

organization buy software who makes the

buying decision who else will need to

weigh in on this decision now sometimes

when you ask questions like these you

discover that your prospect doesn't

actually have the problem you're trying

to solve or they have it but they don't

care enough about it to buy a solution

or they don't have any budget or any

number of other reasons that they won't

actually be a good customer for you and

if you do that that's great you just

saved yourself and your prospect a lot

of time and you can focus your energy on

other prospects that are more likely to

buy now if on the other hand it turns

out that your prospect does have a

problem you can solve you're in luck

you've earned the opportunity to show

them how your product works the next

step is a demo most Founders think of a

demo as a chance to finally show off

their product in my experience thinking

about it this way is a Surefire way to

deliver a bad demo that's because your

job in a demo is not to show off your

product it's to convince your audience

that you can help them solve their

problem and one helpful trick I've

learned is to think of your demo as the

script for a great movie a great script

always starts with a recap of who the

main character is that's your user and

the problem she's trying to solve this

is your chance to demonstrate how well

you were listening during your first

call if your audience believes you

understand their company and their

problems they're going to take you

seriously when you talk about how to

solve them when you're ready to show the

product resist the urge to take your

audience on a feature tour where you

walk from screen to screen showing them

everything your product can do instead

tell a story that shows exactly how your

main character solves her problem and

this is the point great demos actually

feel like good stories they have a flow

where each step leads to the next and

every feature you show has a clear

reason for being there they usually have

one or more magic moments where you

surprise your audience with how easy or

delightful something is and great demos

are also personalized for the audience

this is where you get to use all of the

information you collected during that

first call tailor the demo to their

company use their logo their website

their customers uh the names of the

people on their team the more you can do

to help them visualize exactly how your

product would work in their company the

better I'll give you an example from the

early days of optimizely when Dan and I

started building we booked demos with

all of our competitors and every single

one of them used a website to show what

it was like to use their products to run

AB tests and we thought this was really

lame so we spent weeks building a

feature that made it easy to demo our

product right on our customers websites

instead of a dummy website and I knew it

was worth it when I saw marketer eyes

light up when they watched us change

things on their landing page that would

have taken them months to do on their

own so if you do a good job your

prospects and their team will come out

of this meeting convinced that you can

solve their problem and if that's the

case it's time to talk about pricing I

get a lot of questions from Founders

asking how to price their products and

the truth is there isn't a simple

formula for doing this so if there isn't

a formula how do you pick a number well

fortunately you can ask questions

earlier in the process that will make

your job easier here like how much is

this problem costing your company how

many people are responsible for

maintaining your in-house solution

what's your budget for solving this

problem how much are you spending on my

competitor and it's okay to wait to

share your pricing until you've had a

chance to ask these questions in fact if

your product requires lots of work or

customization to implement you probably

shouldn't quote a price until you

understand exactly what your customer

needs in any case even if you asked all

of these questions upfront the reality

is that pricing involves a lot of

guessing in the beginning and the advice

that I give to startups is to think of

each pricing conversation you have as an

opportunity to run an experiment in

which you test a price point and then

learn from your prospect's reaction to

it in the early days of optimizely we

had published self-serve pricing for

customers who just wanted to swipe a

credit card for a basic version of our

product and an Enterprise plan that

required you to go through sales we

didn't publish pricing for the

Enterprise plan which gave us the

flexibility to try a different price

each time the pricing mistake that

Founders make most often is charging too

little for their product or even making

it free in exchange for product feedback

Founders do this because they're worried

about charging too much they think

they're going to scare customers away

one of the most surprising things I

learned was that when a customer really

wants your product it's hard to scare

them away by quoting a price that's too

high for example I remember my

co-founder Dan coming out of a sales

call and telling me that he'd worked up

the nerve to quote the prospect $10,000

a month for our software and the

prospect ended up talking us down to

2,000 a month and then buying our

initial quote was 5x what they were

willing to pay and they still bought in

fact higher prices can help you figure

out whether customers actually need your

product the cison brothers famously

charged more for stripe in the beginning

than their competition did the fact that

they were able to sell their product

anyway was compelling evidence that they

were on to something and it helped them

focus on the customers who were most

desperate for a solution high prices

make customers more serious this brings

me to another important point about

pricing remember that the most important

conversations about pricing will happen

without you in the room your prospect

will need to convince others in the

organization that your product is worth

the price you're asking you can make

their job easier by giving them slides

or a PDF one pager that explains how

your pricing works it's usually a good

idea to include an overview of your

product and the benefits of using it in

case your prospect needs to talk to

people who aren't familiar with it in

any case don't spend too much time

thinking about pricing in the beginning

pick number ideally one that makes you a

little uncomfortable and pay attention

to how your prospect reacts it's okay to

let them negotiate you down remember in

your first few sales you're optimizing

for learning not unit economics now that

you've agreed on a price it's time to

close the deal closing is not a single

conversation it's a bunch of things that

need to happen from the moment your

customer decides they want your product

to the moment they actually buy it big

companies especially ones in highly

regulated Industries have formal

procurement processes that usually

include stuff like security and privacy

reviews legal reviews and signoff from

compliance teams it's less formal in

smaller companies but you should expect

at a minimum to go through a redlining

process with their legal team the

biggest mistake that I see Founders make

at this stage is getting surprised and

discovering that what they thought was a

done deal is in fact not done at all and

may take weeks or months of additional

back and forth or fall through

completely now the way to avoid getting

surprised is once again to ask a lot of

questions asking your prospect upfront

how they buy software and who needs to

sign off will give you a clear picture

of the hurdles you're going to have to

overcome in order to get a signature you

should do everything you can at this

stage to move through the procurement

process quickly ask explicitly if there

are steps like filling out a security

questionnaire that you can get started

on early and execute in parallel and

keep your legal documents as simple as

possible I recommend starting with the

open- source templates published by YC

company common paper keep timelines and

scope of work out of the legal contract

if you can and put them in an order form

or a shared project tracking document

instead and most importantly remember

that your prospect who at this point has

become your Champion is your biggest

Ally you should be in constant

communication with them and when you

need help getting something unstuck you

should ask them first remember they

can't solve their problem until you get

through procurement so they're heavily

incentivized to help you make it happen

now that you have a signature

congratulations it's time for your

customer to actually start using your

product this is the implementation and

it's the last step we're going to talk

about today and I'm going to lead with

this the single biggest mistake that

Founders make is thinking that

implementation is the customer's job we

made this mistake more than once at

optimizely in fact we closed six figure

deals with customers that were excited

about product and then we discovered a

year later when it was time for them to

renew that they hadn't run a single AB

test with optimizely and this was

confusing at first why would a customer

who is willing to pay so much for a

product fail to use it at all in this

case the approximate cause is that the

marketing team who bought our software

couldn't convince the software

engineering team to help them install it

on their website the real cause though

is we didn't do our jobs we thought our

customer was buying a product so we sold

them one and left the rest up to them in

reality our customers were buying a

solution to a problem and all of the

work required to get from product to

solution was our responsibility we

learned to start asking marketing

leaders about the work required to

implement optimizely very early in the

sales process we started building

detailed implementation plans with

marketing and Engineering leaders well

before a contract got signed and in fact

if we weren't able to do that we

wouldn't sign a contract at all and the

trick we learned was to treat the

customer implementation the same way

that we would a high priority project

inside of our own company by project

managing it so we put together a shared

road map we made sure that every task

cuted owner we set up regular check-in

meetings to hold everyone on our side

and theirs accountable for getting it

done your sales funnel only really ends

when your customer is using your product

habitually and when you get to that

point congratulations hopefully you have

a customer for life all right we've

covered a lot today from prospecting to

doing your first call delivering a great

demo pricing closing and finally

managing the implementation of course

there's so much more to learn about

sales and the best Founders devour

everything they can on the topic if you

want to go deeper I recommend Peter

kazi's book founding sales it's a

fantastic resource and it's free online

but like most most of the hard things

about building a company the best way to

learn is by going out and doing the

thing so if you only remember one thing

it should be this just get started

you'll make mistakes but with enough

attempts you'll figure it out and

selling will start to feel natural

pretty soon you'll discover that you've

acquired a new superpower you'll find

it's useful not only in getting

customers and revenue but in fundraising

and hiring too and soon enough you'll be

the one giving advice like this to new

Founders thanks for watching

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