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Funny, it doesn’t sound like that when I attend a sales planning session or a review…the buzzwords popping up in those meetings read like : lead generation, growth hacking, warm and cold calling, C-level introductions, product positioning, etc...
Out of curiosity, keeping the title quote in mind, I consulted Google and searched for “TOP 5 technology purchase criteria”. The first title that didn’t try to sell me a fantastic procurement tool or any equally amazing procurement consulting services, but looked like an answer to my question was this :
5 Steps for Choosing a Technology Vendor
list problems to solve according to priority
review vendors
evaluate providers based on how well they solve problems
negotiate with your top picks
decide based on value and vision
It is not a huge surprise that we don’t find: “Call the sales representative sending you most introductory emails". Nor does it say: “Reach out to your management team’s golf partners.” Or anything of that sort...It doesn’t say anything at all about a sales representative and his or her persistent effort to draw your attention to his/her product or service.
Does this mean that sales is just an overhead and not a need? Not at all, of course!
Does it put the importance of sales in perspective? Yes, it does, obviously!
Let me end with a single advice to every start-up:
start your sales journey as you start developing your idea and don’t wait until the product is finished.
Persuading your prospects of your value and vision will probably take more time than the development of your product.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Eimear Oconnor COO at Form3 Financial Cloud
07 November
Kyrylo Reitor Chief Marketing Officer at International Fintech Business
06 November
Konstantin Rabin Head of Marketing at Kontomatik
Alexander Boehm Chief Executive Officer at PayRate42
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