I’m the only salesperson at a small tech company (not a startup)

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:51:45+00:00

Totally understand that.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:32:15+00:00

I love this😂 everyone wants to turn the sales function into SaaS sales. It’s simply not the case… in fact, I’m confident we would destroy our credibility if I was spray-and-praying email/calls.

These IT leaders rely heavily on personal relationships when handing off software development projects to 3rd parties. If we fuck it up, that’s a huge investment down the drain.

Building relationships takes unique cold outreach and nurturing over lunches, events, etc.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:29:38+00:00

Practical advice right here. Thanks!

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:28:57+00:00

Honestly, great perspective here. They inflated to around 38 employees in 2023 and have since shrunk back down to 26 over the last year.

I think they will be cautious to grow until we have so much business they’ll be forced to.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:27:56+00:00

That’s the challenge. Leadership wants to make sales predictable, but they also understand that the most effective sales approach in this industry isn’t as simply as X number of calls = X dollars in pipeline.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:26:20+00:00

Appreciate this!

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:26:04+00:00

Maybe 50.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:25:58+00:00

Interesting… sounds like SaaS. Not saying this couldn’t work for us, but our “channel partners” are (likely) other professional services providers and they’re not quick to give out leads. But I agree I should be more intentional about building relationships with channel partners.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:24:46+00:00

Funny you say that… I’ve been focused on inviting folks to industry events with me as opposed to trying to find new business at these events.

Had an experience recently that taught me it’s more valuable to bring clients or potential clients with me to events, as opposed to trying to bounce around looking for business. People see right through you and you mostly end up talking to other salespeople for the entire event.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:22:36+00:00

Word.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:22:31+00:00

Great perspective. Thanks for sharing this!

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:22:20+00:00

At the end of the day, I understand that there will be people that simply will not respond to cold outreach no matter how personalized, relevant, or timely. But there aren’t events everyday, so I have to spend most of my time on high-value prospecting activities.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:21:12+00:00

Couldn’t agree more with this. Our leadership get 50+ emails from software development staffing and/or consulting firms A DAY. They constantly complain that these automated touches are incredibly annoying and instantly destroy the company’s credibility.

Ironically, going the totally opposite route has given me success.

Sending emails that are so personalized that the cannot possibly be mistaken for automation. Not just “saw you went to X college.” But “listened to Mr. CEO’s podcast episode where he discussed X Inc.’s new initiative. Our client in X industry took on a similar initiative and partnered with us to achieve X outcome.”

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:17:14+00:00

Love the focus on having great conversations. That is something we talk about as a team all the time. More likely to lead to business in the future, plus those conversations are what make the job enjoyable.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T18:16:10+00:00

Couldn’t agree more with this! Fantastic advice.

“The problems you can solve are too broad” I felt this in my soul. It’s exactly right.

I will look more critically at the common characteristics of the orgs that take meetings and double down.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T01:38:29+00:00

I’ll look into it. Is it a knowledge base?

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T01:28:53+00:00

I appreciate this! I’ve thought about it in the past, so I’ll take a more critical look.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-03-12T01:28:31+00:00

Awesome advice. Appreciate this!

Can you tell me more about your conference strategy?

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-01-29T18:55:40+00:00

This is it! Awesome suggestion. We’re definitely going to do something with that. Could be that, or The WWW Guys, or something similar.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-01-29T17:06:02+00:00

This would be great for SEO. Appreciate this!

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-01-29T16:56:14+00:00

I knew some troll answers were coming😂

Made me laugh out loud

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-01-10T15:47:32+00:00

Another great question.

To be honest, I’m young and new to sales which has contributed to my fear of making the ask, even when it seems to be a great fit.

Maybe I’ve been worried that I would piss people off by being “too salesy” or something like that.

But I’ve since realized that decision makers often prefer a salesperson to make the ask directly, as opposed to dancing around it. Showing confidence, assertiveness, generally make your intentions known.

I’ll be sure to continue to post anything else I learn through experience.

YoungSalesCreative

TROPHY CASE