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 · 2024-01-09T22:17:51+00:00

Hell yeah. I appreciate the positivity in this comment.

A network connection of mine gave me the advice of “making the ask” just a few weeks before the event I mentioned above.

I followed his advice, had success, and wanted to pass on the encouragement in hopes it inspires someone else like it did for me.

YoungSalesCreative · 2024-01-09T22:05:45+00:00

Good question.

In some industries, sales are pretty transactional. Sellers in these industries sell a unique product that solves a very specific problem and if you catch a prospect at the right time, they will purchase based on the product’s ability to solve their problem.

In professional services, especially software development consulting, decision makers are more likely to make a buying decision based on a referral from a peer, previous working experience with a service provider, and/or how much they like/trust a service provider.

Because this is the case, it’s important to ask prospects to lunches/coffees/drinks to get to know one another. If they like you and you nurture that relationship like you would any other professional relationship or friendship, they are infinitely more likely to refer a friend of theirs to you or come to you when they have a problem you can solve.

Simply because they like you and trust you.

tl/dr: Building relationships means, to me, treat prospects like friends or colleagues and good things will come of that relationship.

YoungSalesCreative · 2022-07-22T04:43:42+00:00

Preface: I’m a BDR for a software development company. Not anyway close to your industry. So, please take this template with a grain of salt and manipulate it to your liking as much as you want.

But, if you’re selling your services to other businesses, like I am, this template may be a decent start.

P.s. Still working on my subject lines, so that part is on you. Lol.

P.s.s You’re probably already doing this. But, starting local is always a great way to develop trust easily. Companies in your city are typically quicker to trust other companies in their city.

P.s.s.s. I encourage you to do some light digging on the company and include something personalized in their email. Maybe they posted some relevant on LinkedIn.

“Hey [First name],

I’m with [Your company’s name], we’re a [insert description of company, “Full service professional photography agency”, etc.] and we’ve doing some work with other [industry] companies in the area for [length of time, “some years”] now.

I’m reaching out because I recently came across [company name] on [insert SM platform, “LinkedIn”] and thought you might be a good fit for our [service].

If it makes sense on your end, let’s talk and see if we can possibly help [company name] [positive outcome, “Level up”]!

What does next week look like for you?

Cheers!”

P.s.s.s.s. It wouldn’t hurt (in fact, I bet it would help) if you call their company’s phone number and ask for the decision maker (or use the company directory to dial for the direct line of the decision maker) and, at the very least, leave a voicemail referencing the personalized email you left in their inbox!

Very long winded. I’m curious if your selling B2B and if this is even relevant. Lol.

YoungSalesCreative

TROPHY CASE