First, the old news…
Traditional prospecting is hard and getting a lot harder. Best to recognize this, quit whining and figure it out. Prospecting needs to be different.
And the new news?
Product-Led Growth has proven out. It’s going to be really hard to sell against your competitors who have built their products to fit this GTM. The sales process needs an adjustment as this trend continues to expand and become the defacto standard for software.
And {gulp} the scary unknown?
The Cloud Marketplaces are like a black hole, sucking in all deals. But then again, there’s got to be a way to take advantage of them, right? You know, maybe get in front of it and use it somehow, like most things that the majority of people don’t get yet…?
If you are going to get ahead of the game as a seller in this changing world, it’s important to recognize the alignment of the topics above and what that means for the near future.
Prospecting isn’t working in 2023. Heck, 2022 and 2021 weren’t great either, but man, 2023 is a real bitch. Buyers are inundated and non-responsive to the overwhelming deluge of sales engagement efforts coming at them from all directions. Meanwhile, a sense of nirvana is developing out there in the customer world as product-led growth expands and becomes the defacto standard for GTM. In reference to the old news, new news and unknown, this scenario presents itself: customers shun the traditional prospecting efforts; instead, they do their own research, choose a few SaaS options to try out, then buy the winner in their cloud marketplace of choice. Oh, the glory of it! No salespeople to put up with!
Well I’m here to tell you that sellers are still necessary and will always be necessary. And while the perception of salespeople seems to be more positive in recent decades, there will always be an underlying distrust of salespeople. It’s just human nature to put up a wall when someone is trying to convince you to do something that you don’t know if you want yet. A PLG GTM offers a smoother engagement opportunity, removing some of the initial discomfort and enabling sales people to glide in alongside the buying process versus using an explosive device to blow a door open. And considering that difference, it’s best to embrace a shift in selling that better aligns with the new dynamic.
For as long as I can remember, the old adage, “Nothing happens until someone sells something” meant that until a salesperson engages and stirs up a deal, you’ve got nothing. I believe the saying still holds true, in the sense that unless you close a deal, you really have nothing…no revenue on the books means you have no business. Until AI is handling negotiations–a scary, but real possibility, sales people will be necessary. You can have the coolest software in the world but if no one buys it, who cares?
But now that sellers can smoothly engage with prospective customers after a free trial and offer “help” and “guidance”, there’s still that pesky problem of getting access to the right people to get a decision made. When you’re setting up metaphorical explosives all over the virtual campus and blowing doors open, you are also finding all the right people and making connections. You’re collecting names and stories and vibes, and getting the lay-of-the-land. With PLG SaaS solutions, especially in geographical sales territories versus named or strategic accounts, the sales process starts later and the seller finds themself in a bottom-up approach by default.
Historically, the top-down approach has been most effective. Alluding to the above, part of the benefit of the top-down approach is that it gives you the opportunity to reach out to executives and decision-makers first. In that approach, there are no internal obstacles within the customer environment–like politics, personality conflicts, relationship issues– that might limit your ability to engage with executives, including the often elusive Economic Buyer, if you are able to identify them that early.
The direct approach is actually somewhat manageable here if you are a sophisticated seller with the wherewithal and the time to customize your approach. For example, a highly customized sequence based on researching specific executives, understanding their interests, and figuring out how to get their attention. But the huge variety of tools, and ironically, the efficacy of these tools and platforms in providing so much information have also formed a formidable morass of noise that affects prospecting access at every level.
In contrast, combining the bottom-up approach that’s naturally associated with PLG and the ever increasing challenges of traditional prospecting, it’s clear that it will continue to get harder to engage with customers effectively.
What to do? Partner up! Leverage the ecosystem. It’s the obvious answer and it makes all the sense in the world to collaborate with a seller that’s already in there, especially if they’ve sold something. Even better if they sold something to your buyer! A partner who is already in knows more about the account you do. That’s enough all by itself. But if it’s their customer, they have some kind of clue, if not critical information about how and why the customer buys and they have already established some level of trust.
Regardless of what you are selling, there is likely to be a partner engaged in your account, whether it’s an ISV, a channel partner, systems integrator, managed services provider, or “other.” It would be very much in your best interest to get connected with key partners, or any and all parties that are relevant, for that matter. If you are the type of seller who is not sophisticated enough to partner well, you better figure it out. This new primary approach to prospecting is going to weed out salespeople who don’t get it or aren’t willing to try.
So hopefully we all agree that partnering is important. But who would the best partner be? What partner is likely–likely!–to have executive relationships, a broad perspective on infrastructure solutions, and has a very high likelihood of benefitting if the customer buys?
The cloud providers. AWS, Microsoft and Google.
Well then, wouldn’t it be great if you could somehow get the attention of these companies, the most influential tech companies in the world, and leverage what they know about these accounts? That’s a hell of an idea, but…how would that work and why would they care? How do I reach them and what do I say? I’m generally aware of what they care about: growing the customer’s footprint in their cloud (basically, infrastructure and storage.) But I don’t know how my solution really impacts that. And they are all so huge, why would they even care?
There are some very good reasons that they may care and understanding them will help you get their attention. It’s certainly not a given that you will, but knowing what they care about and how to connect with them will give you a chance. One thing they care about is their cloud marketplace. So you need to understand and figure out how to work with each cloud marketplace. It’s not only worth a shot. It’s The Shot.
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