
Selling Your Software To Businesses - TwilioCon 2012 presentation - stakent
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2013/05/23/selling-your-software-to-businesses-twiliocon-2012-presentation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=selling-your-software-to-businesses-twiliocon-2012-presentation
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gscott
The video was very good here is what I wrote down from it:

\- Pricing page with 4 plans. Try to price each plan to a different customer
in your targeted market what it is worth to them, not what it costs you.

\- Annual billing: Ask via a 1 time special email after the person has started
using it and likes it

\- Have live chat to make more sales

\- Email more during the trial period at least 6-8 times in the first month

\- Offer a free month "course" via email, on the 4th email or so start working
in how your product solves the pain/problem.

\- Send a "rescue" email if the person seems like they have become busy and
might fall away

\- Some bigger organizations will want a sla & support agreement even if it is
just you already working on the system fixing things anyway.

\- Offer a Service Level Agreement if someone asks for it, charge more ask for
a 1 yr commitment

\- Offer a support / maintenance contract, ask for a 1yr commitment on the
regular fee to lock customer in.

\- Offer industry options, HIPPA, etc charge more

\- Practice saying "I can do that with a 1yr commitment" when customer ask for
something special

\- Highly consider getting errors and omissions insurance

\- Don't negotiate sales based upon your cost. Don't even mention your cost it
is not relevant. What matters is how much the customer will 'save' or 'make'
with your product.

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kaa2102
I think the presentation does an amazing job informing entrepreneurs how to
sell to companies once they're in your sales pipeline. How do you get their
attention in the first place? I asked Bill Campbell and Ben Horowitz this
question at an entrepreneurship forum and they responded press and business
connections. I imagine that SEO, search marketing, conferences, trade shows,
print ads, and viral marketing could be helpful. Has anyone had success using
other marketing methods to sell to large companies?

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drewda
Here are assorted ideas from Gabriel Weinberg (of the DuckDuckGo search
engine): [http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/04/in-the-
pursuit-o...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/04/in-the-pursuit-of-
traction-have-you-considered-all-verticals.html)

~~~
kaa2102
Wow! Thank you!

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charleshaanel
Patio11 is kinda cute in a geeky kind of way (woman in the closet about her
predilection towards nerdy types...excuse the lack of PCness Patrick)....

Anyhoo, on a different note, the material on hybrid sales was most
interesting.

I believe it was David (Skok) who mentioned how much adding just one
additional touch balloons customer acquisition costs considerably.

[http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/business-models/the-
touchles...](http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/business-models/the-touchless-
conversion/)

IMHO, an unaccounted touch in the sales process is probably one of the hidden
costs that harms new businesses the most. The fact is, many business owners
just don't track these steps in their workflow or sales process (failing to
understand that when they want to scale, they'll need to add more staff and HR
costs considerably)

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tocomment
Are there any twilio based businesses left to start? It always struck me a
cool technology.

Perhaps a service to automatically call customers when something is cancelled
due to weather, etc?

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orangethirty
You can copy an existing business (that works), and apply it to a different
industry.

~~~
Cass
Or copy an existing business and apply it to the same industry in a different
country. No reason, say, Appointment Reminder wouldn't work just as well in
Germany.

~~~
MDS100
Hey, you are a MD student from Germany as well + interested in
Programming/SAAS? Any way to contact you?

~~~
Cass
Finished studying as of November last year, actually. And sure, send me an
email, cassandrexx on gmail.

