

Ask HN: How are you getting in front of decision makers? - davismwfl

For your startup or product, I am curious how you get in front of decision makers the most regularly.  We all have to sell to someone so how are you getting in front of people to start that cycle?  Personal referrals? Sales calls?  Conferences?  Meetups?  Obviously this really apply's when it comes to enterprise and small business selling, which is my primary target, but also how are you getting the word to consumers about what you can offer them?<p>I would think this is where an incubator, Angle or VC could really help open some doors.  What if you are bootstrapped, how are you doing it or what are some of your ideas?<p>Interested to hear from anyone, just looking for more ideas to help make stuff happen.
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sjtgraham
Persistence. Last month I finally got in contact with the owner of a very
short domain name that I'm trying to acquire. Unfortunately he also happens to
be hedge fund billionaire and thus very difficult to reach. After being
blocked by his P.A. via email and when I flew from London to NYC, socially
engineered my way past security and into his office, I finally got in contact
with him, i.e. actual two-way dialogue, by brute forcing his email address.
It's a ridiculous story that I'll write a blog post about but not now, I don't
want to scupper my chances of getting the domain name.

As Woody Allen said, 90% of life is just showing up.

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livestyle
Followup.cc and rapportive are your best friends...use them.

I have closed three large deals in the past month with the help of these two
tools alone.

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silverlake
I've been frustrated by this problem also. For enterprise sales you really
need an experienced salesman with a large Rolodex of contacts in your niche.

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davismwfl
Yea, and that is almost what I am thinking. I am going to need to network and
find a contact that has done sales within the space. This way they have more
of those personal contacts. Seems like persistence will be key here.

