
Ask HN: Why you've got no sales. A Mindmap exercise - this-ali
I work with a lot of salespeople at Intandemly, and I thought of doing this exercise of why leads don&#x27;t convert.<p>Am I missing anything from this flow? would love to hear from you<p>Why you&#x27;ve got no sales:<p>1. The need doesn&#x27;t exist<p>2. The need exists, but you&#x27;re not targeting right<p>3. The need exists, you&#x27;ve got the right target, BUT it&#x27;s not as useful to them as you think it is<p>4. The need exists, you&#x27;ve got the right target, it&#x27;s useful, BUT your solution is not effective<p>5. The need exists, you&#x27;ve got the right target, it&#x27;s useful and effective, BUT the market is not big enough.<p>6. The need exists, you&#x27;ve got the right target, it&#x27;s useful and effective, it&#x27;s a huge market, BUT it&#x27;s your pitch is not effective.<p>7. The need exists, you&#x27;ve got the right target, it&#x27;s useful and effective, it&#x27;s a huge market, you pitch it right, BUT the timing if off.<p>Inspired by Leslie Feinzaig&#x27;s tweet on why VC don&#x27;t invest
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codegeek
I have been selling for 6+ years for our SAAS and learned a few important
parameters to keep in mind, in no particular order:

 __Need, Urgency /Timeline, Budget/Affordability, Intent, Trust, Decision
Making __

Need: If there is no need, it is very unlikely that you will sell it unless
you are talking about shiny B2C stuff that are entertaining and people buy
just for the heck of it.

Urgency/Timeline: A lot of times we forget to understand/ask how urgent this
need is. We get plenty of people who show a need but then tell us that they
are probably 6+ months out and just "researching" at the moment. Nothing wrong
with that but they are not what we call "Sales Qualified Lead" or SQL. They
are more like "Marketing Qualified Lead" or MQL

Budget: This one is easy even though very important to know. Can they afford
your product/service ?

Intent: This one is interesting for me at least. Just because there is a need,
there may not be intent. I talk to lot of prospects who clearly have a need
since their current system is shitty, costing them time/money etc but they are
too afraid to change. They are willing to let it slide. The intent is not
quite there. Perhaps the pain is not big enough and they procrastinate. I have
clients who took a year to change their "intent" when shit hit the fan.

Trust: Unless you are selling sub $10/Month stuff, you need to be able to
build trust otherwise they won't buy. I have had a few prospects who told me
flat out that they are not sure if they can trust us enough, especially in our
early days even though our product/service looked solid. It depends on the
person. Some people take longer to build that trust and need a lot of social
proof etc. Don't ignore this factor.

Decision Making: A lot of sales don't happen because the actual decision maker
is not involved. When we talk to a prospect especially in our domain (B2B), we
ask them clearly if they are the decision maker or will there be someone
else/a team involved to decide finally. I had a client once who signed a
contract and then told us his boss was not in agreement and we had to move on.
That is when I learned that we need to know who the decision maker is :).

Most sales don't happen because of either 1 or a combination of these factors.

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quickthrower2
I am not a salesperson, so take this with a pinch of salt but I would imagine:

The need exists, you've got the right target, it's useful and effective, it's
a huge market, you pitch it right, the timing is perfect BUT not all the
decision makers are on board. E.g. manager wants to buy it, compliance is not
keen.

The need exists, you've got the right target, it's useful, BUT this isn't a
pressing enough problem. They have bigger problems, and those problems are
worth spending their precious hours going through a procurement and evaluation
process. So even if your product is free they won't use it. They wont even
bother to decide if it is suitable. E.g. do you want to meet me to evaluate my
free "tennis ball fetcher from your neighbours garden".

The need exists, you've got the right target, it's useful, BUT they are not
used to paying for such a solution. An example might be a JS framework, like a
React competitor.

I think the last 2 are problems for a MVP level thing where you are trying to
work out if there is a market, rather than an established sales force.

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PaulHoule
That flow looks like it goes in one direction; is that really how it is?

~~~
this-ali
Yea. It is going in one direction.

I have been working a lot on this, i lost my perspective. I wanted to write a
systematic mindmap, which helps salespeople find where the issue is.

I wanted an outside perspective

~~~
PaulHoule
There is "sales" and "business development"; these overlap but they are
different.

In "sales" you have a playbook that at least seems to work. The reason I say
"seems" is that the real metric that matters is lifetime customer value -- you
could be making a lot of sales but not a lot of profit in the long term, not
have a clear understanding of what is happening, and then find yourself in a
great deal of pain later.

"Sales" is an optimization problem of taking something that works and making
it better.

"Business Development" is entirely different. If you succeed at that you write
the playbook, get big commissions, buy some nice suits and a nice car, get a
"VP of Sales" position. A lot of people don't succeed at it.

~~~
this-ali
I have been struggling to differentiate "Sales" and "Business development". I
always assumed they both to be same

> you could be making a lot of sales but not a lot of profit in the long term

This line made the difference very clear for me.

Right now I find Sales development much cooler than sales. I can actually feel
the weight people with this title carry.

I think I can modify this Mindmap with the new insights that you've provided
here. Thanks Paul

