

Ask HN: How do you pitch your B2B product, when no one knows you? - tsenkov

It would be awesome, if you share actual stories.<p>Cheers!
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codegeek
"When no one knows you"

I run a small B2B product. The biggest lesson I have learned that most clients
do not care who you are as long as you can show them a good product that meets
_their_ requirement. Yes, there are a few who care about who _you_ are but
those have never turned out to be good clients in my specific experience.

So don't focus on the "who you are" part that much. You are who you are. You
cannot suddenly become Steve Jobs. Think about it this way. You know Steve
Jobs or Wozniak or zukerberg not because of who they are personally but
because of the great products they built and shipped.

Focus on making a great product. Focus on talking to those B2B users and
convicing them that the product they need is what you are selling. Also, focus
on doing this at a very personalized level. Get on the phone, go see them in
person. Yes this sounds not very scalable but this is what you need to do in
the beginning.

~~~
NameNickHN
I totally agree. I run a Saas from my home office and have some large
customers (as in multinational corporations). They completely focused on
features and service. There were questions about myself and my company but in
the end it was the product that impressed[1] them.

[1] Their words.

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ahuja_s
I am 25 years old and the youngest in my team at www.ideatory.co which is a
completely sales driven company selling a B2B SaaS product. I am also the CEO
and head of sales and our clients include some of the largest banks and tech
consulting companies in the world.

Sale to a large Asian bank: Met an influential person at the bank who thought
I am smart and sincere. He pitched to 5 departments at the bank on my behalf
that got me meetings. I reinforced mine and my team's credibility at the
meetings and committed to delivering. (revenue over $200k from this client)

Sale to a large US Bank (we're based in Singapore): Contacted via cold email
stating our exact value and past client work. Ended up being the right guy who
sold us to 5 departments internally. One worked out immediately. Took 6 months
to complete legal procedures but the sale happened without ever meeting face
to face. We said the right things which showed we understood their problems
exactly, had solutions and credibility.

Conclusion: You need to present yourself in the most credible way possible,
show that you and your team are resourceful and are committed to delivering no
matter what. Then most importantly, you need to find a "hero" within the
organization who sells you internally. Stick with this hero.

~~~
tsenkov
Thank you very much for responding. And thanks for sharing these awesome
cases.

If you are willing to share - how did you get your first 3 B2B customers?

~~~
ahuja_s
The first one was the Asian bank I wrote about. I made an influential friend
and that helped.

After doing some good work with them, I was able to ask for referrals to some
other people. I showed them the case study of the work we did and that worked.
Referrals are key in the beginning :)

~~~
tsenkov
Awesome! Thank you!

------
HenryTheHorse
I am in the B2B space. We have mostly large/F500 customers and all my
suggestions below come directly from my experience from the field.

The B2B sales journey ain't for the faint of heart (6-9 month sales cycles are
all too common) but it is a journey that has recognizable steps and
milestones. You may not see the steps now, but they are distinct and you will
learn to read them. Be patient and persist.

#1. No one may know you today, but you surely know someone who knows someone.
In other words, hit your LinkedIn. Pitch to anyone who will listen and listen
to objections, questions, comments and feedback. You have to cast the widest
net at first.

#2. Talk to system integrators and IT consultants. They are easier to approach
than, say, a CIO at a F500 company. Not only do consultants know the problems
intimately, they can also recommend your product to a Director of IT.

#3. Attend industry trade shows, if you can afford it. It's a great way to
meet customers and pitch your ideas over drinks or lunch.

#4. Ask former colleagues, friends (or even family) for referrals to corporate
managers. When I started out, we pitched at every level (manager, director,
even analyst - sometimes, you will be surprised at how much influence a humble
analyst wields at a large company.)

#5. Obviously, a website, a LinkedIn and a Twitter account are standard tools
of business.

#6. Learn to speak the language of TCO and ROI. If you are unfamiliar with
those acronyms, you have some exciting reading for tonight!

#7. Who are your competitors' reference customers? Read up on them and their
case studies. Now build a target list of your prospects. E.g.: Walmart bought
a software from a competition. Therefore, you should have Target on your
prospect list.

I could go on and on. But let me know if you need any specific advice. I'm
happy to help.

~~~
tsenkov
Thanks so much. For all of this!

You said 6-9 months is a standard time-frame for a corporate sale at F500
level. Shouldn't a new business therefore start with companies that are still
smaller and faster at approving expenses?

I am mostly interested in learning how to do #2. I found this which seems to
be much on that topic:
[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141015215831-48424446-the-b...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141015215831-48424446-the-
best-startup-cold-email-i-ve-ever-received-and-how-it-could-be-even-better)
Whatever else you can think of adding on this, it would be very beneficial to
the topic (and me personally). How do I get a conversation going? Do you start
by giving a general idea about your service? Or maybe you study very
thoroughly the company and make an educated guess on the amount of money you
will save/make them?

Maybe #7 is a common knowledge to many people, but I find it absolutely
brilliant.

Thanks again!

~~~
HenryTheHorse
> Shouldn't a new business therefore start with companies that are still
> smaller and faster at approving expenses?

Yes, that's a valid approach. But only you know what the right market for your
product is, however (aka "Product-Market Fit".) Not everything can be sold to
every company. Plus you will also realize that your product changes depending
on the size of the company.

> How do I get a conversation going? Do you start by giving a general idea
> about your service?

That's a very broad topic. You may want to start following B2B sales and B2B
Marketing blogs to get some best practices for these things. There is
absolutely an art and science to these things and it can be learned.

~~~
tsenkov
Thank you.

~~~
HenryTheHorse
Welcome, and good luck!

------
andersthue
Referal is the key to my B2B success, I have closed a top 5 insurance company,
a top 3 grocery wholesale company and a 5k+ engineering company all by
referals from friends and people I am doing business with.

I learned everything about referal from Steli Efti here
[http://blog.close.io/how-to-do-referral-sales](http://blog.close.io/how-to-
do-referral-sales)

------
pranavpiyush
I'm going to focus on the "no one knows you" bit since I don't know anything
about the industry/vertical you're in.

Step 1 -- The first thing to do is to build some social proof. I hope you
already have a few customers. Request them to be references for your product
and feature them and their feedback on your front page

Step 2 -- Ask your customers about who else in their network they think could
benefit from such a product and reach out to them.

Step 3 -- As you sign on more customers, repeat Step 1 + 2

Step 4 -- Figure out if there is a pattern in your customers and try to truly
understand the market they exist in.

Step 5 -- Once you understand the market, try to figure out which channels
through which you can best reach that market (e.g. google ads, billboards, tv
ads, partners, etc.). Of course, word of mouth is the best bet, but there are
often other really lucrative channels too.

Iterate. This is just the beginning!

