We've just entered into the B2B world and it's been every bit the eye opening experience you've described. Neither of us counted on how long it would take to close deals. We've figured out a few of these things along the way (trying to make sure we have an advocate and a buyer) but there's a lot of other good advice in this article that we'd never considered.
It can be very hard to read what a company might be thinking/discussing internally about your product. We actually do a bit of free work up front to show people what we can do and even then it can be quite hard to get useful feedback. Oftentimes we've come to the conclusion that they're just not interested only to find that on the next phone call they're ready to start paying.
Having come from a consumer world it's quite demoralising starting off in B2B. You often feel like you're never going to get anywhere but with enough persistence we're managing to make things happen.
Comments like yours (and articles like this) are very good for lifting the spirits :)
We've just entered into the B2B world and it's been every bit the eye opening experience you've described. Neither of us counted on how long it would take to close deals. We've figured out a few of these things along the way (trying to make sure we have an advocate and a buyer) but there's a lot of other good advice in this article that we'd never considered.
It can be very hard to read what a company might be thinking/discussing internally about your product. We actually do a bit of free work up front to show people what we can do and even then it can be quite hard to get useful feedback. Oftentimes we've come to the conclusion that they're just not interested only to find that on the next phone call they're ready to start paying.
Having come from a consumer world it's quite demoralising starting off in B2B. You often feel like you're never going to get anywhere but with enough persistence we're managing to make things happen.
Comments like yours (and articles like this) are very good for lifting the spirits :)