Chris Savage provides advice for bootstrapping sales at a startup. He recommends talking to potential customers to build real relationships, finding the right audience segment to target, and testing different pricing strategies. Savage also stresses the importance of focusing marketing efforts and targeting customers that will benefit most from the startup's products or services.
Introduction. Who am I. What we’re talking about. Presentation on slideshare. Contact me on twitter. 1st year of WISTIA. No idea how to sell, what the product is, who we should sell to, how much the product should cost.
This is where we get to.
How big we are now. How old we are as a business. What makes us unique or different.
We knew we wanted to start a company and saved money. Crammed into a 10 person house and got to work. When I coffee pot broke, you better believe we were going to jury rig that mofo.
Automated.
Understood the high level problem. Knew we wanted to play in a particular space. YouTube ancedote.
Don’t wait to launch… I would add to that mantra. LEMONADE PIC.
Don’t wait until your website is finished. Don’t wait to sell. The line between feedback/selling.
We didn’t start selling, we started talking to people. Trying to validate our idea.
GI Dynamics
GID made introductions. Not transactional.
We took the advice, fake it till you make it.
Drive the direction of the product, believe in the people.BEN’s PICTURE AND SONUS LOGO.
Even with a mature product, you’re never going to close 100% of deals. People don’t have budget, they’re too busy, it’s not the right time. That’s why you have to focus. SO the feedback you get means something. STARCRAFT IMAGE.
Segment your audiences. In our case we looked at life sciences, high tech, and marketing. We felt comfortable with the segment. FIX IMAGE.
Buying style was wrong.Pivot from Big to Small. Choose the game you’re going to compete in. Buying process mismatch. 6 month sales cycle. DON’T WRESTLE OUTSIDE YOUR WEIGHT CLASS.
No body gave a shit about tracking how an individual person watched a video. They were all catering to media companies. There was a growing segment that did care.
Intro to why pricing is important. PRICE IS RIGHT with really bad guess.
Changed our pricing 35 times in 4 years. Wildly changed the price.
It’s all about stepping up to the plate. PICTURE OF BASEBALL DIAMOND FROM PERSPECTIVE OF HITTER.