Frank Slootman (CEO @ Data Domain, ServiceNow, and Snowflake) wrote this in his book Amp It Up.
I couldn't agree more...
sahil
Is your sales team struggling to hit quota? It's probably the product's fault...
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This is why joining series A is so risky. Founders think they have a great idea yet very few have validated said idea with prospective customers.
This is also why we get snarky about marketing. They come up with catchy campaigns that don't actually address the market, and expect it to be enough to sell the solution.
and all the customers are just their friends at other tech companies lol
man I have seen this a couple of times in my career already.
company builds a product, then makes "improvements" that THEY think sales should go push out to the market.
But they dont realize nobody wants those changes.
sales go down,
sales gets blamed.
repeat.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
company builds a product, then makes "improvements" that THEY think sales should go push out to the market.
But they dont realize nobody wants those changes.
sales go down,
sales gets blamed.
repeat.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Ugh. This hits.
This sounds dangerously familiar to me right now....uh oh
😬😬😬😬😬
I think I’m a decent sales person and a decent sales leader. One thing I learned early on though is I can’t sell something I don’t believe in. This includes bad products Some people can, I know I can’t.
Thanks for the share.
I should probably pick this book up. I'm at a series a now and we definitely have PMF (people want it, we just hit 2m ARR so still very early though). But there are now a dozen other companies who do the exact thing that we do and it's become harder to differentiate ourselves. Wonder if the book has anything to say when it comes to competitors.
I should probably pick this book up. I'm at a series a now and we definitely have PMF (people want it, we just hit 2m ARR so still very early though). But there are now a dozen other companies who do the exact thing that we do and it's become harder to differentiate ourselves. Wonder if the book has anything to say when it comes to competitors.
This is actually a good point. I read the bio of an account I'm chasing. They started with what they thought was a cool name and cool product. What makes them millions now is a product they had tucked away in the corner that someone at a show happened to see. They kept the name, but never looked back since.
Literally my last company and why I left. I’m fine with lofty expectations but you better have those same ones for the product team…
Worst is when you pass on product improvement ideas that get tossed in the can because the product team has other ideas....
Who talks to prospects and clients on a daily basis?
Usually this problem is solved when you have a CRO who can get the rest of the org thinking about actually selling products and delivering VALUE
Who talks to prospects and clients on a daily basis?
Usually this problem is solved when you have a CRO who can get the rest of the org thinking about actually selling products and delivering VALUE
100%. This is why I refuse to sell a shitty product.
I've learned to read product reviews and go through case studies before signing on as an AE at any org. Your reputation and network is too valuable to push hot garbage ;)
What do you do to figure out if a product is shitty (before joining)?
Have their top salesperson demo the product for me.
This fits nicely with the concepts in Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. Too much reliance on loosely defined TAM.
Your product only needs to be better than the perceived competition...
Sold very early stage lemons at a pre-Series A, but clients understood the value prop. Sure our products weren't the most user friendly, but with enough tinkering it got the job done.
Sold 63 units, 1 return.
But I believed in what we were selling and the org...
If YOU cant believe in what you're selling, your prospects sure wont either.
Sold very early stage lemons at a pre-Series A, but clients understood the value prop. Sure our products weren't the most user friendly, but with enough tinkering it got the job done.
Sold 63 units, 1 return.
But I believed in what we were selling and the org...
If YOU cant believe in what you're selling, your prospects sure wont either.
Is availability of product limiting anyone from hitting their quota? My industry has been killed with lack of inventory.
this post led me to learn the history of the phrase ''preaching to the choir!"
I've been a rep of a startup going through this. On my way out I gave the most candid feedback they could get. The Head of Engineering and a few key hires left less than 6 months later. This part of my career was a real struggle and the amount of pipeline required to get clients that would churn quickly was brutal.
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