just joined a company selling into engineering managers/ architects/ qa engineers.
what method of prospecting have you found successful to this persona?
God123
Selling into developers
15
Offer a free version. Make all of your documentation public and very high quality.
100%
Best advice!
yep we have a free version! and most fortune 500 companies are already using us. My goal is to get a meeting with them and upsell them to the business plan.
Completely agree with @braintank . Documentation should be super high quality. Most of the devs don't like to talk too much on call. They want to get started, finish the project and move forward fast. Show them quickly what exact problem you are solving and how it will make their life easier/faster.
cost always comes second to them
I actually am a engineer, worked as a sales engineer and a account manager(full cycle sales), also worked as an engineering manager, managed RnD departments and now teach the new generation of engineers at a technical university in Amsterdam. Selling to engineers is the most simple thing ever. Needs requires just 1 thing, you having more knowledge than the guy your calling. Be prepared to do the work and become a true subject matter expert. Engineers cut through bullshit like no other. Dont insult with salesy nonsense, know your stuff.
Most of them fall into the "C-type" on a DISC profile, so check this resource out: https://discprofilesdirect.com/assessment/disc-sales-selling-c-style-customers/
For easy pipeline go through LinkedIn and find every champion that has moved to a non-customer on your list. Dev teams talk and are very community based
Thanks! im actually focused on 15-30 enterprise accounts so I cant chase these champions down when they move. any tips for breaking into a large account? I can sell into multiple developer teams.
I more so meant to make sure you check for any previous customers at accounts on your list. Losts of LinkedIn sales Nav custom searches. Breaking into large accounts—find all old opps, spend a ton of time with each account building org chart, finding best probably end user/manager/dm champions based on LinkedIn profiles, finding possible warm connects. Find all tools the account used through LinkedIn profiles and open roles on their career page. Loop that all into custom outreach
Creating a drip campaign that brings up their free usage as the reason why you're reaching out plus make sure your emails are hyper-personalized to their persona. Include content from around the web, not just your company's material.
Cut out ALL of the fluff. Go straight to the point.
"Your team has # users in tool today. Any interest in enabling them with more efficient workflows?"
"Did you know that this [feature on paid plan] exists? Here's how some other teams are using it today. Could that be useful for your team?"
And on and on and on.
Emails > Calls. But call anyway, leave a VM, and f/u with an email. Text ahead of your call to make it clear why/where you're calling from.
Cut out ALL of the fluff. Go straight to the point.
"Your team has # users in tool today. Any interest in enabling them with more efficient workflows?"
"Did you know that this [feature on paid plan] exists? Here's how some other teams are using it today. Could that be useful for your team?"
And on and on and on.
Emails > Calls. But call anyway, leave a VM, and f/u with an email. Text ahead of your call to make it clear why/where you're calling from.
Thanks for the ideas! I’m getting stuck during cold calls. My script is:
“The reason for my call is I noticed that there are a ton of engineers in your org using *product*. I’m curious is your team leveraging it today?”
They usually say no and hang up
“The reason for my call is I noticed that there are a ton of engineers in your org using *product*. I’m curious is your team leveraging it today?”
They usually say no and hang up
Leverage your internal network within your company. I'm talking about your Devs, Engineers, etc. After identifying your target and the person they're connected to within your organization, I've found ghostwriting an email for your colleague and giving them the opportunity to put it in their own voice works best.
Take care not to be too overbearing because this is your colleague's friend/acquaintance and your actions reflect on them. You won't get any more of your colleagues helping you if you overdo it with someone they know.
Take care not to be too overbearing because this is your colleague's friend/acquaintance and your actions reflect on them. You won't get any more of your colleagues helping you if you overdo it with someone they know.
This is golden advice if you have the balls for it.
Another great way to contact/get to know developers is through Twitter. Like someone else said, they are very community based and tend to use Twitter a lot as a way to communicate and collaborate.
Former dev of 7 years here. I'm lumping your persona into "devs" bc I think they would hang out in similar spaces online. Devs generally hate talking on the phone and don't typically check their work email. Our main form of communication is through Slack (or the like). Besides the internal company chat, devs generally belong to multiple "interest group" Slack chats (think language-specific, framework-specific, etc) that are open to the public and are in those all day during the 9-5 workday. If you can figure out a way to prospect within those groups I think that could be very fruitful.
Do you have a trial period you can offer?
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