ADK

VC Associate

Selling to Sales Folks

There seems to be a similar titled thread like this but I can't view it for whatever reason. Anyhow, I'm wondering if any of you out there sold products/services to Sales people (usually sales efficiency type of tools)? Have you reviewed anything different on sales cycle compared to other industries?

From an AE perspective, you'll probably constantly battle aggressive discount discussions but to actually target Sales Directors, if you manage to show the real value in a personalized way, I see the chances of engagement pretty high compared compared to other departments outbounded all the time. What do you think?

On the other hand, since sales people are way too busy to focus on their own targets, I'm not sure if the usual drill of research > talk > demo > trial works as straightforward. Do you think sales directors could be more network oriented to understand "what's hot" as opposed to researching?

Any feedback on what is different selling to sales people welcome.

👑 Sales Strategy

💆‍♂ Mindset

8

14 comments

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butwhy

Politicker

6

Solutions Engineer

Ugh, I didn't even make it a year. 1) It becomes this whole hurricane of "hype" and everyone just has to out hype the other to win the sales cycle. Fucking exhausting. 2) Solutions take a back seat to ROI calculators (biggest bs ever created) and networking. So then the customer ends up with this idiotic behemoth of a non-working integration, but that doesn't matter because sales ICs hate using new tools anyway so no one is going to use it. 3) Yeah, price negotiations get intense.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

Yeesh dude.

Mobi85

Politicker

2

Regional Sales Manager

well said

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Ouch. I can see that. Let me guess, short contracts too - 12 mos at the most?

butwhy

Politicker

3

Solutions Engineer

Yep - and guess who also wants to make sure their deals close the last day of the quarter for ultimate negotiation! WEEEEEEE 🙃🔫

ChickenWings

Opinionated

4

Tom Callahan's Son

I sold to sales personas (SMB sales mgmt, GMs, Owners) for most of my career and miss much of it.

This thread is correct that negotiation can be tough, ego can be big, and patience is thin…THOUGH, if you respect the craft, they respect you.

I’ve found myself disappointed at times putting an earnest sales effort forth to an engineer or product manager that simply has no respect for our work.

Use “the usual drill” with sales leaders to do the things they want their team to do…ask better questions, listen more, understand them, align on a change worth challenging, then hustle for their best interests.

Value like the above usually leads to an open, trusting dialogue that eliminates most of the breakdowns.

If your solution directly impacts the sales org, youre already there. If you’re just using the sales org to find what needs to be solved elsewhere, they are capable of being good shepherds for the right cause

nomdeguerre

Executive

1

Account executive

Great input

ADK

Opinionated

1

VC Associate

thank you so much for framing it like this! My god, its so true how sales is perceived by different departments vs sales is perceived by other sales teams assuming that there is of course a genuine value proposal. there are of course pros and cons in any form of marketing (example: selling for the first time vs replacing a competitor or selling to enterprise vs SMB etc), it can't be fully one dimensional. thank you again for putting all dimensions together

as someone who sold to sales folks before, what other messaging/marketing you would give as a recommendation besides the obvious "value selling"?

ChickenWings

Opinionated

0

Tom Callahan's Son

I try to be as direct as possible with sales folks.

Usually there is a thread you can pull on a potential problem to solve "outside looking in".

If the problem directly impacts the sales org, I'm usually tying it to "growth" or "time".

If the problem lives in say, Product, I am poking at how that product improvement would pay dividends to the sales org.

I seem to often take the role of a challenger with sales orgs. They typically need to be challenged on a blind spot they have. Done with a healthy balance of respect and confidence, they will respond well.

Maximas

Tycoon

2

Senior Sales Executive

Yes, you could normally sell to sales people but try to cut it short as much as you can and avoid using terms like discount or a (limited time) deal they won't fall for it.

Just get to the point and focus on product comparison between what your company is offering and your competitors offer and the points that makes your product better and more special.

Best of Luck!

punishedlad

Tycoon

1

Business Development Team Lead

One of my former employers tried it once and fell on its face. We were looking to approach a different department, because selling into HR is slow as all get out. (HR gets like one shiny new toy every 3 years).

We ended up going back to HR after a few months trial.

ADK

Opinionated

0

VC Associate

ohw wow! 😬

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I can be VERY hard on fellow sales people because I know all the tricks and have little patience for sales games. And I have my preferred way of doing things. I don’t like to haggle or negotiate- just give me your best price and if it’s not what I want, that’s fine.

I also want to see the value now. I’ll pay for it, but I have to see it immediately.

ramanathan_pillai

0

Sales co-ordinator

thanks

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