Jul 15, 2017, 8:20 PM ETTutorial, Webinar

Go to Market Boot Camp for Startups: Field Sales

Top-down vs. Bottom-up Strategy Selection: The choice between starting with outside direct sales (top-down) or inside users (bottom-up) depends on product readiness, specifically whether the model is "freemium to premium," "open source," or requires complex architectural selling.
Sequential Field Sales Build-out (Bottom-Up Path): For user-driven growth, the organization typically layers in: Demand Gen/SDRs $\rightarrow$ Inside Sellers $\rightarrow$ Marketing/Customer Success $\rightarrow$ Outside Field Account Teams.
Sequential Field Sales Build-out (Top-Down Path): For complex enterprise/government sales, the path begins with Outside Direct Sales and Sales Engineers, followed by Professional Services, Marketing Air Cover, and Customer Success, before backfilling with an Inside Sales team to augment the field.
Resource Allocation Warning: Senior executives and first-time CEOs often wait too long to add sales personnel because they lack "situational awareness" regarding which organizational layers are needed for their specific deal complexity.
Deal Complexity Indicators: Early targeting decisions must account for solution complexity, deployment ease, ROI impact magnitude, buyer personas (Exec vs. User), and the need for technical validation events.

Three Core Buyer Questions: The sales process must systematically answer: "Why do anything?", "Why you (over competition)?", and "Why now?"
Evolving Buyer Concerns:
- Early Stage: Concerns focus on Needs and Cost; Risk is low because no action is required yet.
- Mid-Stage (Evaluation): Choices and Competitive differentiation peak; Risk begins to rise as options are weighed.
- Late Stage (Decision): Risk spikes (regarding implementation/lock-in); Cost re-emerges as a primary objection; Needs become less relevant as the solution is validated.
Process Gating: Sales stages must include mutually agreed-upon "gates" and deliverables (e.g., Discovery Tool, Value Framework) to ensure customer buy-in before moving to the next phase, preventing resource waste on unqualified prospects.

Redefining Sales Purpose: The sales force is not merely for "communicating value" but for creating new value by identifying unrecognized customer needs and mapping them to corporate strategies.
Strategic Decomposition: Effective selling requires mapping the customer's:
- Corporate Objectives/Strategies (Executive focus).
- Initiatives (Actionable plans supporting strategy).
- Critical Capabilities (People, process, technology needed to fulfill initiatives).
- Solution Set (Features/Functions).
The "Solution Trap": Many companies fail to secure budget because they sell features before establishing the "initiative" that funds them; discovery must prove the solution fits a funded or emerging high-level initiative.
Persona-Specific Messaging: Value propositions must be customized:
- Executives: Focus on business criteria, strategies, and ROI.
- Mid-Level/Architecture: Focus on scalability, integration, and cross-functional workflow.
- End Users: Focus on feature/functionality and daily workflow efficiency.
Value Articulation: The "As-Is vs. To-Be" narrative must be backed by specific use cases (Felt-Found-Have) and quantifiable technical/financial metrics derived from customer data.

Champion vs. Coach vs. Supporter:
- Champion: Has the influence, capability, and desire to actively sell/move the deal forward when the room is closed.
- Coach: Provides internal intelligence and process guidance but lacks the political capital to advocate for the sale.
- Supporter: May vote for the solution but will not actively fight for it against opposition.
Competitive Strategy Selection (TAS Methodology): Sales teams must select distinct strategies per competitor:
- Direct: Used when there is overwhelming superiority.
- Divide: Used to carve out a beachhead with specific departments while co-existing with an incumbent.
- Develop: Used to slow down a decision cycle until the company is ready or the product maturity aligns with the opportunity.
- Defend: Used to protect existing market share against encroaching competitors.
Setting the Trap: Sales teams should proactively define the "Technical Validation Event" (TVE) criteria and process to prevent competitors from setting the agenda later in the RFI/RFP cycle.
Early Influence on Criteria: It is critical to help prospects define their buying criteria early, especially when the solution represents a platform shift (e.g., SaaS vs. On-Prem) that the buyer may not fully understand.

Integrated ROI & Business Case: The Return on Investment (ROI) analysis and business case must be built during the technical validation phase, not after winning the technical evaluation, to prevent late-stage "window shopping" or funding stalls.
Cost vs. Risk Mitigation: Financial proposals must differentiate between hard dollar savings (cost reduction) and softer value (risk mitigation, revenue augmentation) to appeal to different stakeholders.
ROI Ranges: Proposals should present conservative and aggressive ROI ranges; executives often need to see the "aggressive" upside for strategic buy-in, while evaluators may require the "conservative" figure to secure internal funding without holding it over their heads.
Long-Term Deal Visibility: Proposals must include long-term deployment options and total environment costs, not just the initial "land" deal, to prevent friction during procurement and facilitate future upsells.
Proposal Customization: Final proposals should be framed as a "Plan" rather than a "Quote," integrating the technical validation results and deployment roadmap to confirm the decision process with the economic buyer.

Cross-Functional Orchestration: The sales process is non-linear and requires a "quarterback" approach involving Sales, Pre-Sales (SEs), Product Management, Marketing, and Customer Success.
CRM & Cadence: Account planning, competitor analysis, and status checks on political alignment must be baked into the CRM and a formal inspection/cadence rhythm.
Forecasting Interdependence: The sales process directly dictates forecasting accuracy; deal stages must be defined by objective deliverables (e.g., "Customer agreed to TVE criteria") rather than subjective sales rep sentiment.
Deployment as a Sales Lever: Customer success and deployment plans should be drafted during the sales phase to demonstrate a path to "up-sell" and "cross-sell" opportunities, turning the initial deployment into a revenue engine.
Self-Qualification: Sales teams must be empowered to walk away from opportunities where the buyer lacks funding or initiative alignment, preventing the waste of resources on unqualified prospects.