We are finishing up a few last minute things in the office right now before we head out for a little holiday break. I have not posted in awhile and wanted to take a few minutes to write about a conversation I had recently with another start-up at a holiday party. I like to think of our blog as a diary of what it is like to be a start-up in Pittsburgh. As part of the diary, it’s my objective to share our ups and our downs and hopefully a little of what we have learned can be of benefit to others like us.
One thing I have learned the hard way is that technology does not usually sell itself. The exceptions to this are FDA approved medical devices and patentable inventions. Unfortunately as a web software company, we are not a member of this fantastically funded group. We try to keep our eyes open, listen to our customers, and deliver real solutions. Sounds good, but we haven’t always been the best at getting products to market, letting people know the products exist, and following up with interested customers. I have seen products we have launched be replicated by others and sold only to gain attention and dollars. I am not bitter over this. Instead I use it as a chance to learn what I could have done better and attempt to improve as quickly as possible. Good salespeople can sell anything. Good technologists can’t necessarily sell anything. To be a profitable company, you have to be making money somewhere. We hired our first dedicated salesperson in 2009 and have seen the benefits. We are now looking to expand that part of the company to take advantage of opportunities that we otherwise miss.
When you sit and code but forget to sell you may be missing huge market opportunities. Many start-ups develop technology only to see lesser technologies (meaning functional subsets) sell more, faster. We’ve been there. To some degree, we are still there. Selling is not easy. It can be made easier when you have good technology that solves problems. I know it’s hard out there but no matter how small you may be, burn some of your capital and team time on making sales and getting your stuff in front of audiences.
About a year and a half ago I got to meet the CEO of Kayak at a private event in NYC. I was impressed by him and love his product. He bragged about spending $0 on marketing. Turn on the TV now and you will see Kayak commercials (one of the older old medias – TV). I don’t criticize him for this. What he likely saw was that the early rapid growth they observed at Kayak was shrinking and competition was growing. What was a functional advantage was shrinking. They had to start burning capital to sell themselves to their customers a bit more.
I whine a lot here about getting our stuff in front of potential customers as fast as possible. I will never whine if a potential customer says no. I will start throwing things if a potential customer doesn’t even know we are an option. It should be our job to at least give our potential customers the chance to say no. If we don’t give them that chance, we have nothing to complain about.
