Meetups, networking/startup events, about to try some online methods.

Need to go to where your users are, I'm still figuring that out.

*convince is not a great word

It really made me better at handling customers, even as non-sales

What are your thoughts on, higher fidelity communication channels have higher closing rates?

Have you read The Challenger Sale? It hanged my perspective on sales as a technical founder

- The Challenger Sale

- The Little Red Book of Sales

- The Charisma Myth

- Rules of the Game (Neil Strauss... and yes it is also a sales book)

- Secrets of Closing the Sale (transactional sales, but still fun)

All the best. Try out a lot with short feedback loops so that you can course correct suitably. Always respect the customer and their needs.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Challenger-Sale-Customer-Conversat...

It expands on this idea, and says that one successful sales process actually leads with ideas on how to make your business run better, then follows it up with all the information necessary to implement that change. If you do it right, the end of the sales process will be the customer asking you for suggestions on how to do what you suggested, and the only answer is your product.

It strikes me as a wonderfully powerful idea. I definitely recommend the book.

I also like a lot of what I've read from Jeffrey Gittomer and Grant Cardone.

Oh, and The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes as well. He (Chet H.) did a series of videos with Anthony Robbins that is really good. I really recommend watching those.

Consider that there is a Senior Sales Executive out there today that you have knowledge & expertise to help. Suggest reaching out to Diretors & SVPs of Sales in the SaaS space. Linkedin is a good place to find them. Now gather intel and network. You must talk to these guys, the more, the better.

Incidentally, start reading up on the sales process. Recommend reading The Challenger Sale by Adamson and New Sales Simplified by Weinberg.

If you can't afford it? Read The Challenger Sale, a data-backed look at the most effective techniques.

Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PPW5V9C/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...

The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SLDD5YV/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0189PVAWY/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...

Who: The A Method for Hiring
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001H97LVO/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...

The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0149NJXMO/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...

I have more recommendations as well but they might just be distractions until you get started.

Books:

- The Challenger Sale

- Crossing the Chasm

- To Sell is Human

- The Little Red Book of Selling

Videos:

- https://www.heavybit.com/library/ has some videos that are relevant after making a few sales.

Product Description:

- https://www.cortes.design/post/saas-conversion-rates (generally good content, not sure if it's geared towards marketplaces)

What problem are you solving? Who's the niche? Are you speaking to one of their top three pains?

Look at sales as another thing to be mastered, be proud of your product and ask for the money, start the money conversation early on. Don't forget why your doing this.

The first, most obvious, and probably cheapest, way to get contact info is to use LinkedIn. Find people that work for those companies. If you have shared connections, ask your connection for an introduction. If not, send them an InMail (note: I think you'll have to have a paid LI account for this, at least if you need to send more than a handful of messages). Beyond that, you can also try to find those people on Twitter, etc., so you can send messages their way.

You can also buy contact information from Hoovers and similar services.

And while it's low percentage, you can still do the old thing of cold-calling the main office number for the firm and ask for them by name. Get ready to read up on how to deal with "gate keepers" and the like. And expect a low rate of actually getting through, especially as you target people higher up the organizational hierarchy.

Once you get to that point, contact people and just be straightforward with them. Say "Hey, I'm looking at (building a product | delivering a service | whatever) that I think would pertain to a firm like yours. If you'd be so kind, I'd love to have a short meeting or phone call with you to get your feedback on my idea(s) and see if there might be a way we could help you". Or something roughly like that. Don't necessarily use that exact language (I'm not really a sales-person!) but that general approach seems to work reasonably well. The percentages will still be pretty low, but it's likely that some people will be willing to talk to you.

A couple of books that contain some additional details on all this, that you might find useful, would be The Four Steps To The Epiphany by Steve Blank, Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, and/or Predictable Prospecting by Marylou Tyler.

In terms of understanding what to do once you get conversations started, I recommend the series of books by Jeff Thull that includes Mastering The Complex Sale, Exceptional Selling and The Prime Solution. There's also some really good stuff in The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes and The Challenger Sale by by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson.

* How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients by Jeffrey J. Fox

* The Dollarization Discipline: How Smart Companies Create Customer Value...and Profit from It by Jeffrey J. Fox

* The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't) by Sean D'Souza

* The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost your Sales by Dan S. Kennedy

* The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Also watch a few Gary Vaynerchuck Keynotes and you'll get ideas on how to add value first, specifically read this blog post https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/working-for-free-the-debate/

My recommendations are the same as they were then:

~~~~

Mastering The Complex Sale -- Jeff Thull

Exceptional Selling -- Jeff Thull

The Prime Solution -- Jeff Thull

The Challenger Sale -- Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson

Selling The Wheel: Choosing The Best Way To Sell For You Your Company Your Customers -- Jeff Cox, Howard Stevens

And while it's not exactly about "sales" alone, I'd recommend The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank as well. It touches on aspects of selling in an enterprise setting, especially for new products.

The Salesman Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL5m7amy0FXEAe9WxhXTI_A

~~~~~

But I'd now also add:

The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes

Customercentric Selling, 2nd Edition - Michael T. Bosworth, John R. Hollandd, Frank Visgatis

You'd need one client to back up that experience

You can speak to higher level concepts and customer concerns that are there besides the tech and sell as to why you are better to handle those.

Showing that you've seen numerous situations, and point out pitfalls they haven't considered can help

Read The Challenger Sale if you haven't

Yes, there is such a thing as sales. But do yourself a favor and don't sell shitty products. There's a wide range of incomes among people selling the best products, and the difference is stuff you can at least read about in those books.

- Miller Heiman is the Corporate America Gold Standard, now incorporating SPIN Selling > https://www.millerheimangroup.com/huthwaite/

- The Challenger Sale by CEB Group is strong, geared toward large enterprise, complex scenarios > https://www.hirevue.com/offer/sales-training-companies-corpo...

Challenger Sale - is based on the brilliant insights of Matt Dixon > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSfE8zZUoMc

- Mike Weinberg is probably the most accessable and useful to a wide range of SMB companies, he's quite good! And his 'New Sales. Simplified' book is a Must Read > http://www.newsalescoach.com/services/