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39 Comments

Sales Sunday: Get free feedback & help from the expert

Hey all!

I'm Louis, the guy who runs the Indie Hackers Sales group and Sales for Founders.

Over the past few years, I've helped thousands of early-stage founders learn sales, find their first customers and make $millions in revenue.

Oh - and I've also led sales teams and built/sold several profitable SaaS businesses of my own.

Are you struggling with sales?

Share your question/problem here and I'll do my best to give useful, actionable feedback or advice.

Thanks!

  1. 2

    I am an experience software engineer and can build landing pages, but I get lost trying to get them noticed! My project is https://qmux.io. It is geared towards livestreamers, community managers, and organizations that use platforms like Slack. What are your thoughts on getting leads and initial signups? Is the landing page effective enough?

    1. 2

      Hey!

      So the big red flag I'm getting from your message is the "me-centric" phrasing you use to describe your challenge...

      but I get lost trying to get them noticed!

      and

      What are your thoughts on getting leads and initial signups? Is the landing page effective enough?

      That's a (maybe incorrect) sign to me that your marketing/sales/product is suffering because you struggle to get out of your own head and see things from the perspective of your target customer.

      Instead of...

      but I get lost trying to get them noticed!

      try asking...

      what { my target customer } want to read, and where do they hang out?

      Instead of asking me...

      Is the landing page effective enough?

      Ask yourself...

      what would my target customers need to see on this site to buy?

      (and then - if you don't know the answer to that - go ask some of them!)

      That's not the answer you were probably looking for, but I hope it helps!

      1. 2

        No it definitely is what I wanted to hear. Thank you for the critical feedback! Great points to take into consideration.

  2. 2

    Hey! This is awesome, thank you!! My biggest challenge is getting leads and trials. I don’t want to plaster the SaaS in Facebook groups and such but curious on what I can do to reach the right people

    1. 1

      Right!

      Can you share a bit more context?

      How many customers do you have already? What's your biggest bottleneck to reaching more of the right people currently?

      1. 1

        Thanks!!

        Currently have 29 customers but they’re LTD holders. Since then, we have had 4 people sign up on trials, but haven’t purchased.

        Reached out on email as to ask if we can do anything better, no responses.

        So I would say that is an issue, and the second part to this is the struggle on how to reach the right people. We are niche to interior designers so I’m unfamiliar on how to reach a niche market since I’m used to reaching a broader audience.

        Biggest bottleneck: actually reaching them! Haha.

        1. 1

          Got it!

          Since then, we have had 4 people sign up on trials, but haven’t purchased.

          In that case, maybe try asking new customers to get on a call with you to start their free trial.

          You'll get fewer trials, but you'll learn a lot more about what's wrong with your product/marketing.

          We are niche to interior designers so I’m unfamiliar on how to reach a niche market since I’m used to reaching a broader audience.

          There's good advice out there already on how to assess different growth channels (eg the Traction book).

          My advice - given you don't have any consistently paying customers yet - is to start with a bit of outbound sales and move to a better channel from there as you begin to understand your customers better.

          This checklist should help... https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P9M1KIZnCVjiJ8pNhNoSM1uFdkHlXrcCSzSXZECtD0A/edit

          1. 2

            Thanks so much. This means a lot to me. I appreciate you!

  3. 2

    hey Louis, I have had a few sales for my job board but mostly to friends/ people I know already.

    Do you have any advice on how to get replies from businesses I message? One business suggested positioning it as a job board for entry level developers rather than developers without degrees, (the first one is tackling an employer need, the second one is more altruistic)

    https://nocsok.com

    1. 2

      Hey Pete!

      There are a few levers you can pull to increase your success here.

      The first one is to make sure you're reaching out to...

      • the right person
      • at the right business
      • at the right time
      • via the right channel

      ----

      Secondly, think about the action you want that person to take.

      What's the smallest, easiest action you can ask them to take, that can lead to a sale?

      What objections might they have? What pains, fears, dreams and goals?

      ----

      From what you wrote, it sounds like the main challenge you're having is getting leads to respond to your cold outreach at all.

      My nr 1 priority would be to find out what's the most common reason they aren't replying.

      Once you know that, the solution will probably be pretty obviousy and easy!

      1. 1

        hey man, I realise I forgot to reply!

        Thanks for the feedback. Will try other channels than email.

    2. 1

      Niche down, identify the persona. Seek the location where this audiences hangs out. Get evolved in forums, don't sell. Create conversations. Guess post, build backlinks. Build a email list. Once you have a email list, nudge, nurture, educate.

    3. 0

      My advice would be different - step back. Rethink about your product, value, market and target audience. Maybe the reason is simple- no one wants to pay for your product.

  4. 1

    A few points which helped me are:

    Join online communities: There are many online communities dedicated to sales and marketing, where you can connect with other professionals, ask questions, and get feedback on your strategies and tactics. Some popular communities include Sales Hacker, LinkedIn Sales Solutions, and Sales Best Practices.

    Attend webinars and workshops: Many sales experts and organizations offer free webinars and workshops on a variety of topics, from prospecting and lead generation to closing deals and customer retention. These events are a great way to learn from experts and get feedback on your sales approach.

    Seek out mentors: If you have a sales mentor or coach, they can provide personalized feedback and advice based on your specific goals and challenges. Look for mentors who have experience in your industry and can offer practical insights and guidance.

    Use social media: You can also use social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with sales experts and thought leaders. Follow their content, engage in discussions, and ask for feedback on your sales strategies and tactics.

    Follow for more!

  5. 1

    Hey everyone,

    I have been in sales for over 7 years and I was the number sales person for google streetview. I can help you go recreate your script and help you with your sales process. I want add value to this community. Let me know your questions

  6. 1

    Thanks for that opportunity!
    We are launching our product paperless.io next month and whether it can convince people. Maybe you have some feedback for us - Thanks!

  7. 1

    Hello.

    I will be selling my services to brands. Would the approach be different than selling B2C? If so...how would the script differ. I have no past customers to use as a success story so I'm stuck figuring out a way to earn trust first. Maybe free for 14 days? What would you recommend?

  8. 1

    Hi Louis,
    My struggle is that after a sales call and follow up email with our deck, they ghost me and I struggle to get an email follow up. On the call, they're enthusiastic and respond to my first email. When I follow up to close is when they disappear.

    We host virtual events for HR/DEI and look for partners/sponsors.

  9. 1

    This is an awesome idea. I'm in a sales role now & wished I would've known about this when I was just starting out. I've just shared my first post -- 120+ of the best resources I've found to learn enterprise sales. Would love your feedback & hopefully it's helpful to others who are new to sales.

    https://www.indiehackers.com/post/a-collection-of-120-incredible-resources-to-learn-sales-83d0d2b601

  10. 1

    Hi Louis, what are your thoughts on using video when doing direct outreach? For example personalized videos for cold emails?

    Have you done this, what software did you use?

    Cheers man, thanks for doing this.

  11. 1

    Hey Louis, Any tips or suggestions on pricing a live course (12 sessions over 4 weeks). I've spoken to many product people and product leaders and based on feedback and my own experience I'm focusing on people skills for product people.

    IMO (a little biased obviously) the value is tremendous, however, have to also factor in this is my first "online" offering.

    Coming from a enterprise background I've identified companies/ product leaders where I know the course will help their teams and actively warming them up to make a purchase when it launches (ABS type activities).

    Also learning to work in public by sharing more.

    However, curious to hear your thoughts on pricing and reaching individuals.

    Ps. Been re-thinking the email newsletter have not forgotten about trying reactions. It's on my list.

    1. 1

      Hey Pradip!

      I'm guessing this course is something the employer will be paying for?

      In that case, I'd do some research into what kind of ccard policy and learning budget your ideal customers have.

      • what can they put on a corporate ccard without having to get approval?
      • how much can they spend on learning/development without having to get approval?
      1. 1

        I'm targeting teams. Though I'd hope individuals would want to join as well ( as some employers don't pay) Hence trying to balance the pricing. Good points on the CC and approvals. 🙏

  12. 1

    Hi there. Thanks for your help!

    https://pingr.io - Uptime monitoring service.

    My main concern is Pricing. I switched pricing models few times.

    I haven't yet got many customers and haven't tested pricing plans properly, but I want to get your opinion.

    My competitors mostly have 2 pricing models:

    1. Subscription plans. Like, 10-20-30 monitors per 10-20-30 dollars
    2. Price per usage

    So I thought that price per usage is quite appealing.

    But here comes two points:

    1. Maybe not everyone understand the pricing
    2. Here I got some technical problem. Initially I've build the system to work in a certain way, and that's not how others handle this. Every competitor does that: they have, say, X servers (locations). They check your site from one location, if it's down, they check from another location in order to approve that the site is down. 2 checks in total. While I check constantly from every location (5 checks), and if all of them down = site is down.

    User can disable locations.

    So in terms of Unit Economy, my infrastructure cost is about requests. More requests = more powerful servers should be.

    I'm describing this because, when I have "pay per usage", I say that it's $0.52 per site. But this is from ONE location. Initially 5 locations are enabled, so it'll become $2.5, which is more expensive than others have.

    On the other hand constantly checking from many locations gives advantage: I can make a report of site performance per location, for example.

    So it's getting crazy.

  13. 1

    Hey @louisswiss would love your help with www.mldeepdive.com. Since the pandemic our in-person mentoring had to stop. Am now ready to get this in gear. Can you help?

    1. 1

      What kind of help are you looking for?

  14. 1

    Hey Louis,
    Thanks for helping!

    We're doing secure international dating app and have not bad mertics as $1500 MMR & 1400 DAU. We're now growing only with organic, but slow. As we're engeeners, we're struggling with acquisition grow.

    Our solution is we've hired a targeting specialist who will manage ad campaings and made video ad createve for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21NFG-8KhYw.
    Our main goal is make positive ROI for campaings, so that can unblock our growth. Also, we all the time upgrade our ASO to make organic better.

    What do you think about this strategy? Also, I think about finding an angel who can help with marketing and make growth faster as we have huge plans with the project.

    Bumpy: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bumpy-international-dating/id1455336523

    Thanks!

    1. 1

      Hey!

      Congrats on the success so far and I hope it continues to go well for you.

      I don't have much experience with growing consumer mobile apps, so I don't want to give any advice/feedback on this as there's a good chance it'll be more harmful than helpful!

      The one thing I am sure will be good advice is to recommend you make it a priority to really understand how to maximise word-of-mouth/referral growth.

      Without that, your app fails. It's just a question of when.

      1. 1

        That's great advice about word-of-mouth/referral growth. Thank you!
        We also have a referral system but not focusing on it so much.

  15. 1

    Hi Louis, Our persona target customers are not keyword searchers. So traditional SEO and content marketing is barely effective. They type a destination in the URL field carefully to go somewhere on the internet. They are too busy to search, and it is not their behavior, as they are older. We are looking for organic means to reach them.

    1. 1

      Do direct snail mail.

      1. 1

        Thanks - too old school. We have 198,000 leads, so we have that channel nailed.

    2. 1

      Hey!

      We are looking for organic means to reach them.

      99 out of 100 times, this isn't a sales or marketing problem but an "understanding your customers" problem.

      Where do they hang out and consume content online?

      (tip: get to know some of your existing customers and find out that way)

      1. 1

        Done all that. We have a six year intimate understating of the customer. They don't hang out online. They do use the internet. JTBD only.

  16. 1

    Hi Louis. How would you go about with growing a marketplace for a specific group of people. I'm finding it hard to get the first 100 signups. I want to build the community organically and not rely on ads in the beginning. Do I resort to cold emails? Right now, I'm not selling anything specifically but focusing on creating value for service providers which in the long run will allow me to have some sort of revenue from the site/service.

    1. 1

      Hey!

      Based on the info you've given, I've no idea if cold emails are the right approach for you.

      Which part are you struggling with most... finding the right people? Or convincing them to sign up?

      1. 1

        Hi. I'm creating a marketplace, so I'm trying to figure out how to "populate" the site with listings from service providers. I guess I'm trying to find a USP for getting people to sign up.

    2. 0

      You can try facebook groups. And this tool could help you. https://pepper4fb.com/pepper-sales-page-main?fpr=jeff11

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