The story of how two graduates of "mathex" made the first sales
My personal statistics say unequivocally that the most exciting question about a business that I’m addressing is “how do you sell?” Or “where do you find customers?”. This article will be devoted to the issue of sales, or rather, the issue of the very first, most complex sales in the company Maxilect . I do not exclude that in the future we will have very difficult sales, difficult customers, new markets, but selling when you have successfully completed projects behind you, reviews, a team and, finally, experience is much easier than when you only have two techies with extreme motivation.
A few words about my experience, as my partner has written about himself in great detail about himself. I, like Maxim , graduated from St. Petersburg State University, where I studied mathematics and programming. At the end of the 3rd year, in the summer, I started working as a Java programmer. I can not say that it was a dream of my life, but I had to go through this step in my career. While still a third year student, I read several books on project management (“The Way of Kamikaze”, “Mythical Man-Month”, etc.), and made sure that I want to be a project manager (RP). First, the programmer, and then RP - I thought this strategy was correct. My prediction came true, and already a year later, before the start of the 5th year, I managed projects, set up processes and learned to look at work differently.
A few years later I ended up in a small startup where we made different corporate software for large corporations, and during the year we were able to build a small team of 8 specialists. Immediately I will clarify, once an article about sales, customers were dragged into the company by one of the founders. After a couple of years, the flow of work began to dry up and we had a choice - to close the company or start selling ourselves. We chose the second path. We have been looking for sellers for a long time, trying to understand what we can and can sell to whom, in the end, I became actively engaged in presale and partly sales. This was my first sales experience. I went to meetings, wrote KP (commercial proposals), defended them, made presentations, worked upsell, although then I did not know that it was just that way. And in parallel, of course, led the projects. About a year I was engaged in such activities. Successes were very modest, but I got a good experience.
')
Further, I changed several IT companies from large to small, where I mainly managed projects and helped in presale, and even worked as deputy director of the 220-volt online store, where I was engaged in gluing IT and business. As a result, in 2015, I ended up in Maxilect with full confidence that sales are not mine, like Champagne Washes (s).
After a couple of months, I realized that we don’t know how to sell, but if we want to survive, we need to sell and sell as best as possible, and then I’ll not sit out on the bench, we must go to the fields and mine first contracts.
The first more or less sensible thing we did was to actively sell on the Upwork portal. Some statistics:
Around March-April, we concluded that we were unable to successfully sell on Upwork, and we decided to “freeze” this sales channel until better times. Of course, we understood that our responses to customers were far from ideal, often our prices were more than offers from Indians or Pakistanis, but the statistics spoke for themselves - to continue “burning” time on Upwork was equivalent to suicide.
Even before working at Upwork, we made some cold mailings to IT managers of Finnish companies - about 50 letters were sent. Conversion - zero. We tracked tenders, but we realized in time that there was nothing to catch there, and interesting tenders were almost always “sharpened” for a specific artist. We urgently needed new approaches, sales channels, and without hesitation we made the first “reset”.
First of all, we came to an old method, proven by years - friends, former colleagues and acquaintances (we called the channel “acquaintances”). We began to work very systematically on this sales channel. Compiled a list of all contacts that could potentially give at least some "exhaust". It turned out about 60 contacts at the start, then we supplemented this list with new names. We used Google Sheets to make it convenient to work together. They added the fields inherent in all CRM, and methodically began to communicate with each potential client. Here the first interesting projects were launched. One case I will tell in more detail.
In LinkedIn to one of my former colleagues, I sent information about our company, that we can develop BI solutions. After 5 minutes, the phone rang and I was invited to the office to chat. At the meeting, I spoke about our capabilities, about the principle and scheme of work. As a result, the sale was completed - we got the project. We did not earn money here (as well as on Upwork and other first projects), but these small victories are extremely important from the point of view of motivation and self-reliance.
At that moment I did not consider the channel “acquaintances” as essential, as I was sure that I did not have a single friend who could buy something from us. I was very wrong.
At the moment, the channel “acquaintances" we were able to get about a dozen different projects, and some of them still lasts (a year or more).
It is important to understand that “friends” are ready to close their eyes to a part of your shortcomings (weak portfolio, lack of experience, etc.), but if you make the sale “familiar,” you should still be 100% armed, you must be confident in the ability to do the work you subscribe to. You have to understand that if you don’t complete the project, you can lose a friend, badly ruin your reputation, finally substitute someone from your loved ones who recommended you.
And again some statistics:
In addition to the document where we recorded friends, we created our CRM (also based on Google Sheets). There we entered contacts, communication results, status, potential and the date of the next contact with the topic of communication. The date of the next contact (DSC), in my opinion, is the most important parameter in CRM, if you do not conduct DSC systematically, on a regular basis and do not work out a reminder about yourself, then you will not find yourself at the right time and place. We went to CRM every day and worked with our leaders and clients. It happened that in a week I discussed a dozen different projects, conducted assessments, presentations (including remotely), this kind of work is very tiring, but also tempers. Each quarter, we summarized the work: “exhaust” and the potential of each sales channel.
In our first sales experience, the following conclusions can be drawn:
So we started by stuffing a lot of cones and collecting dozens of “rakes”. After a year of independent sales, we decided that we could afford to hire an experienced seller who would build a sales system and provide us with orders. This naive decision cost us losses in the pace of development (and only hundreds of direct losses lost hundreds of thousands of rubles; in general, we lost several million lost profits), since no one will rebuild marketing and sales better than the company's founders.
In the next article, we will explain why marketing and sales need to be done by ourselves, rather than relying on market gurus, and what minimal marketing activities a software development company must do in the 21st century in order to be able to grow steadily.
Article author: Kirill Antonov, Operations Director, Maxilect
What experience have we started selling
A few words about my experience, as my partner has written about himself in great detail about himself. I, like Maxim , graduated from St. Petersburg State University, where I studied mathematics and programming. At the end of the 3rd year, in the summer, I started working as a Java programmer. I can not say that it was a dream of my life, but I had to go through this step in my career. While still a third year student, I read several books on project management (“The Way of Kamikaze”, “Mythical Man-Month”, etc.), and made sure that I want to be a project manager (RP). First, the programmer, and then RP - I thought this strategy was correct. My prediction came true, and already a year later, before the start of the 5th year, I managed projects, set up processes and learned to look at work differently.
A few years later I ended up in a small startup where we made different corporate software for large corporations, and during the year we were able to build a small team of 8 specialists. Immediately I will clarify, once an article about sales, customers were dragged into the company by one of the founders. After a couple of years, the flow of work began to dry up and we had a choice - to close the company or start selling ourselves. We chose the second path. We have been looking for sellers for a long time, trying to understand what we can and can sell to whom, in the end, I became actively engaged in presale and partly sales. This was my first sales experience. I went to meetings, wrote KP (commercial proposals), defended them, made presentations, worked upsell, although then I did not know that it was just that way. And in parallel, of course, led the projects. About a year I was engaged in such activities. Successes were very modest, but I got a good experience.
')
Further, I changed several IT companies from large to small, where I mainly managed projects and helped in presale, and even worked as deputy director of the 220-volt online store, where I was engaged in gluing IT and business. As a result, in 2015, I ended up in Maxilect with full confidence that sales are not mine, like Champagne Washes (s).
After a couple of months, I realized that we don’t know how to sell, but if we want to survive, we need to sell and sell as best as possible, and then I’ll not sit out on the bench, we must go to the fields and mine first contracts.
First steps in sales
The first more or less sensible thing we did was to actively sell on the Upwork portal. Some statistics:
- For two people, about 600 hours of work were put in there, which took 2-3 months for the duration.
- The first contract was received after 1.5 months, when we made about 120 responses. Then we did not differ from thousands of similar companies from around the world.
- In total, during this period, we have viewed several thousand projects. We responded (sent a response offer, speaking in terms of the portal upwork) by about 450, asked questions and made an individual proposal. We estimated about 50 projects, and we spent more than 5-7 hours of our time on a number of them. Received about 60 responses from customers with the proposal to continue the communication. Some of them disappeared as suddenly as they appeared. This is a feature of remote sales.
- The result of the first work on Upwork. 4 relatively small projects, without continuation, portfolio on the Upwork portal and high rating. It is also worth adding a bunch of sleepless nights, since we thought that Americans and Australians needed to respond promptly and at a convenient time for them.
Around March-April, we concluded that we were unable to successfully sell on Upwork, and we decided to “freeze” this sales channel until better times. Of course, we understood that our responses to customers were far from ideal, often our prices were more than offers from Indians or Pakistanis, but the statistics spoke for themselves - to continue “burning” time on Upwork was equivalent to suicide.
Even before working at Upwork, we made some cold mailings to IT managers of Finnish companies - about 50 letters were sent. Conversion - zero. We tracked tenders, but we realized in time that there was nothing to catch there, and interesting tenders were almost always “sharpened” for a specific artist. We urgently needed new approaches, sales channels, and without hesitation we made the first “reset”.
First sales success
First of all, we came to an old method, proven by years - friends, former colleagues and acquaintances (we called the channel “acquaintances”). We began to work very systematically on this sales channel. Compiled a list of all contacts that could potentially give at least some "exhaust". It turned out about 60 contacts at the start, then we supplemented this list with new names. We used Google Sheets to make it convenient to work together. They added the fields inherent in all CRM, and methodically began to communicate with each potential client. Here the first interesting projects were launched. One case I will tell in more detail.
In LinkedIn to one of my former colleagues, I sent information about our company, that we can develop BI solutions. After 5 minutes, the phone rang and I was invited to the office to chat. At the meeting, I spoke about our capabilities, about the principle and scheme of work. As a result, the sale was completed - we got the project. We did not earn money here (as well as on Upwork and other first projects), but these small victories are extremely important from the point of view of motivation and self-reliance.
At that moment I did not consider the channel “acquaintances” as essential, as I was sure that I did not have a single friend who could buy something from us. I was very wrong.
At the moment, the channel “acquaintances" we were able to get about a dozen different projects, and some of them still lasts (a year or more).
It is important to understand that “friends” are ready to close their eyes to a part of your shortcomings (weak portfolio, lack of experience, etc.), but if you make the sale “familiar,” you should still be 100% armed, you must be confident in the ability to do the work you subscribe to. You have to understand that if you don’t complete the project, you can lose a friend, badly ruin your reputation, finally substitute someone from your loved ones who recommended you.
And again some statistics:
- In total for two (with Maxim) we wrote out about 120 “acquaintances", with whom we began to work systematically.
- Just having learned about us, a part of our “acquaintances" recommended us to their acquaintances, and thus our pool of contacts began to expand.
- After about 2-3 months, the channel “acquaintances” by the number of dried up, was replenished a little, and the work was already going on specific “leads” (potential clients) or on a specific interest voiced by “friends”.
- Also, talking to "friends", we began to better understand the business and the needs of various kinds of companies. And one very important segment for us emerged from this communication - this is outsourcing for grocery IT companies in Russia. Having started to work actively in this area, we managed to fairly quickly (3-4 months) conclude two contracts.
- Small statistics on working with grocery IT companies:
- In the period from spring to the end of 2016, when we decided to work more closely in the domestic market, we had a 100% conversion from leads to customers: 3 Russian companies and one western, but with Russian roots.
- 2017 was less successful in terms of starting cooperation with other grocery companies. We communicated with about 5 different grocery companies, but did not enter into a single new contract. The reason is in ourselves, the conversion of 100% in 2016 played against us in 2017. There are many factors that influence the choice and readiness to work with outsourcing companies.
- In parallel, with the work on the channel "familiar" and product IT companies in Russia, we conducted other sales activities:
- Collaborated with startups. Made 3 MVP to order. At the end of 2017, we changed our approach when working with start-ups , since it is unprofitable to perform MVP with a budget of 500,000-1,500,000 rubles.
- By inertia, they worked for Upwork, but they tried to separate themselves from the Indians and Pakistanis as much as possible so as not to participate in the "rat race". Almost stopped spending time on project evaluation, if you saw that the customer is either not ready for the project, or just wants to know how much the project costs. To do this, we separately developed a set of criteria by which we evaluated the customer.
- In 2017, they began to actively create marketing materials: they supplemented the site, created several presentations, wrote a weighty document separately, why remote teams can and should be trusted. When you make contact with the decision maker (decision maker), you need marketing materials to convince you to sell yourself and your services.
- They began to build not only a network of “acquaintances", but also a network of partners who were ready to recommend us or work with us on a regular basis.
- Actively knocking on the "cold" through social. networks to IT directors of large Russian companies, received 15-20 potential sales with complete uncertainty in terms of deadlines. In the summer of 2017, this work was completely stopped, considering that we were not ready to conduct sales in such a market (“personal interest”, the ability and speed of decision-making we were very surprised). Then we made our second major “reset” in marketing and sales.
- Attended conferences (including as a speaker).
About the importance of system work
In addition to the document where we recorded friends, we created our CRM (also based on Google Sheets). There we entered contacts, communication results, status, potential and the date of the next contact with the topic of communication. The date of the next contact (DSC), in my opinion, is the most important parameter in CRM, if you do not conduct DSC systematically, on a regular basis and do not work out a reminder about yourself, then you will not find yourself at the right time and place. We went to CRM every day and worked with our leaders and clients. It happened that in a week I discussed a dozen different projects, conducted assessments, presentations (including remotely), this kind of work is very tiring, but also tempers. Each quarter, we summarized the work: “exhaust” and the potential of each sales channel.
Results of the first sales experience
In our first sales experience, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- Do not open a business if you are not willing to sell.
- Do not set outrageous goals at the start. Get 3-5 contracts for projects with a budget of up to 1 million rubles (one of our projects was with a budget of about 300,000 rubles). This will allow to gain confidence and assemble a team of the first developers, give references / portfolio.
- Selling software development services is a systematic, painstaking work. Luck does not solve anything, but it definitely helps.
- It is necessary to use the maximum of opportunities, even those that seem empty.
- If you have not increased your clients from your employer or you do not have the talent of a predictor, then you first need to “hit the squares” and take on different types of projects. It is necessary to “drown”, and at this moment forget about the fact that you have a good education, experience and other regalia. If you start “clever” and try to make plans with a fork through the water, do “everything correctly, as you read and taught,” then you will have high self-esteem, a lot of smart and correct materials and ... 0 clients. It would be more correct to admit that you are foolish and work “on the fields” 70-100 hours a week.
- Business is talking, so you need to engage in networking and build relationships with leads and partners. This will bear fruit, though not immediately.
- Study, study and study again. Periodically it is necessary to make a stop, a short breather, in order to make a correction in the work, if necessary. And then again, "drown." This is an expensive experience, but the most reliable, and in the books they will not teach what we have learned ourselves (and at the same time studied the market).
So we started by stuffing a lot of cones and collecting dozens of “rakes”. After a year of independent sales, we decided that we could afford to hire an experienced seller who would build a sales system and provide us with orders. This naive decision cost us losses in the pace of development (and only hundreds of direct losses lost hundreds of thousands of rubles; in general, we lost several million lost profits), since no one will rebuild marketing and sales better than the company's founders.
In the next article, we will explain why marketing and sales need to be done by ourselves, rather than relying on market gurus, and what minimal marketing activities a software development company must do in the 21st century in order to be able to grow steadily.
Article author: Kirill Antonov, Operations Director, Maxilect
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/347572/
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