Key insights

• 💼 Top down sales involves starting with a decision maker high up in an organization and convincing them of the product's value.
• 🛑 Challenges of top down sales include getting attention, validating the problem, and dealing with bureaucratic procurement hoops.
• 📈 Top down sales are effective for products that appeal to executives, offering a proven playbook and better early retention metrics.
• 💰 Scaling top down sales requires expensive enterprise sales teams, creating a floor price for the product.
• 🎯 Bottoms Up sales involve starting with a self-serve product and focusing on cost-effective distribution channels.
• 🚀 Bottoms Up sales work best for startups addressing pain points for individuals or small teams, with easy adoption and potential viral spread, e.g., like Slack's success.
• 🔄 Efficient sales cycles and customer obsession are essential for success in Bottoms Up sales, along with frictionless product experiences.
• ⚖️ Startups can leverage both top-down and bottoms-up approaches based on the target audience and problem being solved, using A/B testing and freemium pricing strategies.

Q&A

• Is there a clear superiority between top-down and bottoms-up approaches?

  There is no clear superiority between the two approaches, and the choice should be based on the target audience and the problem being solved.

• How can startups utilize a top-down motion along with a bottoms up motion?

  Startups can use a top-down motion to sell expensive products to executives at large companies and a bottoms-up motion to acquire individual users to eventually sell to the executives.

• What recommendations are provided for startups pursuing a Bottoms Up approach?

  The recommendations include instrumenting everything to identify drop-off points, using A/B testing to fix them, leveraging freemium pricing, and using a bottoms-up motion to acquire individual users.

• What are the essential requirements for Bottoms Up sales?

  Efficient sales cycle, customer interaction, and a frictionless product experience are essential. Cold calling and customer obsession are also necessary for early-stage startups.

• What challenges are associated with building a product for passive lead generation?

  Building a product with passive lead generation is challenging in reality despite the efficiency of the model.

• What type of startups benefit from Bottoms Up sales?

  Startups addressing pain points for individuals or small teams, with easy adoption and potential viral spread, benefit from Bottoms Up sales.

• What is the focus of the Bottoms Up sales approach?

  The focus is on starting with a self-serve product and utilizing cheap distribution channels.

• What are the key steps for building a top-down sales motion?

  The key steps include defining the target customer, finding leads, gaining attention through warm introductions or cold emailing, and utilizing tools like ZoomInfo, Hunter i o, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

• What is the pricing strategy for mid-market and enterprise sales?

  The pricing strategy involves $25K for mid-market and $100K for Enterprise to ensure unit economics work.

• What are the advantages and drawbacks of top down selling?

  Advantages include a proven playbook and better early retention, while drawbacks include potential for one-off features for large customers and the need for expensive enterprise sales teams to scale.

• What types of products work well with top down sales?

  Products that appeal to executives work well with top down sales.

• What are the challenges of top down sales?

  Challenges of top down sales include getting attention, validating the problem, and navigating bureaucratic procurement hoops.

• What is top down sales?

  Top down sales involves starting with a decision maker high up in an organization and convincing them of the product's value.

• What are the two approaches to selling products to large organizations?

  The two approaches are Top down and Bottoms Up sales.

• 00:00 Top down and Bottoms Up are two different approaches to selling products to large organizations. Top down sales involves starting with a decision maker high up in an organization and convincing them of the product's value.
• 01:03 Selling top down can offer a proven playbook and better early retention, but may lead to one-off features for large customers and requires expensive enterprise sales teams to scale.
• 01:59 TLDR: Discusses the pricing strategy for mid-market and enterprise sales, provides tips for building a top-down sales motion, and outlines the approach for Bottom Up sales.
• 02:59 Focus on finding a cost-effective way to attract a large audience, then convert users into customers by offering more features or bulk pricing. Bottoms Up sales work best for startups addressing pain points for individuals or small teams, with easy adoption and potential viral spread. Slack is a prime example of successful viral adoption leading to efficient sales cycles. While the model is efficient, building a product with passive lead generation is challenging in reality.
• 03:59 Bottoms Up sales require efficient sales cycle, customer interaction, and frictionless product experience. Cold calling and customer obsession essential for early-stage startups.
• 05:03 Startups should instrument everything to identify drop-off points, use A/B testing to fix them, and leverage freemium pricing. They can use a top-down motion to sell to executives at large companies and a bottoms-up motion to acquire individual users.