Dear all,
We started futuretrucks on lines of uber for trucks in Delhi. A logistics service provider and in better word a trucking company. We started as a logistics aggregator and later on realised nothing like uber happens in trucking and eventually we started following DARCL business model. And as we were in a quest to build technology for our operations we ended up building a very good software product for in house use.
Now we want to market our product to our various competitors to monetize our product.
We don’t have any experience in b2b SaaS platform sells and that to in trucking where most companies are either very small or are run by highly uneducated/untrained people.
I am writing here to understand how to sell a b2b SaaS platform. Should we go with channel partners and sell this product?
This module is as good as SAP module for logistics and trucking.
Another thought is it good to equip our competitors with this product??
my personal email id harshgilda@gmail.com
twitter: @gildaharsh
Gaurav Mishra
Build a list of companies you want to go after. That you know currently use your kind of software and got enough money to pay the right price.
Identify all stakeholders, influencers, management folks, & vendor management folks. Reach out to them, stalk them and build relationships.
You’d be in the right place, now you just have to strike at the right time. Which is easier to figure out.
Good luck!
Venkat Srinivasan
For B2B product sales (Saas or otherwise), it is most important to understand which specific niche of businesses you’re serving. You may have defined this, but I could not understand it from your article. For instance, are you planning to sell to actual trucking companies? Are you planning to sell to the various tech-enabled startups that are coming up trying to organize the trucking sector?
If you’ve defined this, then you could start defining your sales strategy. Perhaps you can clarify this point further here? Then we can brainstorm on this forum.
On channel partners, yes it is a viable strategy for b2b sales. However, typically, you can only bring on channel partners when you can show them the money. And that means, showing them that your product generates has the sales potential to earn them great revenue through commissions. And that means, generating some significant initial sales through your internal team to prove yourself to others. Plus, selling yourself teaches you how to sell the product, how to price it, how to position it, what kind of sales collateral to develop. You absolutely cannot approach potential channel partners without resolving these questions for yourself first.
So my simple take on B2B sales – sell by yourself first. And if you can, share more info here, like customer segmentation & basic value proposition of your software product, then maybe we can brainstorm.
Venkat
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Can you expand on “equip our competitors with this product??
Are you saying that your competitors have better clients and reach than you but not the features you have in your product?