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I have done this into enterprise but I would say this advice also follows for B2C. It is hard, slow but very interesting. I would suggest a couple of things: (1) there are so many “experts” on social media to follow and get up to speed. Use this to build a casual network, ask questions on the group boards on LinkedIn, and make LI connections but ask for calls for 20 minutes to pick their brains. (2) I would partner with one or two people who can fill in the gaps in terms of expertise. You can tripped up by industry norms that you don’t know about and make no sense; obscure regulation and jargon; silent influencers and just a general understanding of how an industry moves in terms of adoption etc.

Having done this into a highly technical "expert mindset" industry, which was mature, I ending up looking for a partner who could fill in the gaps. I found someone on LinkedIn that became my partner in this and was extremely helpful once I got in front of sales prospects in terms of technical language, regulatory information and experience in implementing technical solutions. By the way, as I find with all early stage sales, the things that tripped us up were not industry knowledge related but as always, how much energy your champion could into it; how much political capital they had to push stuff through and whether they’d been successful before doing this. Happy to talk to you more about my experience if that’s any help.


Answered 6 years ago

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