I've been so product-focused that I lost sight of sales. Now I can't afford product development even though we are rich with opportunity. I'm failing at the balancing act. My SaaS product needs attention as do my customers and users. But it leaves me very little time for sales. I'm sure this is a common problem but I'm not sure how to best address it. It's so problematic in fact that my developer is frustrated with the on-again-off-again nature of building this project out. I'm bootstrapping, and the little sales we do have goes right back into development. I can't say I'm a business developer, nor a sales guy, but I get out there and pitch a product I've been building with love for years so I've been able to last a few years. The product keeps getting better and better, and the feedback from customers and users has been wonderful. It's just me and a developer for hire (who also does love the project, but hasn't been interested in equity just yet). I feel this could be more, but don't know how to bridge the gap.
Hi, my name is Janis and I have gone through the situation that you are currently in and I would like to share some of my experience with you to provide you some initial guidance.
First, you need change the way you think about your company. From what I hear, you are reinvesting everything in the product development without having a sound business model. It should be clear that software development is really a never-ending story, so, rather than continuing on focusing on the technical side, you should start with the business side.
This, of course, means that you need to start from scratch. Start by identifying what problem you are solving and for whom. From there on, you should be looking for those, who are your immediate customers - whom you can sell with pretty much a single call. Provided, that you do not have a budget, you should be doing sales calls yourself in the beginning - with each and every sales call, you will either close a new customer or, more importantly, learn why they would not buy. Collect the reasons for not-buying and see what it takes to address those.
Then, depending on the budget required to address the obstacles and given the total addressable market size, it should be a good indication if you should be continuing your business development or no and in what direction.
I am here to help you, if you would like to get more hints and tips to build a sound business strategy and succeed in your business.
Answered 5 years ago
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