Creating a new product category is slow. The fastest path to revenue is building a superior solution that replaces an existing, budgeted expense. By positioning against the cost of an in-house team or a legacy service, the purchase becomes a simple replacement decision, not a new investment.
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While incumbents sell roadmaps, startups can collapse enterprise sales cycles by demonstrating a fully functional product that is provably better *today*. Showing a live, superior solution turns a year-long procurement process into a 60-day sprint for motivated buyers.
Initially, Microsoft's go-to-market strategy was not to displace competitors but to displace customers' own internal development teams. They framed their software's price as a fraction of a company's fixed in-house engineering budget, a powerful value proposition that defined a new category of B2B sales.
Stop trying to convince executives to adopt your priorities. Instead, identify their existing strategic initiatives—often with internal code names—and frame your solution as an accelerator for what they're already sold on doing. This dramatically reduces friction and speeds up deals.
Don't try to force customers to adopt new behaviors, like a boot-buyer purchasing sandals. Instead, focus on encouraging them to buy a second pair, a newer model, or an upgraded version of the product they already love. This audience-focused approach builds on existing loyalty and is far more effective.
Bootstrappers lack the capital and time to establish a new market category. A better strategy is to anchor your product in a known category (e.g., "site audit tool") and then use your unique features (e.g., "that also fixes the issues") as a key differentiator.
Don't force your sales team to learn and sell a completely new product. Instead, integrate the new capability into an existing, successful product, making it "first" or "default" for that channel. This reduces sales friction and complexity, leveraging established momentum for adoption.
A "takeaway sale" replaces an existing competitor (their toilet paper vs. yours), while a "demand gen sale" introduces a new category (a bidet). This distinction is critical because in takeaway sales, prospects already have a solution, so a pitch about your product's features is not inherently valuable.
Increase customer spending by analyzing their entire workflow, not just their interaction with your product. Identify products they purchase before using your solution. By offering these yourself (e.g., design templates for a marketing tool), you can increase your "share of wallet" and LTV.
Enterprises are comfortable buying services. Sell a service engagement first, powered by your technology on the back end, to get your foot in the door. This builds trust and bypasses procurement hurdles associated with new software. Later, you can transition them to a SaaS product model.
A common marketing mistake is being product-centric. Instead of selling a pre-packaged product, first identify the customer's primary business challenge. Then, frame and adapt your offering as the specific solution to that problem, ensuring immediate relevance and value.
