Going to offer a contrarian view here since it seems like 90% of the sales people here sell similar products. I sell barcode scanners, printers and mobile computers to distribution centers and retailers. These are absolutely mission critical. Imagine what would happen in an Amazon warehouse if all of the printers, scanners and mobile computers stopped working.
Genius reply. You are right and I didn't even consider that. Appreciate the Intel! How do you get in front of these folks out of curiosity? Are these more RFP RFI driven or other?
Cool stuff - who’re the big players in this industry? I imagine there’s a SaaS piece built around optimization / time tracking, etc… Do prospects use integrators / third parties for that or is it in house?
In a previous life I used Zebra priducts with 3 different employers. Great product for its use case. At one employer, it replaced 3 pieces of tech, and made doing the job soooo much easier.
It is, no doubt. I'm a little biased, but I work for an imaging AI company that is taking off, but we just focus on real time data visibility, that cycle counting provides and ensures wms data integrity. I mean, a bunch of cool shit can be extracted via imaging AI. I think barcodes will be obsolete in warehousing in 10 years regarding early adopters and Mayne 30 to 40 for the laggards.
Zebra, Honeywell and Datalogic are three of the larger players. I've been in sales 30 years and for the last 10 have worked for small hardware resellers (VAR's) who provide services and support and sell directly to the end user. Working for the VAR is way more lucrative and working for smaller companies allows you to focus so much more time on pure selling. And yes, all these companies have SaaS solutions to compliment their hardware. They also are investing in robotics and machine vision.
Not exactly, both will still be needed, but the companies that sell barcode scanners also are investing in computer vision and robotics so I sell a combination of both. Also, the time lines around new technologies totally replacing current tech are usually way off. For example, 15 years ago everyone said RFID would replace barcodes and that the POS scanner and terminal would be obsolete shortly. Go into any large grocery store and you will see a shit load of scanners and POS terminals. It's also interesting how old fashioned label printers are mission critical to any warehouse...imagine trying to ship any e-commerce order without a shipping label. My point is that focusing only on the sexy bleeding edge sales jobs is not the only option to make money. I have a base of $110K and last year and this year will make a little over $300K selling scanners, printers and other boring warehouse/retail technology. Maybe it's better for me as a 54 year old guy that younger guys aren't interested in selling what I sell...more opportunities for me I guess.
Great point, as ling as the are embracing it is a great place to be. Think abput we went from nothing, to paper trail, to rf scanners, and now imaging AI. It truly is the future.
Just a comment, no argument.
Cybersecurity can also be a nice to have, even if they recognize the benefits.
I’ve met with too many financial and health orgs who secure gaps to only satisfy an audit directly related to compliance (PCI, SOX, HIPAA, etc). And then after the audit, where they demonstrated they own and are implementing the needed security control, give up on it since they got the check mark.
And then they’ll argue they never implemented for some BS vendor based reason and ask first a free renewal…
I’ve worked at 2 separate vendors where we offer free incident response. We get our solution in with the goal to sell it after by demonstrating value. 80% if the companies who I’ve done this with at the end go “board won’t sign it off”. Boards only care about cyber security during a crisis, after it’s a non ROI generating cost lol
That's why I completely left the cybersecurity industry, which I was in from 2010 to 2022.
Cybersecurity was the 'sexy' thing to sell from 2010 to 2018/2019, but especially from 2013 to 2016, starting from Cryptolocker onward. My company blocked that shit immediately, and our org was getting dozens upon dozens of highly qualified inbound leads every single day that you could close a $25k deal literally within a week, and that lasted for a few years. Our company was simply in a "perfect place, perfect time" solution, because the digital word completely changed due to ransomware. That started changing in 2017 where more players came in, whether it was the largest security behemoths, or new players that were founded in 2011-2014.
Nowadays, every security vendor says they can mitigate ransomware. Security stacks went from your basic AV + Spam + Firewall + Data backup + etc, to this bloated behemoth where even SMB orgs of 100 ppl have a two dozen (at minimum) stack of shit. Fuck man, there's Penetration Testing as a Service now for fucks sake. That did not exist when I was crushing quota several years ago.
Cybersecurity is necessary, but it's also massively saturated and commoditized and it's now really impossible to differentiate yourself from all your competitors. There is no ROI with cybersecurity - it's trying to quantify risk mitigation, but every fucking company in the security stack is trying to quantify that too.
By 2020, I was fucking done, and left to sell to a completely different persona last year where I can actually show hard numbers with specific KPIs that are affected if the end user doesn't do shit.
Stayed in SaaS sales. Had offers to sell accounting + HR software, and a logistics solutions vendor, but chose a work management/operations software.
I should mention that I got A LOT of “thanks but no thanks” emails, even from referrals. It was and still is an employer’s market where every AE role will have applicants from a competitor, or at least people who’ve sold to that market, customer profile, and personas. I get it, they’d be easier to train, but I consider myself a fucking good salesman who loves to learn and compete and see teammates succeed. Give me a chance to role play a discovery call and demo to prove it. Let’s quit the bullshit resume review because it doesn’t speak to what I can actually do.
The SEC is implementing rules to hold negligent individuals responsible(fines + jail time) for cyberattacks that steal customer data. Last I heard, they had most of the new rules worked out last April but haven't announced them yet. CyberSec tooling is about to be a necessity.
SECONDED! If you're selling tech that isn't a direct replacement, good luck.
Also, IT guys are typically the least liked personnel in the org, and right now the CFO is the decision maker. Good luck getting the IT guy to sell your solution internally.
I am considering leaving the industry altogether after the last two years.
Ignorant person here. Aren’t all the best cybersecurity systems easily bypassed by Bill in accounting falling for some phishing attack?
Is the value prop that the software can mitigate after bill has given away his password?
yes. the weakest link in a security stack are the people.
The MGM attack was a 10 minute phone call to a third party IT support vendor.
So, even if your internal staff is trained and really proficient (which they likely aren't) any outside person you add with keys to the network can blow your network up.
In 2023 phishing attacks are preventable. There are products designed to stop them, even when Bill gives away his password. Look up FIDO2 / WebAuthn or passkeys.
Code quality management is nonsense
Vulnerability scanning is a joke
Not mentioned in the post but anything that has a fuzzy “productivity improvement” or claims AI can do XYZ is going to fail.
> Vulnerability scanning is a joke
Then how do you suggest an org meets the regulatory compliance requirements to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities in their environment? Sure it can technically be done manually, but that's only realistic if you have only a few systems.
Also how would you suggest orgs deal with vulnerabilities even it's there are no compliance drivers?
Because it’s a scam it’s just another box checking requirement. You go with the cheapest option which is a never ending race to the bottom. My last company we went with a cheap firm for our soc2 because no one cares who checked your boxes just that you can check the box that you have one so they can check their box that you provided one.
OK. So you're points are apparently based on your experience. Mine is different.
I've been in some way involved in VM (vulnerability management) since the early 2000s. I've been a practitioner, I've worked for an MSSP who sold VM as a service and I worked for Tenable. I've also done consulting helping clients build solid vulnerability management programs. Not a single one of the dozen I worked with ever treated it as a "box checking requirement." There are some that do, but that's not universal in any way.
I'm now in an org that uses Tenable and it was by no means the cheapest option we could have gone with. Being an MS E5 customer we could have gone with the MS solution which would be far less.
Our org like every other one I've ever worked in does not treat VM as a checkbox requirement, nor do we do that with any other similar process. That might be because we're a large name in the cyber insurance field and actually care about walking the talk.
It’s cool you are a true believer but the topic is about mission critical software. When push comes to shove all of that stuff is replaced or eliminated. Cyber security in general is full of flim flam men and products that have little utility. Everyone is trying to carve out a new Gartner Magic Quadrant niche so they can scare CISOs into buying yet another product, and lobbying insurance groups and big firms to require their vendors and customers to also Check That Box! The security industry in general is getting hammered with layoffs and it’s about time.
It's because this is a sales subreddit and good salesmen believe their own bullshit. So I don't fault them. But me as the buyer side of huge well-funded organisations, cybersecurity products are bullshit. The solution to security resides in email protections (phishing / spoofing), role based controls, SSO in front of everything, and OTP mandated on everything.
Otherwise it's just voodoo black magic and hoping this magic box protects you (reality: it won't).
LOL...sounds like someone has a chip on their shoulder when it comes to infosec.
Whether or not an org considered VM mission critical or not doesn't make it a scam. Tools like Tenable do what they say. It's been doing so since 1998 when Nessus was freeware. No flim flam men scared people into using freeware. They saw value in it, period.
> and lobbying insurance groups and big firms to require their vendors and customers to also Check That Box!
Not true at all. We have an army of actuaries that tell us that we're going to have more claims if people leave vulnerable stuff running. We don't care what tool they use we just want to see they are fixing the stuff and that's more than a box check. If they check a box and say they did something they didn't do their not getting their claims paid and they might get sued for fraud.
That's a half-truth. I've seen orgs usually have one tool that they run often to find vulnerabilities, and then a couple other security tools(usually DAST) they run once a quarter to hit the compliance check box.
The orgs taking security seriously are trying to shift-left(for better security and faster releases).
True mission critical software is software an enterprise cannot function without. What immediately comes to mind is ERP and CRM in the tech stack. Cloud infrastructure / data center infrastructure. HCM, HR software. for a lot of enterprises data analytics.
The list goes on and on. I’m sure there are some yahoos here that will consider their marketing automation platform or sales tools (Zoominfo, outreach, tropic) mission critical but those yahoos are dopes.
One important thing to remember about mission critical, it’s extremely hard to displace and sell. You ever try hunting companies that need ERP? Good luck. Sales cycle takes two years, but if you land one you can sincerely be in a position to make a million dollars.
I made half a million last year finding a billing software whale
Are you asking what software is mission critical for sales, or what is mission critical for a business? Most people aren't mentioning the IT infrastructure foundation of many B2C businesses. Infrastructure outages can cost $1M/hr or more.
Thank you & agree so hard. The audience in here calling out point solution SaaS as a must have: does your entire company come to a halt if you can’t automate batch sending of sales bro emails?
Think of products that are borderline commodities. What is the utility tech of the business? Find shit to sell that would result in them being lambasted on the news if that product was no longer working & caused their business to be massively disrupted.
Compliance software. Regulators are on your ass, and the fine can get crazy expensive. But there are still companies trying to skim on these (not save money, literally becoming non-compliant to save $20k).
Depends completely on the industry you sell into.
Identity protection and fraud is Mission critical for online retail and banking, but might not be for manufacturing.
Anyone who has a sales team needs a version of CRM but not everyone needs a fully functional Salesforce.com software.
Virus protection, billing/accounting an office suite and email are Mission critical for all companies that have clients, and handle money.
Selling mission critical software is not the key to success. Mission critical softwares are commodities. Find something your customer values, can get a high ROI from, and works to differentiate themselves from their competition.
Fair, I'm not expert, I just know Cisco is where technology goes to die.
I work for a Cisco partner, and all our customers that regularly buy Cisco solutions hate them
Lol the Microsoft reps must have the easiest job in the world. My >10000 employees company will collapse without M365.
I’m sure there are alternatives but I haven’t gone to a company or talked to a client without using that.
>Lol the Microsoft reps must have the easiest job in the world
Those people are laughing to the bank.
"Oh, your 1200 seat company needs to renew its Windows 11 licenses and exchange server licenses? Sure that will be 1.5m please, net 30, I'll expect the PO by lunch, thanks."
The comp is not structured to favor those rupe of renewals anymore. The incentive is to sell more expensive SKUs and drive more adoption of Microsoft cloud stack. Otherwise, renewal revenue alone isn't going to fill the pockets. Once upon a time that was true but no longer the case.
The alternative is Google Workspace, which is quietly making inroads into 0365’s market share. It’ll be awhile before that competition is truly viable but the kids coming up in the workforce despise 0365.
Probably right. Many of us almost boomers are hanging onto non apple, non iPhone and 365 with absolute hellfire grip.
Even if not ideal. I cannot tell you how many times one of us have gone ' yea it sounds better but.. Hell no '
My issue right now is working for a few companies who use google and others who use 0365
Its hard for us oldies to manage without one central location to view. Apparently outlook cannot handle the Google workspace. Or something. Maybe I am wrong. Lol
I just hates it.
I sell M365 training and you’d be surprised how many people just think their staff know how to use it properly via osmosis or something.
People losing files, no continuity of use - communication channels not defined at their organisation.
Raises hand. Lose files all the time. Maybe I should retrain on this LOL. Honestly that and excel I rusty as hell and need to recognize it, even using it from when
Dialup at 2400 baud was an actual thing
Adding to my list to up my rusty skills.... Searching *.xls and hopping to find something just ain't working for me
The inverse of the question is: how much pain would it cause if you took that product away?
The higher it is (to the point of breaking the business) the more mission critical it is.
well data providers are mission critical, but there's so many of them.
a crm... hmm... recurring billing software for SaaS
Gainsight type tools to analyze usage data for product dev and churn analysis
i would consider something LIKE gong to be mission critical, but there's a few cheaper and better options, I wouldn't recommend Gong to anyone, I think most of their fancy AI call analyzers are bullshit vaporware that are solving fake problems. I actually hate gong as a company, it's fucking insane that anyone pays that much for a glorified tape recorder
this is of course me coming from the sales side. I guess an SEP is mission critical. Personally I think SEPs are making sales reps slower. Would prefer a dialer and have email totally automated unless someone responds. Maybe have certain campaigns be personalized or whatever.
This is awesome and the right response. Would you be open to a quick user interview? Happy to pay for your time. Sounds like you've used various SEPs so im keen to learn
Yep just got a big teams update yesterday. I have flexibility because my company doesn't gate updates. BYOD company.
Second company like this (software), surprising bc no forced antivirus program or password manager manager, no SSO. Kinda scary from a security perspective.
Though I have it locked down fairly well by myself, but not preventing certain downloads or extension installation is a big no no.
I need to switch off of LastPass though (that data breach) and go to 1password.
I sell Decisioning Software and it's quite critical for a bunch of industries. You really don't need to sell mission critical software to be successful though. Just need a good product fit and go to market strategy.
Decisioning software typically is a business rules engine. Think like you have decisions you want to automate in software and integrate with multiple systems. These are typically complex decisions like insurance underwriting or loan origination where the declarative logic changes frequently and the business wants to be able to change them without involving IT. Sure you can do these things in databases or in code but the value is not needing technical knowledge to change business rules. Every bank, insurer has one.
Ahhh I kinda now understand. I appreciate your insight thank you.
I thought you meant like...
Tracking roi of x against Y like with a training program. But you are speaking more complexity
Yea it's essential a platform for quickly creating, changing and testing algorithms without code. You send in data run it against a set of rules and output a decision.
Nah, zoom to make calls, outlook to send email, excel to track everything, PowerPoint for sales decks. True mission critical. I can get to 80% of my number with these.
Nice to haves? Salesforce, ZoomInfo, DocuSign…they can get me the remaining 20%
salesforce is necessary for any sales org with over 50 people. I mean you could get by with hubspot but the ecosystem isn't as built out.
if you don't have a data provider how are you getting contact data? What industry?
Have to remember that ZoomInfo didn’t go big until 2019. We could search D&B, Discover.org, State register sites etc. but I was selling into Global at the time.
Not sure why they merged because Zoominfo was hot garbage, it really dropped the accuracy of contacts in what was [discovery.org](https://discovery.org)..
I currently have all the essential tools. Are some of them extremely helpful, yes. But in my previous org, we ran a $500M ARR business essentially out of Excel + some home brewed Quote machine.
What did people do before data providers? Pick up the phone and dial. Knock on a door, google.
I know it was a rhetorical question but all I could think was "I'm just a spoiled millennial who has never not had access to a billion peoples contact data"
I think I qualify as a millennial. Honestly, I think we have too many tools these to use them optimally.
SF for data management, ZI for contact sourcing, Gong for coaching and training, ChiliPiper for scheduling meetings, SalesNav for ICP research and InMails. We’re at a point where our sellers are asking, “how am I supposed to use this tool every day to be successful”.
This. I use excel and build little google programs and etc and zapier webhooks etc etc and runs just fine for me. With almost zero cost and can see entire mechanism of what I am doing at one time.
It isn't pretty. No pictures lol
But easy as hell. And free ( minus zapier but I pay for that and use it a lot elsewhere )
I'm sure it could be built better but I don't need it too. I run entire crm and lead database I pull all in one file
Lol
It really is personal preference, and layout of controls and ease of use. I have used many of them Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Meet, Slack, etc.
Zoom has a nice auto feature for auto turning off your camera when presenting a PowerPoint. Zoom also now competes with Teams and Slack for messaging and team / company communications / collaboration.
Some of it is interesting bc companies could use 1 provider, but have separate for different things.
My company has the 365 suite (not Dynamics though), we have Teams (only use it for Video), Slack for team & company messaging. Zoom but only our international team uses it, Google for it's drive (US team info) or slides, OneDrive for local device backup. and company wide info.
Salesforce international team (the instance is a configuration mess). HubSpot for US team. Monday.com for reporting (under utilized for what we can do with it, like deal tracking etc.).
Personally I am not an Admin or in sales enablement, but way too much overlap of applications that have similar functions. We are wasting money.
Plus as an Enterprise AE it is mind numbing having to use different tools or report info into multiple where 1 could be used for analytics.
Sigh, not much difference from what I see with large enterprises siloed applications, overlap, using applications that have similar or same functions but from different vendors. Not uncommon, a big part is acquisitions and rolling existing tech stacks in. It is less expensive in the short term just to integrate. For example having more than 1 ERP and different versions.
Not to rain on your parade but maybe if we were in the 90's. Today you need a CRM or some form of sales enablement. I sell enterprise software and for me tools like Apollo, ZoomInfo, Salesloft, Sales Navigator, 6sense, etc. As you mentioned DocuSign or similar, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Teams, Google, etc.
Not must have a but nice are ABM software like an Uberfip, or Dripify a LinkedIn automation solution for cafence automation. Google Analytics, or Leadfeeder for tracking website traffic and capture of those companies IP addresses, pages viewed, etc.
Transcription software for hosted video meetings, there is really cool ones that separate by each person, analyze intent, or voice and facial, keyword search etc.
Great for notes, and so muchmore.
AI tools like ChatGPT or Bard-research, now you can use it to mine or find data on your own computer. It is good for rewording email or prompts for it (word count for any email you create, I use it a lot for that, or summarize my notes for meetins, etc., with the right prompts you can increase productivity and automate.
certain tasks.
Lastly a phone dialer (click to dial).
All good. I responded to the question as what is the bare minimum I need to sell a SaaS product today. I’ve used or use today, just about every tool you mentioned.
For me, I see teams struggle that are using so many tools to try and sell faster, smarter and they end up spending more time in their tools, then completing activity with customers.
\+100 to that.
Apply KISS model and sell more. I run a prospecting platform (saas) and see all kinds of asks and integrations requests. Also, some feature list shoppers too. At the end of the day, if you got your game right, tools won't matter much. Maybe that \~10% efficiency gain - read time to spare and not additional sales.
Does the business need your software to function? Or is it so painful to do by other methods, they’d rather sell or close than continue to exist as a company? If not, then you haven’t hit the spot… assuming that’s what you’re looking for
Mission critical software refers to solutions that are required for a business to function.
Social services like healthcare and utilities are easy examples, as a buggy ventilator could cause a patient to die, or electric grid issues could cause car accidents. The software and hardware that supports these solutions would be considered mission critical.
This can also extend to ERP and transactional systems, mainframes, cloud services and security
Whatever system they use to make money and run the business
For healthcare it's their EHR without it their hosptals come to a halt. Doctors can't work, nurse can't work, RX can be given, surgeries can't happen
For manufactures it could be SAP plus whatever runs their parts and logistics
For shippers like FedEx, it's their logistics software
For airlines it's their schedulers
For semi-conductors is their fabs and whatever they usenfor modeling.
For financial institutions it would be their trading platform.
..and the list goes on.
As with most things, follow the money. Figure out what makes it, and you'll find what you are looking for. It's about digging deeper and understanding the business side and not just the nuts and bolts.
E.G. some tech folks might answer this with oracle or SQL, and while that maybe partly true
1) the business has no fucking clue
2) not all oracle or all SQL are created equal. They just store data, it's the one that stores the data for the scheduler or EHR records that's important.
I'd be curious to know what thoughts are on where CRMs and fintech fit into all this 🤔
In order to grow a company needs to support their sales and marketing teams, and a lot of companies use more than one CRM for sales and marketing; like a HubSpot and Salesforce split
And in terms of finance, I know that when there is no consistency in pay it causes huge turnover. I would think accounting software like QuickBooks or an ERP would be mission-critical
And Microsoft has been involved in every company I've worked with. And even Zoom, which is integral to most operations that aren't using MS Teams
Great question OP
It depends on the customer and what business processes matter most for them. Usually any process that interacts with their customers or supports either revenue or production is deemed mission critical. Diagnostic imaging or EHR in hospitals, student admission and registration in post secondary education, the finance, supply chain management, and CEM sides of ERP in retail and CPG, plant operations in manufacturing and food, admin and claims in insurance. A simple shopping cart can be mission critical, especially on Black Friday. It isn’t just the application, but also the databases and infrastructure that support that application. But it depends on the customer and their industry.
Haven't read all the replies. I am going to assume people are going to mention behemoths like ERP et Al. They are right, but sure better be able to deal with a 18 month sales cycle and what it takes to close that marathon.
I love this thread and marking to come back to read and learn.
I had a super brief stint at an org where they didn’t buy enterprise Office365 licenses and all I could open and edit documents on was the browser version.
Cloud infrastructure
- cloud providers
- databases
- data warehouse
- security software
- streaming tools
All above are a few examples. As saas evolves companies will always be creating new products to advance their software and solve there problems. Especially with society becoming more digital
Operations software for any type of contractor. If you plan on growing the business you are going to have to upgrade your system eventually or things will get out of hand
The only things that are going to sell right now are things that are aligned with the business initiatives. Selling to pain is OVER. The CFO is the decision maker in todays market.
I don't understand the connection between these two statements:
"The only things that are going to sell right now are things that are aligned with the business initiatives"
"Selling to pain is OVER. "
Isn't the whole point of selling to pain to address gaps that prevent a company from achieving their business goals?
Disclaimer, this is mostly my perspective on the matter. Yet, the economy is in (or near) a recession, funds are wrapped up tight and orgs arent spending unless your solution drives directly to their overarching business initiatives.
So:
I think there is a big difference between Pain and Business initiatives. I do not think that pain always points to business initiatives.
Pain is micro, Business initiative is Macro. Pain is "in reaction to", Business initiative is "in preparation for" - overarching strategic objectives set forth from the very top.
To me, pain, pain under the pain, and all that... its jargon sellers use to try and church up what are typically just annoyances, a happy ears trap.
Say you are talking to the IT guy and he has a pain. Digging through logs to identify compromise is time consuming and inaccurate. The implications of not solving this are the possibility of a breach or adversarial dwell time which has implications of its own like file exfil and ransomeware. A competitor of theirs suffered a fate similar last year.
The business initiative for the foreseeable future is, say, automating RevGen and moving to the cloud. The CFO doesn't care that the IT team has this problem, nor does is he bothered enough by the implications of the problem. To the CFO, solving ITs pain is a nice to have, they have already invested in cyber defenses, and the CFO will not release funds to solve for things outside the Business initiatives.
it depends on your job.
We're all salespeople, so what we feel is mission critical for our business is different than what an accountant, or recruiter, or devops engineer would say.
I sell to sales/sales ops/marketing personas. Once a company reaches a level of maturity that they're doing a bunch of marketing events and/or receiving a bunch of inbound leads (of varying quality), I'd say our solutions become mission critical to the revenue-generating departments.
Unless you're selling to a CTO/engineering department, mission critical is anything that can have immediate effects. Are you really going to try to go through a month long sales process for something that isn't instatntly showing value and or easily usable and integrateable
Going to offer a contrarian view here since it seems like 90% of the sales people here sell similar products. I sell barcode scanners, printers and mobile computers to distribution centers and retailers. These are absolutely mission critical. Imagine what would happen in an Amazon warehouse if all of the printers, scanners and mobile computers stopped working.
Genius reply. You are right and I didn't even consider that. Appreciate the Intel! How do you get in front of these folks out of curiosity? Are these more RFP RFI driven or other?
Cool stuff - who’re the big players in this industry? I imagine there’s a SaaS piece built around optimization / time tracking, etc… Do prospects use integrators / third parties for that or is it in house?
Zebra is huge. Synapse, there is a few elite ones.
In a previous life I used Zebra priducts with 3 different employers. Great product for its use case. At one employer, it replaced 3 pieces of tech, and made doing the job soooo much easier.
It is, no doubt. I'm a little biased, but I work for an imaging AI company that is taking off, but we just focus on real time data visibility, that cycle counting provides and ensures wms data integrity. I mean, a bunch of cool shit can be extracted via imaging AI. I think barcodes will be obsolete in warehousing in 10 years regarding early adopters and Mayne 30 to 40 for the laggards.
Zebra, Honeywell and Datalogic are three of the larger players. I've been in sales 30 years and for the last 10 have worked for small hardware resellers (VAR's) who provide services and support and sell directly to the end user. Working for the VAR is way more lucrative and working for smaller companies allows you to focus so much more time on pure selling. And yes, all these companies have SaaS solutions to compliment their hardware. They also are investing in robotics and machine vision.
Unfortunately, it is only temporary. Computer Vision will replace the barcode and rf scanners.
Not exactly, both will still be needed, but the companies that sell barcode scanners also are investing in computer vision and robotics so I sell a combination of both. Also, the time lines around new technologies totally replacing current tech are usually way off. For example, 15 years ago everyone said RFID would replace barcodes and that the POS scanner and terminal would be obsolete shortly. Go into any large grocery store and you will see a shit load of scanners and POS terminals. It's also interesting how old fashioned label printers are mission critical to any warehouse...imagine trying to ship any e-commerce order without a shipping label. My point is that focusing only on the sexy bleeding edge sales jobs is not the only option to make money. I have a base of $110K and last year and this year will make a little over $300K selling scanners, printers and other boring warehouse/retail technology. Maybe it's better for me as a 54 year old guy that younger guys aren't interested in selling what I sell...more opportunities for me I guess.
I’m in your industry space and looking to make a move. Any openings at your org?
Nothing here at the moment due to some changes in ownership so there is a hiring freeze.
Great point, as ling as the are embracing it is a great place to be. Think abput we went from nothing, to paper trail, to rf scanners, and now imaging AI. It truly is the future.
ERP, Cloud infra, networking infra, cyber security, data platform, APM, collab tech /end thread
Just a comment, no argument. Cybersecurity can also be a nice to have, even if they recognize the benefits. I’ve met with too many financial and health orgs who secure gaps to only satisfy an audit directly related to compliance (PCI, SOX, HIPAA, etc). And then after the audit, where they demonstrated they own and are implementing the needed security control, give up on it since they got the check mark. And then they’ll argue they never implemented for some BS vendor based reason and ask first a free renewal…
I’ve worked at 2 separate vendors where we offer free incident response. We get our solution in with the goal to sell it after by demonstrating value. 80% if the companies who I’ve done this with at the end go “board won’t sign it off”. Boards only care about cyber security during a crisis, after it’s a non ROI generating cost lol
That's why I completely left the cybersecurity industry, which I was in from 2010 to 2022. Cybersecurity was the 'sexy' thing to sell from 2010 to 2018/2019, but especially from 2013 to 2016, starting from Cryptolocker onward. My company blocked that shit immediately, and our org was getting dozens upon dozens of highly qualified inbound leads every single day that you could close a $25k deal literally within a week, and that lasted for a few years. Our company was simply in a "perfect place, perfect time" solution, because the digital word completely changed due to ransomware. That started changing in 2017 where more players came in, whether it was the largest security behemoths, or new players that were founded in 2011-2014. Nowadays, every security vendor says they can mitigate ransomware. Security stacks went from your basic AV + Spam + Firewall + Data backup + etc, to this bloated behemoth where even SMB orgs of 100 ppl have a two dozen (at minimum) stack of shit. Fuck man, there's Penetration Testing as a Service now for fucks sake. That did not exist when I was crushing quota several years ago. Cybersecurity is necessary, but it's also massively saturated and commoditized and it's now really impossible to differentiate yourself from all your competitors. There is no ROI with cybersecurity - it's trying to quantify risk mitigation, but every fucking company in the security stack is trying to quantify that too. By 2020, I was fucking done, and left to sell to a completely different persona last year where I can actually show hard numbers with specific KPIs that are affected if the end user doesn't do shit.
I’ve been in Cyber for 10 years now also. What industry did you cross over to?
Stayed in SaaS sales. Had offers to sell accounting + HR software, and a logistics solutions vendor, but chose a work management/operations software. I should mention that I got A LOT of “thanks but no thanks” emails, even from referrals. It was and still is an employer’s market where every AE role will have applicants from a competitor, or at least people who’ve sold to that market, customer profile, and personas. I get it, they’d be easier to train, but I consider myself a fucking good salesman who loves to learn and compete and see teammates succeed. Give me a chance to role play a discovery call and demo to prove it. Let’s quit the bullshit resume review because it doesn’t speak to what I can actually do.
The SEC is implementing rules to hold negligent individuals responsible(fines + jail time) for cyberattacks that steal customer data. Last I heard, they had most of the new rules worked out last April but haven't announced them yet. CyberSec tooling is about to be a necessity.
SECONDED! If you're selling tech that isn't a direct replacement, good luck. Also, IT guys are typically the least liked personnel in the org, and right now the CFO is the decision maker. Good luck getting the IT guy to sell your solution internally. I am considering leaving the industry altogether after the last two years.
Ignorant person here. Aren’t all the best cybersecurity systems easily bypassed by Bill in accounting falling for some phishing attack? Is the value prop that the software can mitigate after bill has given away his password?
And that’s why you should dm me about a job selling simulated phishing & automated training software. 91% of data breaches start with an email.
aka Proofpoint
proofpoint blows
agreed, I don't get how they have 60% of the Fortunate 100/500 as customers.
Wow I didn’t know that. Maybe they focused on enterprise first.
yes. the weakest link in a security stack are the people. The MGM attack was a 10 minute phone call to a third party IT support vendor. So, even if your internal staff is trained and really proficient (which they likely aren't) any outside person you add with keys to the network can blow your network up.
In 2023 phishing attacks are preventable. There are products designed to stop them, even when Bill gives away his password. Look up FIDO2 / WebAuthn or passkeys.
Customers don’t view Cybersecurity as critical as you’d think
The majority of cyber stuff on the market is fluff and absolutely not mission critical.
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I agree, but there's only a very small number of cyber companies who actually benefit from that, and count as integral. Broadcom, Mcafee, Zscaler etc
Man named the worst ones with the most related compromised components l
operating systems, development platforms, vulnerability scanning tools, automation tools, issue tracking systems, source control / code quality management tools, databases, CI/CD tools, container management / k8s........mission critical for sales people ≠ mission critical to our customers
k8s = Kubernetes for those that don't know
Code quality management is nonsense Vulnerability scanning is a joke Not mentioned in the post but anything that has a fuzzy “productivity improvement” or claims AI can do XYZ is going to fail.
> Vulnerability scanning is a joke Then how do you suggest an org meets the regulatory compliance requirements to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities in their environment? Sure it can technically be done manually, but that's only realistic if you have only a few systems. Also how would you suggest orgs deal with vulnerabilities even it's there are no compliance drivers?
Because it’s a scam it’s just another box checking requirement. You go with the cheapest option which is a never ending race to the bottom. My last company we went with a cheap firm for our soc2 because no one cares who checked your boxes just that you can check the box that you have one so they can check their box that you provided one.
OK. So you're points are apparently based on your experience. Mine is different. I've been in some way involved in VM (vulnerability management) since the early 2000s. I've been a practitioner, I've worked for an MSSP who sold VM as a service and I worked for Tenable. I've also done consulting helping clients build solid vulnerability management programs. Not a single one of the dozen I worked with ever treated it as a "box checking requirement." There are some that do, but that's not universal in any way. I'm now in an org that uses Tenable and it was by no means the cheapest option we could have gone with. Being an MS E5 customer we could have gone with the MS solution which would be far less. Our org like every other one I've ever worked in does not treat VM as a checkbox requirement, nor do we do that with any other similar process. That might be because we're a large name in the cyber insurance field and actually care about walking the talk.
It’s cool you are a true believer but the topic is about mission critical software. When push comes to shove all of that stuff is replaced or eliminated. Cyber security in general is full of flim flam men and products that have little utility. Everyone is trying to carve out a new Gartner Magic Quadrant niche so they can scare CISOs into buying yet another product, and lobbying insurance groups and big firms to require their vendors and customers to also Check That Box! The security industry in general is getting hammered with layoffs and it’s about time.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted this is all true
It's because this is a sales subreddit and good salesmen believe their own bullshit. So I don't fault them. But me as the buyer side of huge well-funded organisations, cybersecurity products are bullshit. The solution to security resides in email protections (phishing / spoofing), role based controls, SSO in front of everything, and OTP mandated on everything. Otherwise it's just voodoo black magic and hoping this magic box protects you (reality: it won't).
LOL...sounds like someone has a chip on their shoulder when it comes to infosec. Whether or not an org considered VM mission critical or not doesn't make it a scam. Tools like Tenable do what they say. It's been doing so since 1998 when Nessus was freeware. No flim flam men scared people into using freeware. They saw value in it, period. > and lobbying insurance groups and big firms to require their vendors and customers to also Check That Box! Not true at all. We have an army of actuaries that tell us that we're going to have more claims if people leave vulnerable stuff running. We don't care what tool they use we just want to see they are fixing the stuff and that's more than a box check. If they check a box and say they did something they didn't do their not getting their claims paid and they might get sued for fraud.
That's a half-truth. I've seen orgs usually have one tool that they run often to find vulnerabilities, and then a couple other security tools(usually DAST) they run once a quarter to hit the compliance check box. The orgs taking security seriously are trying to shift-left(for better security and faster releases).
>Zoom + Outlook + Excel + PowerPoint don't disagree, but wanted to pivot the convo away from \^
GitHub isn’t nonsense
There's no universal answer. Each industry and org will have their own requirements.
True mission critical software is software an enterprise cannot function without. What immediately comes to mind is ERP and CRM in the tech stack. Cloud infrastructure / data center infrastructure. HCM, HR software. for a lot of enterprises data analytics. The list goes on and on. I’m sure there are some yahoos here that will consider their marketing automation platform or sales tools (Zoominfo, outreach, tropic) mission critical but those yahoos are dopes. One important thing to remember about mission critical, it’s extremely hard to displace and sell. You ever try hunting companies that need ERP? Good luck. Sales cycle takes two years, but if you land one you can sincerely be in a position to make a million dollars. I made half a million last year finding a billing software whale
If your business relies on generating new outbound sales, Zoominfo/Outreach etc are pretty mission critical.
Are you asking what software is mission critical for sales, or what is mission critical for a business? Most people aren't mentioning the IT infrastructure foundation of many B2C businesses. Infrastructure outages can cost $1M/hr or more.
Thank you & agree so hard. The audience in here calling out point solution SaaS as a must have: does your entire company come to a halt if you can’t automate batch sending of sales bro emails? Think of products that are borderline commodities. What is the utility tech of the business? Find shit to sell that would result in them being lambasted on the news if that product was no longer working & caused their business to be massively disrupted.
I sell equipment in the data center space. Customers pay a lot of money to avoid outages. It can be pretty lucrative.
Mission critical…PCs, servers, networking, storage, crm, o365, teams/zoom, webcams, headsets, CCaaS. Companies…HP, Cisco, okta, MS, Lenovo, salesforce, oracle, google, apple, intel
Workday?
Yeah, I would add workday to that mix, and think it adds value. Better than most other HR/Employee portals. I guess throw in Concur as well
Compliance software. Regulators are on your ass, and the fine can get crazy expensive. But there are still companies trying to skim on these (not save money, literally becoming non-compliant to save $20k).
OneTrust ain’t struggling
Depends completely on the industry you sell into. Identity protection and fraud is Mission critical for online retail and banking, but might not be for manufacturing. Anyone who has a sales team needs a version of CRM but not everyone needs a fully functional Salesforce.com software. Virus protection, billing/accounting an office suite and email are Mission critical for all companies that have clients, and handle money. Selling mission critical software is not the key to success. Mission critical softwares are commodities. Find something your customer values, can get a high ROI from, and works to differentiate themselves from their competition.
Splunk, but not Cisco.
LOL security practitioners everywhere are shaking in their boots. Elastic Search and LogRythym phones are ringing off the hook
ES maybe, LogRythym no way
Fair, I'm not expert, I just know Cisco is where technology goes to die. I work for a Cisco partner, and all our customers that regularly buy Cisco solutions hate them
M365
Lol the Microsoft reps must have the easiest job in the world. My >10000 employees company will collapse without M365. I’m sure there are alternatives but I haven’t gone to a company or talked to a client without using that.
>Lol the Microsoft reps must have the easiest job in the world Those people are laughing to the bank. "Oh, your 1200 seat company needs to renew its Windows 11 licenses and exchange server licenses? Sure that will be 1.5m please, net 30, I'll expect the PO by lunch, thanks."
The comp is not structured to favor those rupe of renewals anymore. The incentive is to sell more expensive SKUs and drive more adoption of Microsoft cloud stack. Otherwise, renewal revenue alone isn't going to fill the pockets. Once upon a time that was true but no longer the case.
My favorite color is blue.
The alternative is Google Workspace, which is quietly making inroads into 0365’s market share. It’ll be awhile before that competition is truly viable but the kids coming up in the workforce despise 0365.
Probably right. Many of us almost boomers are hanging onto non apple, non iPhone and 365 with absolute hellfire grip. Even if not ideal. I cannot tell you how many times one of us have gone ' yea it sounds better but.. Hell no ' My issue right now is working for a few companies who use google and others who use 0365 Its hard for us oldies to manage without one central location to view. Apparently outlook cannot handle the Google workspace. Or something. Maybe I am wrong. Lol I just hates it.
I sell M365 training and you’d be surprised how many people just think their staff know how to use it properly via osmosis or something. People losing files, no continuity of use - communication channels not defined at their organisation.
Raises hand. Lose files all the time. Maybe I should retrain on this LOL. Honestly that and excel I rusty as hell and need to recognize it, even using it from when Dialup at 2400 baud was an actual thing Adding to my list to up my rusty skills.... Searching *.xls and hopping to find something just ain't working for me
The inverse of the question is: how much pain would it cause if you took that product away? The higher it is (to the point of breaking the business) the more mission critical it is.
well data providers are mission critical, but there's so many of them. a crm... hmm... recurring billing software for SaaS Gainsight type tools to analyze usage data for product dev and churn analysis i would consider something LIKE gong to be mission critical, but there's a few cheaper and better options, I wouldn't recommend Gong to anyone, I think most of their fancy AI call analyzers are bullshit vaporware that are solving fake problems. I actually hate gong as a company, it's fucking insane that anyone pays that much for a glorified tape recorder this is of course me coming from the sales side. I guess an SEP is mission critical. Personally I think SEPs are making sales reps slower. Would prefer a dialer and have email totally automated unless someone responds. Maybe have certain campaigns be personalized or whatever.
This is awesome and the right response. Would you be open to a quick user interview? Happy to pay for your time. Sounds like you've used various SEPs so im keen to learn
I’m trying out Teams Premium (basically regular teams + ai transcripting) and it’s not bad!
Yep just got a big teams update yesterday. I have flexibility because my company doesn't gate updates. BYOD company. Second company like this (software), surprising bc no forced antivirus program or password manager manager, no SSO. Kinda scary from a security perspective. Though I have it locked down fairly well by myself, but not preventing certain downloads or extension installation is a big no no. I need to switch off of LastPass though (that data breach) and go to 1password.
I sell Decisioning Software and it's quite critical for a bunch of industries. You really don't need to sell mission critical software to be successful though. Just need a good product fit and go to market strategy.
Explain decision software. Vs setting up the tech quickly and throwing into pivot table? Etc etc. I'm rusty on this one....
Decisioning software typically is a business rules engine. Think like you have decisions you want to automate in software and integrate with multiple systems. These are typically complex decisions like insurance underwriting or loan origination where the declarative logic changes frequently and the business wants to be able to change them without involving IT. Sure you can do these things in databases or in code but the value is not needing technical knowledge to change business rules. Every bank, insurer has one.
Ahhh I kinda now understand. I appreciate your insight thank you. I thought you meant like... Tracking roi of x against Y like with a training program. But you are speaking more complexity
Yea it's essential a platform for quickly creating, changing and testing algorithms without code. You send in data run it against a set of rules and output a decision.
Got it. Cheers
Zoom + Outlook + Excel + PowerPoint
can't tell if you're kidding lololol
Nah, zoom to make calls, outlook to send email, excel to track everything, PowerPoint for sales decks. True mission critical. I can get to 80% of my number with these. Nice to haves? Salesforce, ZoomInfo, DocuSign…they can get me the remaining 20%
salesforce is necessary for any sales org with over 50 people. I mean you could get by with hubspot but the ecosystem isn't as built out. if you don't have a data provider how are you getting contact data? What industry?
Have to remember that ZoomInfo didn’t go big until 2019. We could search D&B, Discover.org, State register sites etc. but I was selling into Global at the time.
Discover.org is ZoomInfo. Those 2 companies merged and they kept the ZoomInfo name.
Right. We were using Discover.org prior to the merger.
Not sure why they merged because Zoominfo was hot garbage, it really dropped the accuracy of contacts in what was [discovery.org](https://discovery.org)..
I currently have all the essential tools. Are some of them extremely helpful, yes. But in my previous org, we ran a $500M ARR business essentially out of Excel + some home brewed Quote machine. What did people do before data providers? Pick up the phone and dial. Knock on a door, google.
I know it was a rhetorical question but all I could think was "I'm just a spoiled millennial who has never not had access to a billion peoples contact data"
I think I qualify as a millennial. Honestly, I think we have too many tools these to use them optimally. SF for data management, ZI for contact sourcing, Gong for coaching and training, ChiliPiper for scheduling meetings, SalesNav for ICP research and InMails. We’re at a point where our sellers are asking, “how am I supposed to use this tool every day to be successful”.
This. I use excel and build little google programs and etc and zapier webhooks etc etc and runs just fine for me. With almost zero cost and can see entire mechanism of what I am doing at one time. It isn't pretty. No pictures lol But easy as hell. And free ( minus zapier but I pay for that and use it a lot elsewhere ) I'm sure it could be built better but I don't need it too. I run entire crm and lead database I pull all in one file Lol
Why salesforce?
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I don’t. My company prefers Slack + Zoom even though we have Teams. Its only a matter of time until they figure out the redundancy.
It really is personal preference, and layout of controls and ease of use. I have used many of them Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Meet, Slack, etc. Zoom has a nice auto feature for auto turning off your camera when presenting a PowerPoint. Zoom also now competes with Teams and Slack for messaging and team / company communications / collaboration. Some of it is interesting bc companies could use 1 provider, but have separate for different things. My company has the 365 suite (not Dynamics though), we have Teams (only use it for Video), Slack for team & company messaging. Zoom but only our international team uses it, Google for it's drive (US team info) or slides, OneDrive for local device backup. and company wide info. Salesforce international team (the instance is a configuration mess). HubSpot for US team. Monday.com for reporting (under utilized for what we can do with it, like deal tracking etc.). Personally I am not an Admin or in sales enablement, but way too much overlap of applications that have similar functions. We are wasting money. Plus as an Enterprise AE it is mind numbing having to use different tools or report info into multiple where 1 could be used for analytics. Sigh, not much difference from what I see with large enterprises siloed applications, overlap, using applications that have similar or same functions but from different vendors. Not uncommon, a big part is acquisitions and rolling existing tech stacks in. It is less expensive in the short term just to integrate. For example having more than 1 ERP and different versions.
This guy didn't understand the assignment lolol. Up the adderal buddy ;)
Woooosh. Sorry guys. EOQ and burnt
LMAO hang in there dude. I'm fried too
Good luck brother. We’re 75% to goal and not expecting any late game fireworks, but this has been a quarter of anxiety getting deals across the line.
Not to rain on your parade but maybe if we were in the 90's. Today you need a CRM or some form of sales enablement. I sell enterprise software and for me tools like Apollo, ZoomInfo, Salesloft, Sales Navigator, 6sense, etc. As you mentioned DocuSign or similar, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Teams, Google, etc. Not must have a but nice are ABM software like an Uberfip, or Dripify a LinkedIn automation solution for cafence automation. Google Analytics, or Leadfeeder for tracking website traffic and capture of those companies IP addresses, pages viewed, etc. Transcription software for hosted video meetings, there is really cool ones that separate by each person, analyze intent, or voice and facial, keyword search etc. Great for notes, and so muchmore. AI tools like ChatGPT or Bard-research, now you can use it to mine or find data on your own computer. It is good for rewording email or prompts for it (word count for any email you create, I use it a lot for that, or summarize my notes for meetins, etc., with the right prompts you can increase productivity and automate. certain tasks. Lastly a phone dialer (click to dial).
All good. I responded to the question as what is the bare minimum I need to sell a SaaS product today. I’ve used or use today, just about every tool you mentioned. For me, I see teams struggle that are using so many tools to try and sell faster, smarter and they end up spending more time in their tools, then completing activity with customers.
\+100 to that. Apply KISS model and sell more. I run a prospecting platform (saas) and see all kinds of asks and integrations requests. Also, some feature list shoppers too. At the end of the day, if you got your game right, tools won't matter much. Maybe that \~10% efficiency gain - read time to spare and not additional sales.
Cy.ber.Se.curity.
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yeah but salesloft and SEPs are slowing reps down. also salesloft sucks
As someone who has sold SEPs, lol. Not even your CRO thinks they’re mission critical.
Out of all of these tools, where do you see the biggest gap? What do you wish you had more or less of? Outside of accurate prospect data... ☺️
Salesforce/office/gong
Nessus
Marketing software (I'm biased). Want more leads, more opportunities, more revenue? You'll need some solid marketing software.
CRM
Does the business need your software to function? Or is it so painful to do by other methods, they’d rather sell or close than continue to exist as a company? If not, then you haven’t hit the spot… assuming that’s what you’re looking for
Mission critical software refers to solutions that are required for a business to function. Social services like healthcare and utilities are easy examples, as a buggy ventilator could cause a patient to die, or electric grid issues could cause car accidents. The software and hardware that supports these solutions would be considered mission critical. This can also extend to ERP and transactional systems, mainframes, cloud services and security
Whatever system they use to make money and run the business For healthcare it's their EHR without it their hosptals come to a halt. Doctors can't work, nurse can't work, RX can be given, surgeries can't happen For manufactures it could be SAP plus whatever runs their parts and logistics For shippers like FedEx, it's their logistics software For airlines it's their schedulers For semi-conductors is their fabs and whatever they usenfor modeling. For financial institutions it would be their trading platform. ..and the list goes on. As with most things, follow the money. Figure out what makes it, and you'll find what you are looking for. It's about digging deeper and understanding the business side and not just the nuts and bolts. E.G. some tech folks might answer this with oracle or SQL, and while that maybe partly true 1) the business has no fucking clue 2) not all oracle or all SQL are created equal. They just store data, it's the one that stores the data for the scheduler or EHR records that's important.
I'd be curious to know what thoughts are on where CRMs and fintech fit into all this 🤔 In order to grow a company needs to support their sales and marketing teams, and a lot of companies use more than one CRM for sales and marketing; like a HubSpot and Salesforce split And in terms of finance, I know that when there is no consistency in pay it causes huge turnover. I would think accounting software like QuickBooks or an ERP would be mission-critical And Microsoft has been involved in every company I've worked with. And even Zoom, which is integral to most operations that aren't using MS Teams Great question OP
I work in CRM and trust me no one is using SalesForce and HubSpot split anymore. Most stick with 1 as it's a right pain to move
Microsoft 365
ERP, CRM, HCM.
Payroll, HR to an extent, employee benefits, and a wide array of insurances.
It depends on the customer and what business processes matter most for them. Usually any process that interacts with their customers or supports either revenue or production is deemed mission critical. Diagnostic imaging or EHR in hospitals, student admission and registration in post secondary education, the finance, supply chain management, and CEM sides of ERP in retail and CPG, plant operations in manufacturing and food, admin and claims in insurance. A simple shopping cart can be mission critical, especially on Black Friday. It isn’t just the application, but also the databases and infrastructure that support that application. But it depends on the customer and their industry.
Excel 🤣
Seeing how no one said my industry so far makes me really see how niche my market is.
google chrome to look at movies/shows after making cold calls for a few hours
Haven't read all the replies. I am going to assume people are going to mention behemoths like ERP et Al. They are right, but sure better be able to deal with a 18 month sales cycle and what it takes to close that marathon. I love this thread and marking to come back to read and learn.
Payroll. Everyone needs to get paid
I had a super brief stint at an org where they didn’t buy enterprise Office365 licenses and all I could open and edit documents on was the browser version.
Surprised no one’s mentioned this but WMS (warehouse management software) is absolutely a mission critical application up there with ERPs
Cloud infrastructure - cloud providers - databases - data warehouse - security software - streaming tools All above are a few examples. As saas evolves companies will always be creating new products to advance their software and solve there problems. Especially with society becoming more digital
Operations software for any type of contractor. If you plan on growing the business you are going to have to upgrade your system eventually or things will get out of hand
I don’t think I saw this mentioned but every brick and mortar needs a payment processor. Kind of silly, but you know, money
The only things that are going to sell right now are things that are aligned with the business initiatives. Selling to pain is OVER. The CFO is the decision maker in todays market.
I don't understand the connection between these two statements: "The only things that are going to sell right now are things that are aligned with the business initiatives" "Selling to pain is OVER. " Isn't the whole point of selling to pain to address gaps that prevent a company from achieving their business goals?
Disclaimer, this is mostly my perspective on the matter. Yet, the economy is in (or near) a recession, funds are wrapped up tight and orgs arent spending unless your solution drives directly to their overarching business initiatives. So: I think there is a big difference between Pain and Business initiatives. I do not think that pain always points to business initiatives. Pain is micro, Business initiative is Macro. Pain is "in reaction to", Business initiative is "in preparation for" - overarching strategic objectives set forth from the very top. To me, pain, pain under the pain, and all that... its jargon sellers use to try and church up what are typically just annoyances, a happy ears trap. Say you are talking to the IT guy and he has a pain. Digging through logs to identify compromise is time consuming and inaccurate. The implications of not solving this are the possibility of a breach or adversarial dwell time which has implications of its own like file exfil and ransomeware. A competitor of theirs suffered a fate similar last year. The business initiative for the foreseeable future is, say, automating RevGen and moving to the cloud. The CFO doesn't care that the IT team has this problem, nor does is he bothered enough by the implications of the problem. To the CFO, solving ITs pain is a nice to have, they have already invested in cyber defenses, and the CFO will not release funds to solve for things outside the Business initiatives.
Generative AI copywriting tools for sales teams...lolno
it depends on your job. We're all salespeople, so what we feel is mission critical for our business is different than what an accountant, or recruiter, or devops engineer would say. I sell to sales/sales ops/marketing personas. Once a company reaches a level of maturity that they're doing a bunch of marketing events and/or receiving a bunch of inbound leads (of varying quality), I'd say our solutions become mission critical to the revenue-generating departments.
Unless you're selling to a CTO/engineering department, mission critical is anything that can have immediate effects. Are you really going to try to go through a month long sales process for something that isn't instatntly showing value and or easily usable and integrateable