Which Sales Strategy Is Best For Your Startup?

[@mPajuhaan]

Sales for startups are the topic I really like to hear more about it.

[@777Kiq]

and the least explored.

[@GavinTye1]

Doing it well is hard!

[@ycombinator]

Who is your startup selling to? Are you going top down or bottom up?

[@ManiDoraisamy-GDE]

At Formfacade, we are going bottoms up - selling to Google Workspace users. The 50/50 split up between top down vs bottom up sales at YC starups is very useful. Can you share how this trends over time? e.g: Did it go from 80/20 in 2000s to 65/35in 2010s to 50/50 in 2020s? It would helps us understand, if bottoms up is an inevitable shift that SaaS startups have to go through in the future.

[@LaduramVishnoi]

Both approaches are amazing. The Top-down is primarily outbound, and the bottom-up is mostly inbound. Great video Pete, love to see more.

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Sell your product: Bottoms up and Top down 00:23 - Top down sales 01:07 - Biggest advantage 01:34 - Biggest downside 02:06 - How to build a top down sales motion 02:44 - Bottoms up sales 03:47 - Advantages 04:30 - Building a bottoms up sales motion 05:21 - Wrap-up

[@ACCA2016]

Thanks for making clear of top down approach and bottom up approach in such a short video. Deeply appreciate it.

[@themartdog]

Seems like some products would need bottom-up sales to polish their products with the end-users who would use it. Then make the big sale to the top, selling how all of that job title in their enterprise should be using it

[@GavinTye1]

To tell top down you really must become an expert in the 3 stages of creating demand. It's only when you demand in the sales process will you consistently close sales this way...and this isn't a marketing function, it shouls form part of the overall sales strategy...

[@ibrand23]

It also seems like you will need to employ a bit from each model eventually, depending of the startup?

[@benholmquist3589]

You said "$10K price floor for mid-market, and $100K floor for enterprise". Is there a clear definition of the two? How do we know which we are? We are looking at around a $25K price for deals that we sell to colleges.

[@chrislloyd2352]

Okay, YC companies are split evenly in terms of their sales strategy. Now let's see that split among successful YC companies.

[@cdb5662]

For top down… is that $10k to $100k price figure monthly or annually?

[@petekoomen3895]

Annually

[@MrKaugaban]

Can it be both and meet at the middle?

[@williammurmann8948]

Middle out

[@legendhasit2568]

Nice!

[@monaiqbal3978]

Hey have seen your website and have few questions: How can we know that a specific startup is funded or not?.

[@ycombinator]

you can search for specific companies here: www.ycombinator.com/companies

[@jeremiahdeleon5123]

Bottom up is hard now because they need approve from there team now before they try tools!

[@OfficialClintJames]

Came here for the tops vs. bottoms comments...

[@arifbergmann007]

👍

[@AI_news_ru]

Funny that this video has singificantly less views then any other video. Nobody wants to do sales)))

[@amanciocohen5965]

This is so stupid. In a startup the founder should be doing the sales directly. This is very against Paul Graham's advice

[@gsnayyar]

You are partially right but now funding is easily secured and the job of talking to customers fall on/sourced to hired resources as opposed to someone who should have his ears to the ground. Another reason why more start ups fail.

[@petekoomen3895]

I agree that founders should be selling directly until they find product/market fit. Was there something in the video that suggested otherwise?

[@gsnayyar]

@@petekoomen3895 No, your video is very informative, I shared with business associates as well. While you explain what sort of sales process to follow, OP is more concerned with who should do it. If you can delve deeper into the subject and share more insights here or paid courses, it would be wonderful. Thank you.

[@juliuspreloznik7236]

What’s the difference between top down / bottom up and PLG/SLG?

[@ycombinator]

Top-down vs bottom-up sales refers to how the sales process is initiated. In top-down, the sales team proactively reaches out to target customers. In bottom-up, the sales team relies on customer interest to generate sales. PLG (Product Lead Growth) vs SLG (Sales Lead Growth) refers to what drives the growth of the company. In PLG, the company relies on building a great product that generates organic customer growth. In SLG, the company relies on hiring a large sales team to directly reach out to new customers and generate growth through sales capacity.

[@rrichforever]

I think PLG goes with bottom up and SLG goes with top down... I also feel that both can be executed interchangeably especially when the product in question is in capacity.