Phew, this was a really busy weekend! On July 20-21, 2019 Sebastian Sulma had the pleasure of conducting two workshops on how to sell new technologies. The direction the economy is growing in makes this topic as hot as ever. New ideas crop up and the competition is getting fiercer which means it’s increasingly more difficult to win a client. What makes a real difference is expertise and experience which Sebastian shared with the workshop participants. Check out what went down in Rzeszów on this July weekend.
A great idea that fits well with the market needs is a huge, although not the only ingredient of business success. If you write an incredibly absorbing novel but won’t get anyone to read it, the entirety of your achievement will be significantly smaller.
In order to maximize the return on your time and talent investment, you need promotion and sales. The same goes for startups, which in a way are works of art too.
Below are the detailed agendas of both workshops plus personal impressions of our tutor – Sebastian Sulma.
Saturday, July 20
Workshop titled “Why Startups Can’t Sell?” for the platform Start in Podkarpackie
The agenda was as follows:
- Workshop introduction – recon.
- Why startups can’t sell?
- Building the sales process, main success factors.
- Picking up the pace – scaling the sales process.
- Expanding into new markets.
- Sales shaping the offer.
- Wrap-up plus Q&A.
This workshop attracted quite an audience. There were about 20-25 startups from very different niches present. The participants’ ideas involved, among other, facilitating airport operations, solving the problem of flooding after a heavy rainfall, improving the comfort of truck drivers, and solving the issue of overheating batteries in, for instance, electric cars. ????
The level of expertise of the audience was as diverse as their ideas. Often, despite knowing the tools, the skill to translate this into a proper sales process was missing. Another issue was reaching one’s first clients and addressing their pain points. The participants seemed to not know how and what to ask their prospects about.
Most importantly though, they displayed a major willingness to absorb new knowledge and were heavily interested in learning the details of building a sales process. Thank you for your engagement and we keep our fingers crossed for your projects! ????
Sunday, July 21
Workshop titled “Sales Helps New Technologies Grow” for Rzeszów Startup Akcelerator
The agenda was as follows:
- Introduction – transforming technology into sellable products. The most crucial factors of the process discussed based on three case studies. Q&A followup.
- Sell me your product. Sales pitches by the startups.
- Understanding the issue – the analysis of sales history and strategy, as well as the startup’s strategic goals with the tutor.
- Look further, see more – multi-level analysis of the market in search of beneficial trends and changes supporting product sales. Predicting value for the customer.
- Sell your key value – transforming technology into a sellable product and selecting the most promising target groups.
- Research & recon – synchronizing growth and the sales process with the client.
- Road map to success – OKR, KPI, budget and time frame, laying down the course of action at least for a quarter ahead.
The audience of this workshop was a little more advanced. Their projects mostly went beyond the idea stage and entered the MVP phase. There were 9 SaaS startups present and one kids product. It was nice to see that some of them have the potential to become a global product fitting current trends.
Considering the more advanced business stage, the participants displayed major interest in sales and ways of reaching their goals. Things were made easier by the fact that the startups present provided for interesting examples helping the attendees better understand the issues at hand.
Discussing real-life projects created actual value for the participants, who all left the workshop with individual work plan for a year, divided into quarters and containing concrete goals to be reached.
Wrap-up
The less advanced participants of the Rzeszów meetings obtained plenty of expert knowledge which will help them develop their ideas into full-fledged products. The more advanced ones, on the other hand, left the workshops not only richer with new knowledge, but also with ready to be applied plans of action, which will help them transform their existing technologies into products ready to be sold.
Thank you to the organizers and everyone present for their engagement. Wish you good luck!
Ideation to action
Sulma & Sulma
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Photos: HugeTech.pl / own
