How to Successfully Market to Software Developers

Two part special! In part one, the guys chat about decision making in a siloed company structure and the challenges of making sure everyone is on the same page. That's not all! More details about the secret Honeybadger conclaves are leaked, dirty laundry is aired about the logo scandal that shook the company to its core, and America's favorite Honeybadger is revealed!

Full Transcript:
Ben: 00:00 Yeah, maybe you want to omit that from the whole thing because we probably don't want the FBI come and knock on the door and ask us, "Hey, what other customers that we have here might be...

Josh: 00:08 I like that it's a good story and...

Announcer: 00:10 So did those guys really name their app after a meme? Huh? Buckle up, fellow kids. It's time for Founder Quest.

Josh: 00:20 I mean, okay. Once you get that Trump tweet out there it brings down the hammer on you.

Ben: 00:26 No collusion.

Josh: 00:28 I like the Ben Findley's suggestion that we kind of just put out a no collusion preemptively. Like, you know a disclaimer tweet.

Ben: 00:34 Right, right.

Starr: 00:36 That works. That's law.

Josh: 00:38 Right? Yeah. I think it is.

Starr: 00:40 It's like calling shotgun.

Josh: 00:40 Right? Yeah. Just call no collusion ahead of time.

Starr: 00:46 I just wrote a message to my friend, the orthodontist to ask her about how people sell stuff to orthodontists.

Ben: 00:51 Direct mail, direct mail.

Ben: 00:54 I've always wanted to do direct mail, like designing postcards and putting them in the mail.

Starr: 01:01 You know, I'll give it to you. Like direct mail does have this sort of appeal to it, but also it's like I've never actually bought anything from direct mail. I don't think.

Josh: 01:07 You know what's big business in direct mail, is political mailers.

Starr: 01:13 Oh yeah. So let's get into those. So my friend... I'm just going to describe this in case we decided to put it in the podcast. My friend, the orthodontist, was described a marketing issue that they have. They have to do this process manually, and it's real pain in the ass. It doesn't really map well to any generic marketing solutions because they have to coordinate between a prospect who's also a patient.

Starr: 01:36 So it was medical stuff involved. They have to get in touch with their dentist, and so there's like a two party thing happening. And she's like, "Yeah, you should build me this software."

Starr: 01:45 So I just messaged her and was like, "Okay, so how do people actually buy software in orthodontist land? Do people come and like demo it for them? When they buy do they come back, and then train the staff?" Because all that stuff just sounds like a lot of work, boys. Like I don't know how to do that.

Ben: 02:06 Well. That's pretty easy to do, but yeah, that's a lot of work.

Starr: 02:08 No, I mean I would know how to do it, but I don't know how to like manage people to do it. You know what I mean?

Ben: 02:14 Wouldn't it be wild to have like a fleet of reps out across the country, out showing software and like a real enterprise-y business. On that note, an area of software sales that I've always found interesting and intriguing is school systems. Like they had the most horrendous software ,and I'm pretty sure it's only because they have to deal with companies that have to deal with their purchasing process.

Ben: 02:39 And so these companies are like, "You know what, because of your messed up purchasing process, I'm going to force you to use this craptacular software. Ha! Take that."

Starr: 02:48 Oh totally, totally. So my partner Evie was a... she used to do web stuff at this well-respected local university that I will not name. And it was just amazing hearing about the amount of money they were paying for a new CRM. Like a CRM in 2019, the University of Washington... Which is not the school that she worked at. It's much bigger than the school she worked at. Their CRM is WordPress, but no. This little private school has to have this weird enterprise-y CRM because it does all this things, meets all this requirements.

Starr: 03:28 It's like they're paying something like twenty thousand a month for it. Like, it's insane. It's insane.

Josh: 03:33 CRM or CMS?

Starr: 03:35 Oh shit. A CMS. I always get those confused. No wonder nobody calls me. No wonder I suck at sales, guys.

Ben: 03:42 You are not going to be a sales rep, Starr.

Starr: 03:44 No, I'm just publishing my sales leads for the world to see. I don't even realize it.

Ben: 03:52 We talked about Josh's food truck dream, and like one of my dreams once there's sunset money involved, and I don't really have to work anymore, what kind of things would I like to do? I think like volunteering to replace the craptacular software at schools is something that I would like to do.

Ben: 04:12 I'm just ...