Ask HN: Why you've got no sales. A Mindmap exercise

That flow looks like it goes in one direction; is that really how it is?

I have been selling for 6+ years for our SAAS and learned a few important parameters to keep in mind, in no particular order:

Need, Urgency/Timeline, Budget/Affordability, Intent, Trust, Decision Making

Need: If there is no need, it is very unlikely that you will sell it unless you are talking about shiny B2C stuff that are entertaining and people buy just for the heck of it.

Urgency/Timeline: A lot of times we forget to understand/ask how urgent this need is. We get plenty of people who show a need but then tell us that they are probably 6+ months out and just "researching" at the moment. Nothing wrong with that but they are not what we call "Sales Qualified Lead" or SQL. They are more like "Marketing Qualified Lead" or MQL

Budget: This one is easy even though very important to know. Can they afford your product/service ?

Intent: This one is interesting for me at least. Just because there is a need, there may not be intent. I talk to lot of prospects who clearly have a need since their current system is shitty, costing them time/money etc but they are too afraid to change. They are willing to let it slide. The intent is not quite there. Perhaps the pain is not big enough and they procrastinate. I have clients who took a year to change their "intent" when shit hit the fan.

Trust: Unless you are selling sub $10/Month stuff, you need to be able to build trust otherwise they won't buy. I have had a few prospects who told me flat out that they are not sure if they can trust us enough, especially in our early days even though our product/service looked solid. It depends on the person. Some people take longer to build that trust and need a lot of social proof etc. Don't ignore this factor.

Decision Making: A lot of sales don't happen because the actual decision maker is not involved. When we talk to a prospect especially in our domain (B2B), we ask them clearly if they are the decision maker or will there be someone else/a team involved to decide finally. I had a client once who signed a contract and then told us his boss was not in agreement and we had to move on. That is when I learned that we need to know who the decision maker is :).

Most sales don't happen because of either 1 or a combination of these factors.

I am not a salesperson, so take this with a pinch of salt but I would imagine:

The need exists, you've got the right target, it's useful and effective, it's a huge market, you pitch it right, the timing is perfect BUT not all the decision makers are on board. E.g. manager wants to buy it, compliance is not keen.

The need exists, you've got the right target, it's useful, BUT this isn't a pressing enough problem. They have bigger problems, and those problems are worth spending their precious hours going through a procurement and evaluation process. So even if your product is free they won't use it. They wont even bother to decide if it is suitable. E.g. do you want to meet me to evaluate my free "tennis ball fetcher from your neighbours garden".

The need exists, you've got the right target, it's useful, BUT they are not used to paying for such a solution. An example might be a JS framework, like a React competitor.

I think the last 2 are problems for a MVP level thing where you are trying to work out if there is a market, rather than an established sales force.