We suck at B2B sales, any advice?

[dlopezb]

Hi guys!

I come here to the almighty HN looking for answers!

We are a Canadian Startup called Enginehire. We provide a Saas to help childcare agencies manage their day-by-day operations and to better connect their customers with their final childcare providers (nannies, babysitters, etc).

By doing this, "accidentally" we created a network of more than 200 childcare agencies across the US, which are totally integrated into our software. Now we are trying to sell this network to companies that want to support their team members with childcare, by summiting in-home childcare booking requests through our platform and sending those to our network of agencies (if some of you would like to try our platform in one of your Startups it would be great! In this link you can find more info: corporate.enginehire.io).

Everything sounds great except that we are the worst at B2B sales! We have been reading that the best way to start is by tapping into our personal network, but we are not originally from the US (I'm from a small but beautiful country in South America, and my co-founder from a huge country in North America with a small population).

Any advice on where to start?

[withinboredom]

I think you've encountered a very hard problem. In the US, childcare is not something you just "point and click" on, but something you try to choose the best for and spend months/years on a waiting list.

The crux of your problem: people without kids are unlikely to even fully comprehend what you're offering and people with kids are likely to feel like you're commoditizing child-care. So your marketing materials and pitch needs to both convey the benefits to people without kids and make it feel like there's a personal touch for the people with kids (def including something like "the BEST childcare").

You also probably want to do a bit of research and find out when company events are. If you could notify them far enough in advance so that they can "provide childcare services during their event," that would be huge, especially if it won't impact the event's budget severely. But my 2 cents would be to focus on providing care during events, which are often after-hours. Any company can see the value of that immediately as they want their employees to attend and not worry about their home-life, especially for events where the SO is invited.

That would get you "in the door" to discuss more permanent contracts.

[dlopezb]

Great idea about the events! I think that at Christmas this could be huge because that time of the year is usually when all the after-hours events start.

[PaulWaldman]

Interesting concept. There's lots of opertunities to inject technology into "legacy" businesses.

Are the current "childcare agencies" for arranging a childcare provider to come to the home and watch over the children? Can you elaborate a little more on the "childcare agencies"? How long are the engagements, how many days a week and how many hours per day, etc.?

Think about the benefits for employers. Campanies who allow WFH probably would appreciate it if their employees can focus on work and not the kids.

Don't think about how to scale this yet, concentrate on signing up just a few businesses. I'd start in a locale that has an intersection of the following: 1. Existing customers who'd be willing to champion this with their own employers. 2. A "childcare agency" that is reliable and you trust. Considering they are taking care of kids, hopefully this won't be too hard to find. 3. Large employers known for allowing WFH.

[dlopezb]

Childcare agencies are companies that recruit, select, agglomerate, and supervise childcare providers (nannies, babysitters, etc.) so whenever a family needs a childcare service in their home they have a huge network of candidates from which to select. The engagements can vary from just a couple of hours to long-term relationships of years, but what we are aiming at is what is called backup care, "emergency services" just for a couple of hours, which is the most needed service from employees that work on big corps. Now it makes sense?

I think what you are saying about not trying to scale yet makes sense, we want to find at least our first customer to get as much feedback as we want so we can improve our product.

Thanks for your advice!

[sitkack]

I still don't understand what you are asking for, that is the root of the problem. You have an asset, you want to know how to leverage it into more money.

[dlopezb]

The problem is that we are having a hard time reaching out to companies that could offer childcare services as a benefit for their employees. We see companies as a customer acquisition channel: The final user are the families who need help taking care of their children at home, but it's in the companies' best interest to keep their employees' families happy, and what better way than supporting them with childcare?

[cloudsec9]

Okay, I think I understand your core biz -- software to connect/manage providers and service seekers, correct?

And now you've realized you might have another line of business, and you'd like to monetize that, right? From other comments, I think this piece is where things are fuzzy for me and others. If you could give an example of what you envision here, there might be some advice we could give.

[dlopezb]

Yes, that is correct! Let me explain better:

As you said, we provide software to childcare agencies to manage care providers (nannies, babysitters, etc) and connect them with service seekers (families). These agencies recruit, select, and agglomerate childcare providers so whenever a family needs a service in their home, they have a huge network of candidates from which to select, all of this using our software.

Now, by selling our software, we now have more than 200 childcare agencies across the US, which all combined represent a huge amount of childcare providers!

Then, we thought! We have a huge network, so how can we acquire customers (families)? The market is huge, who doesn't need to take care of their children? I bet we can advertise and find a lot of families looking for childcare! But wait, childcare is expensive, and not all parents can afford it, so let's speak with the companies they work for and see if they want to subsidize part of the cost of childcare.

And there is where we are at, we are trying to reach out to companies that could be interested in giving childcare as a benefit for their team members, without any luck.

I hope that this makes more sense :)

[cloudsec9]

That does help a bit.

Do companies provide such benefits directly in the US, or at least in certain areas? In cities I'm familiar with, childcare services are a personal choice, even if there is a daycare in your office building.

I do have some ideas and approaches, if you might want to connect I'd be happy to chat.

[dlopezb]

Sure it would be great to connect. Here is my email: [e-mail] Send me an email and there we can decide how to connect.

Thanks for your help!

[GianFabien]

Why not hire a US based sales professional with existing childcare experience and connections?

[dlopezb]

We will have to pay only on commissions, do you think that we will be able to find an experienced sales professional willing to work only on commissions?

[holonsphere]

I have experience in this exact space and a wealth of connections in my city....

Big no from me. Even with a 3/4 split i wouldnt feel comfortable w the whole arrangement.

Who would want to risk their professional reputation while doing all the legwork just to be treated like a cheap affiliate reseller?

If you want someone to really invest themselves in the future of your organization you need to first invest in their future.

Good people would be invested in the companies they sell to and imo you dont get access to peoples' friends, families, and professional acqaintances without health insurance.

There are a lot of similar agencies in the states here with a local focus w a strong emphasis on compliance and regulation that recieve support from the same institutions that govern then.

Until you have connections w the people that decide which companies get to keep their lights on you are just selling a very temporary tool - something that grabs peoples attention and provides immediate fixes for sure but ultimately something that will only exist to magnify friction

[dlopezb]

Hey, thanks for your comment!

I didn't get what you were saying. What you mean is that you would work in something like this but only if you get a better offer than just being paid on commissions?

[Spooky23]

I’d look for businesses or industries that provide childcare and try to find conferences that their HR people attend.

Figure out how and why they do it, and use that to figure out how to market:

[dlopezb]

Great idea! Thanks for the advice!

Do you know of any famous HR conferences in the US?

[ac2u]

To put a twist on the idea... there's a lot of in-person tech meetups and conferences thesedays that provide childcare during the meet itself so that parents can attend.

Offer to sponsor the childcare facilities during these events. The meetup/conference organisers will bite your handoff since you're directly covering the cost of something which will boost attendance.

In return you get to pitch directly to parents in tech, who can become advocates of your service to their own HR departments.

Depending on your budget, you could also offer the parents who use the facilities a free coupon for X hours of childcare on your platform, that way, you can review the stats of those who use the service later. If you notice a few folks from one particular company, then you have a warm approach to their HR department in the form of "X number of your employees are already onboarded".

[dlopezb]

My friend, thanks for your ideas, they gave me so much to think about!

Currently, we don't have that kind of budget to sponsor an event, but what I'm thinking is that we can make an MVP of this idea. For the moment we just want to acquire our first company so we can get feedback from working with them. What we can do is target any company and then start reaching out to employees to offer them x amount of hours on our platform. After a couple of them make bookings, then we can talk with the HR department and show them that there is a real need for childcare among their employees. What do you think?

[qzuipo]

If I understand correctly, not only you have client base of childcare agencies but also helping them acquire customers (families). Am I missing something?

[dlopezb]

So far we only provide our software to childcare agencies, but with this new idea of finding corporate clients, in the end, what we are doing is helping them acquire new customers. Does it make sense?