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@@ -50,18 +50,17 @@ That's when they usually tell me about their "the dev-led sales dream".
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<divclass="row talk"><divclass="c6">
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<imgsrc="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/04-dev-events.jpg"width="100%"class="shot rnd outl"alt="Developers at a hackathon working on code.">
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</div><divclass="c6"><p>
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Their dream is that developers go to tech events, like hackathons,
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conferences and meetups. They see a new
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<ahref="/application-programming-interfaces.html">API</a> or technical
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product that looks interesting.
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Their dream is that software developers go to tech events, like
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hackathons, conferences and meetups. While at an event, developers
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see a new <ahref="/application-programming-interfaces.html">API</a>
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or technical product that looks interesting.
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</p>
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</div></div>
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<divclass="row talk"><divclass="c6">
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<imgsrc="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/05-code.jpg"width="100%"class="shot rnd outl"alt="Code in a text editor.">
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</div><divclass="c6"><p>
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Immediately developers at the event implement the API in their own
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projects.
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Immediately those developers implement the API in their own projects.
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</p>
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@@ -335,21 +334,59 @@ valuable about an SMS API.
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<divclass="row talk"><divclass="c6">
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<imgsrc="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/24-tactics.jpg"width="100%"class="shot rnd outl"alt="Subsection for dev-led sales and marketing tactics.">
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</div><divclass="c6"><p>
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...
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Most startup founders I talk to go straight into questions about the
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tactics that Twilio and other companies use for selling to developers.
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It's a bit of a "the cart before the horse" situation because you really
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need to have figured out what we talked about in the previous section
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as it applies to your business before you dig into the specific tactics
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you will use to engage developers.
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</p><p>
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Let's assume you have determined a developer-led sales motion fits well
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with your company strategy. Now we can dig into the myriad tactics you
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can apply to grow your sales funnel.
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</p><p>
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Most of these tactics are better described as "developer marketing"
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rather than sales. You are not going to be cold calling developers to
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pitch them your service. Please make sure you never do that.
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</p><p>
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Let's dig into several of the specific tactics that can work well to
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jump start developers adopting your product when it solves a problem
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that they have.
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</p><p>
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We'll start with a few online tactics then review in-person "offline"
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event-related activities like startup founders' dream hackathons.
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</p>
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</div></div>
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<divclass="row talk"><divclass="c6">
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<imgsrc="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/25-docs.jpg"width="100%"class="shot rnd outl"alt="Great developers documentation is your best friend.">
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</div><divclass="c6"><p>
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...
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By far your most important marketing asset is having stellar developer
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documentation. However, documentation rarely comes up in conversations
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as part of marketing and sales efforts. Why is that?
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</p><p>
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Historically, documentation has been a by-product of an actual product
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or service being offered. Docs are considered a necessary evil and cost
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center that needs to be minimized as a time suck for engineers to work
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on "real" problems. Sometimes writers with minimal or no development
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experience are hired to just get it done.
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<p></p>
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The "necessary evil" attitude makes sense in a world where documentation
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lives in a large paper binder that is mailed out after a purchase is
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complete. The quality has to be just enough that the customer doesn't
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complain about the complexity being so high their developers cannot
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eventually (after some long unpaid additional work nights and weekends)
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complete an implementation.
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</p>
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</div></div>
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<divclass="row talk"><divclass="c6">
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<imgsrc="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/26-content.jpg"width="100%"class="shot rnd outl"alt="Timely tutorials hit topics that developers care about right now.">
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</div><divclass="c6"><p>
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...
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Documentation is your evergreen always-to-date content, but there are
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additional formats such as blog post walkthroughs, example use cases and
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brand awareness tutorials related to hot topics that developers are
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currently interested in learning about.
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</p>
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</div></div>
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@@ -405,7 +442,8 @@ valuable about an SMS API.
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<divclass="row talk"><divclass="c6">
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<imgsrc="/img/190626-dev-led-sales/34-recap.jpg"width="100%"class="shot rnd outl"alt="Subsection title for recap.">
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</div><divclass="c6"><p>
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...
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Let's wrap with a quick review of the important concepts presented in
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