Bridge Technology Group (BTG), based in New York City - the heart of the critical northeast corridor , partners with seed/start-up through growth stage software and technology companies. Direct hire turnover approaches 60%+ in sales and business development within the first two years of launch when resources are hired on too early in your organization's product development, market positioning and overall growth curves. Execution in the competitive northeast market remains critical throughout your growth curve and appropriate coverage via direct resources alone is challenging. The associated hard cost of each direct Regional Sales Representative in a major market is costly. (see hard cost breakdown here)
BTG provides professional sales, business development, and field marketing capabilities to your emerging company at a fraction of the cost of headcount expansion alternatives. We fully-immerse proven veteran resources in your organization and perform as direct employees, transparently, in retained roles from business development to direct sales and management to channel management in fixed term engagements; reducing risks and costs while maintaining efficiency, accelerating momentum, and maximizing early opportunities for success.
Bridge Technology Group helps emerging companies span the risks associated with initial field strategy and execution, ramp time to market, and expenses in field resources and sales management by providing retained term resources that:
Attracting top talent is often difficult for the start-up or early-stage company as the inherent risks often prove too high to attract top field personnel with heavy commission based incentive income. Ramp time to market for start-up companies is lengthy, making your investments in direct field personnel typically a pure cost center the first year or longer as they serve more business development roles than actual sales and revenue attainment. Many start-up companies simply scale and hire direct field resources too early. Eager to capitalize on initial indicators and please investors, companies forecast opportunities to the board based on too few data points and often hire far ahead of revenues. This acceleration of your burn rate and failure to move or adapt to the market based on larger data sets and more qualified indicators often results in early false-start scenarios.
Scaling on initial indicators not fully vetted with the appropriate market segments or verticals results in lower capture rates, field attrition, non-performance, and failure to meet revenue commitments to the board. False-start or re-start scenarios can set your organization back a year or more in terms of reacquiring customer relationships and pipeline, rebuilding market credibility and worse - potentially losing any competitive first-to-market or second-mover advantages. Ultimately, these scenarios put your growth timeline, financing, and entire strategy at risk.
”...Travel expenses alone for California-based start-up and early-stage companies justify a capable local northeast resource...”
VP Sales
Early-stage Network Security Company
Mountain View, CA
”...we think we want to expand to two teams in the northeast with the 2.0 product GA launch, but we aren't sure how to split the region most effectively, or if it can support two teams, nor have we determined what the appropriate strategy should be to break into the mid-tier financials with the MSP model...”
SVP Sales
Emerging application performance vendor
San Francisco, CA
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Value for the Software/Technology Vendor
Proven, Multi-Stage Veteran Representation
Mitigate Risks of Early Headcount and Poor Field Execution
Maximize Opportunities for Early Success, Create Repeatable Sales Models
Golden Gate, San Francisco
"...Do more with less and be careful of ramping up sales until you have a repeatable selling model. In other words do not hire too many sales people and send them on a wild goose chase until you have built the right product, honed the value proposition, identified a few target markets with pain, and can easily replicate the sales process and model from some of your customer wins..." (from "Highlights from a recent VC panel" - blog link)
Ed Sim
VC investor, multi-Board Member
New York, NY
"...More often than not, management teams tend to put an over-optimistic pipeline in front of the board thinking a larger pipeline is better. I would rather have a higher quality, filtered pipeline that is well scrubbed than a larger pipeline with no meaningful criteria to move deals along in the sales process. With the former, we all have a real tool that can help us better manage our resources..."
- Ed Sim, VC Investor
The Manhattan Bridge, New York City
- Adopt and execute proven sales strategies in key markets like New York and Boston and in key segments
- Expedite 'early-adopter' identification and capture
- Leverage proven prospecting, qualification, and capture methodologies to accelerate lead generation and pipeline
- Vet sales and product strategy with target markets PRIOR to additional headcount commitments
- Develop and execute channel strategy (when applicable) to further reduce early field headcount requirements
- Exceed early forecasts to the board while drastically reducing burn rates and cost of sales
"...the risk with startups has shifted over the last 10 years from a technology execution risk to primarily a go-to-market risk" - Mark Leslie
Bridge Technology Group 245 Park Avenue New York, NY 10167 info@btg-nyc.com (646) 596-7951
"Our model company experiences positive early product revenues from beta customers. Top management, eager to establish an early leadership position in the market, adopts an aggressive approach to sales. The company hires a VP of sales, as well as regional sales managers, systems engineers, inside sales reps and field sales reps. The clear expectation is that this team will deploy rapidly and efficiently, reaching breakeven within three or four quarters.
Then reality sets in. It takes longer than expected to convince initial customers to buy. The positioning of the product is not quite right, the price needs to be adjusted and product features need to be tweaked. Meanwhile, typical start-up issues, such as opening regional sales offices and establishing lines of command, distract the sales force.
The result: This oversized team burns through tons of cash and does not come close to reaching (the objective).
- Mark Leslie, former Chairman & CEO, Veritas
Stanford Graduate School of Business
(excerpt from "The Sales Learning Curve")
