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Bottoms-Up Sales

In a bottoms-up sales process, you sell to individual users and small teams first, and then eventually departments and the broader company.

  1. What is Bottoms-Up Sales?

    Bottoms-Up Sales is a sales strategy that involves starting from the bottom of a market and working your way up to achieve growth.
    • Square logo
      Self-serve first: the overlooked but essential paradigm underlying great software companies

      Gokul Rajaram, Caviar Lead, Square

      Gokul provides 4 reasons why bottoms-up sales can be a great business model: Here’s why great business software companies are self-serve first. 1. Unbounded acquisition: Self-serve adds rocket fuel to customer acquisition in three ways: stronger top of funnel, rapid global scale, and unique acquisition tactics. 2. Superior experience: A self-serve first business customer experience is intrinsically better because it’s been designed to be used like the best consumer software. 3. Lower operating costs: The per-customer support cost for self-serve first companies is much lower, since most support issues are handled by customers themselves. 4. Agile mindset: Working at a self-serve first company builds an inherent scrappiness.

  2. When Should You Use a Bottoms-up Sales Model?

    Bottoms-Up Sales should be used when you have a new product or service that is not yet established in the market, or when you want to target a niche market.
    • Redpoint Ventures logo
      Which is a More Efficient Way to Build a SaaS Startup - Bottoms Up or Top Down?

      Tomasz Tunguz, Managing Director, Redpoint Ventures

      Tomasz analyzed tops-down versus bottoms-up companies, across revenue growth, gross margin, profitability, and capital raised. His analysis found that both approaches can produce efficient companies, and there was no statistically significant difference between the efficiency of bottoms up and top down companies in any of the four measures analyzed.
    • Streamlined Ventures logo
      Part I: The Founder’s Checklist for Bottoms Up Growth

      Nicky Kamra, Principal, Streamlined Ventures

      Nicky's checklist for bottoms-up growth asks these questions: • Is my product single player, multi-player, or both? • Am I sure my product can be adopted without a central decision-maker? • Have I made my product self-serve and intuitive so new users can get started right away? • Do I have a Freemium option that removes friction but allows me to monetize bigger teams quickly? • Do I have a good understanding of consumer brand and marketing? • Have I built referrals into every touchpoint? • Can I get users without outbound sales?

  3. How Do You Combine Top-down and Bottoms-up Sales?

    To combine Top-down and Bottoms-up Sales, you need to use the Top-down approach to set goals and targets, while using the Bottoms-up approach to identify potential customers and build relationships with them. This can help you achieve a more balanced and sustainable sales strategy.
    • Andreessen Horowitz logo
      On Combining Bottom-up Adoption AND Enterprise Sales

      Martin Casado, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

      Martin explains that while it is actually pretty rare for a company to have a very successful, 100% bottoms up motion, it is also increasingly difficult to rely solely on enterprise sales due to changes in enterprise buying behavior. Many startups therefore try to juggle both bottoms up and enterprise sales, but this can be difficult as the two processes can conflict with each other and impact product, marketing, and sales. The thread advises startups to assume they will need sales, target users or verticals that can pay, figure out the bottoms up motion, ensure the average contract value (ACV) covers both bottoms up and direct costs, and avoid developing two separate or conflicting motions.