Top Down sales work well for products that help executives achieve strategic goals, but they can be expensive to implement and require significant support.

The advantage of Top Down selling is that it follows a proven playbook, making it easier to find customers who will pay for solutions if you understand their problems.

To build a Top Down sales motion, define your target customer and identify the individuals within those companies who have the problems your product solves.

Startups typically use a top-down sales motion to sell expensive products to executives at large companies and a Bottoms Up motion to acquire individual users, which can lead to sales to those executives.

Choosing between top-down and Bottoms Up sales strategies depends on whose problem the startup is solving; if the pitch resonates with individual contributors, Bottoms Up is preferable, while top-down is better for executive-focused pitches.

Bottom Up sales start with the user, focusing on building a self-serve product that can be adopted without direct interaction with the company. This approach works well for startups that solve pain points for individuals or small teams, as products need to be easy to adopt and can spread virally within an organization.

When building a sales strategy, decide whether to pursue a top-down or bottom-up approach, as this will influence hiring and sales tactics significantly. I focused on having our sales representatives call every lead five times and schedule 15 demos each week, regardless of how they achieved that activity level.

Top-down sales involve traditional methods like phone calls and lead generation, while product-led growth (PLG) is more organic and can take longer to establish.

Founders can achieve significant sales with minimal sales staff by focusing on high-level sales strategies and engaging with key decision-makers directly.