Top Down sales begin with a decision maker high in an organization, focusing on identifying leads and validating their problems before navigating bureaucratic processes to secure contracts.

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.

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.

A major downside of Top Down selling is the risk of creating one-off features for large customers, which can lead to consulting relationships instead of scalable products.

Scaling a Top Down sales motion typically requires building an expensive Enterprise sales team, which sets a high floor price for your product, often around $10K for mid-market and $100K for Enterprise.

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.

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

Startups that sell using a Top Down approach often see better early retention metrics compared to those using Bottom Up sales.

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.