Frank Slootman

Well, I think the first part of that journey that was so important is the first year we didn't have the right product. We had an initial product that I almost would refer to as a paid for beta. We knew it had some of the features and elements of what the customers needed. And we were talking about the product in a way as a backup appliance.

And very quickly after talking to customers, they're like, it's not about the backup guys. It's about the recovery. And so we got really good at finding the first use cases where we could be effective every time. And so the other thing we did is it was simple to integrate into existing technologies. We didn't force customers to change their environment.

And very quickly after talking to customers, they're like, it's not about the backup guys. It's about the recovery. And so we got really good at finding the first use cases where we could be effective every time. And so the other thing we did is it was simple to integrate into existing technologies. We didn't force customers to change their environment.

And very quickly after talking to customers, they're like, it's not about the backup guys. It's about the recovery. And so we got really good at finding the first use cases where we could be effective every time. And so the other thing we did is it was simple to integrate into existing technologies. We didn't force customers to change their environment.

We just plugged right into their existing backup software. Simple does win in technology a lot of times, and people need to keep that in mind.

We just plugged right into their existing backup software. Simple does win in technology a lot of times, and people need to keep that in mind.

We just plugged right into their existing backup software. Simple does win in technology a lot of times, and people need to keep that in mind.

I think anytime you bring a new solution forward in an enterprise, anybody who's bringing something in today has to be asked, what are we taking out of the budget? What are we replacing? How is this augmenting? How is it going to make our world better? What I always try to tell my team, my whole team, the engineering team, the product team, is people buy product for three reasons.

I think anytime you bring a new solution forward in an enterprise, anybody who's bringing something in today has to be asked, what are we taking out of the budget? What are we replacing? How is this augmenting? How is it going to make our world better? What I always try to tell my team, my whole team, the engineering team, the product team, is people buy product for three reasons.

I think anytime you bring a new solution forward in an enterprise, anybody who's bringing something in today has to be asked, what are we taking out of the budget? What are we replacing? How is this augmenting? How is it going to make our world better? What I always try to tell my team, my whole team, the engineering team, the product team, is people buy product for three reasons.

They either buy it because it's gonna help them make money, they buy a product because it's gonna save them money, or it's gonna keep them off the front page of a newspaper, which is usually what security products are being bought and sold for. That's the reason why. So you gotta show them how are they gonna make money, save money, and that's really important.

They either buy it because it's gonna help them make money, they buy a product because it's gonna save them money, or it's gonna keep them off the front page of a newspaper, which is usually what security products are being bought and sold for. That's the reason why. So you gotta show them how are they gonna make money, save money, and that's really important.

They either buy it because it's gonna help them make money, they buy a product because it's gonna save them money, or it's gonna keep them off the front page of a newspaper, which is usually what security products are being bought and sold for. That's the reason why. So you gotta show them how are they gonna make money, save money, and that's really important.

yeah you know what we had this but it got pushed to next quarter it got pushed to next quarter how do you think about instilling that urgency in any of those three because urgency i guess is important in all of them the common refrain we had the sponsor it just got pushed that's really a discussion around was the value of my solution worthwhile for them to make the choice for us

yeah you know what we had this but it got pushed to next quarter it got pushed to next quarter how do you think about instilling that urgency in any of those three because urgency i guess is important in all of them the common refrain we had the sponsor it just got pushed that's really a discussion around was the value of my solution worthwhile for them to make the choice for us

yeah you know what we had this but it got pushed to next quarter it got pushed to next quarter how do you think about instilling that urgency in any of those three because urgency i guess is important in all of them the common refrain we had the sponsor it just got pushed that's really a discussion around was the value of my solution worthwhile for them to make the choice for us

Or was some other solution that was being proposed, not even if it was competitive to us, but another thing in the company that was being worked on. There's only so many projects somebody can run at once and so many dollars to go solve the problem. So basically the seller's job is to make sure that the value that you're providing is well understood.

Or was some other solution that was being proposed, not even if it was competitive to us, but another thing in the company that was being worked on. There's only so many projects somebody can run at once and so many dollars to go solve the problem. So basically the seller's job is to make sure that the value that you're providing is well understood.

Or was some other solution that was being proposed, not even if it was competitive to us, but another thing in the company that was being worked on. There's only so many projects somebody can run at once and so many dollars to go solve the problem. So basically the seller's job is to make sure that the value that you're providing is well understood.

We adopted a sales methodology at ServiceNow that featured this, where we had joint value discussions, and we called it a value prompter, that we did with our customers so that when it was time to go up to the CIO or CEO for $5, $10, $20 million worth of funding, that they knew what the business case was, and it held true.