In this post I want to discuss a recent trend I am seeing more and more in enterprise software - Bottom Up Sales.

In order to place the product into users hands, enterprise software vendors must first navigate the sales process which can involve a lot of politics and convincing of stakeholders who will never actually use the product.

This is because traditionally, enterprise software is sold “top down” - you find the senior sponsor, build the business case, etc. This can take up to a year!

The idea with “Bottom up sales” is to create a fantastic user experience and then figure out a way to place the product into the end-user's hands in a frictionless manner (e.g., freemium/reduced functionality model).

For tech vendors, this approach can eliminate the (painful) conventional route of convincing multiple stakeholders in the organisation and then prioritising features that bring sales. For end-users, UX will finally be placed on the pedestal it deserves.

@NotionHQ is a great example - offering free personal plans and paid company plans. But what do you think are some of the challenges for this trend to take off?