b2b sales in web2 --> d2d sales in web3
exploring sales in a web3 world + dao2dao partnerships
This is essay 7 of 7 essays for The Tech Progressive Writing Challenge. Join the conversation in the build_ Discord.
Given how central sales organisations have been for “web2” growth, I was surprised to see a dearth of ideas on web3 sales. Almost all of the content is focused on consumers, creators, and communities.
So, let’s do a thought experiment. What happens to sales if we do reach a fully decentralised internet economy?
Will sales just disappear as everyone becomes individual creators contributing to DAOs? No.
But will sales change? Yes.
Our current sales model is centered around the concept of a corporation. This means a decision maker, an off-chain legal entity, and a contract that is not programmatically tied to the relationship between the two entities.
Decentralised models will mean different organisational structures. Alternative governance mechanisms, token economics, and DAOs are modelled more like cooperatives than corporations.
None of these are considerations within the current sales process.
When B2B Sales becomes DAO2DAO Partnerships
With the Cambrian explosion in the DAO economy, there will be opportunities for combined networks. That’s where DAO2DAO negotiation will come in.
The next frontier of coordination is DAO-to-DAO interaction. For a D2D ecosystem to flourish, it needs proper tooling to support new ways for DAOs to experiment with collaboration and joint ventures. (Gitcoin, PrimeDAO Partnership)
The concept of a DAO2DAO partnership is new. The terms was coined by PrimeDAO in early 2021 as part of research with Curve Labs and Blockscience. There’s a ton of interesting reading from this research (listed at the end) that goes deep into the concept of DAO2DAO relationships via the lens of International Relations, Game Theory, and broader technical architecture.
PrimeDAO plans on providing the tooling & infrastructure for D2D partnerships to scale. Launched in November 2020, they have raised a $2m seed round and recently launched $D2D tokens. Their vision for PrimeDAO:
a hub for DAOs to come together and co-build DAO toolings and services. We have seeded this vision in our culture by collaborating with DAOs across multiple phases of researching, designing, and developing our products. (Gitcoin forum)
As the tooling becomes more widely adopted, it’s important to think about the use-cases and value these partnerships could create.
Shared liquidity. DAOs can form a joint liquidity pool. For instance, Balancer and PrimeDAO just completed a D2D partnership where they pool $750K with a 50:50 split in their token contributions.
Mutual ownership. Each party will own a share of the liquidity pool, allowing them to jointly invest in projects. It also gives them greater incentive to collaborate on other projects. For example, via a D2D partnership, OlympusDAO will board Olympus incubated projects onto Prime Launch, Prime’s platform for seed raises and early-stage liquidity.
Co-governance. If both parties have skin-in-the-game, then governance models are required. The tokens could be used as a type of governance structure to vote on projects.
Co-farming. Combine ecosystem rewards to give their users higher yields.
Joint scale. Access their respective communities via cobranded communication and services.
These outcomes still require sales and negotiation. While sellers will need to understand decentralised in governance in detail, a lot of the frameworks aren’t too dissimilar to web2:
Decision-making. How does the DAO make decisions? Who are the key influencers in the DAO? Is there a project team working on this? As Jeremy Epstein wrote, sellers need to combine a knowledge of “hard power” (members with the most tokens) with “soft power” (very active members with respect in the community). The former could be seen as web2 decision makers, while the latter are the influencers.
Value. How does this proposal provide value to the other DAO? What outcome are they looking for? Sellers will need to understand liquidity pools, tokenomics, yield, and the goals + vision of the other DAO in question.
Education. Sellers will need to differentiate their DAO vs other DAOs as the market becomes increasingly saturated. They will need a knowledge of the wider ecosystem and competitive DAOs (this will happen as the market matures).
Sales in a web3 world
It’s early days yet, but I am confident that sales will be a key part of web3. The best DAOs will need to be able to develop a strong D2D strategy that drives mutually beneficial outcomes. Partnerships will run like projects within the DAO.
Web2 roles will evolve to web3. Sellers will need to drive awareness of a DAO (marketing, SDRs), provide education to other DAO, agree terms, and contract on-chain (AEs). They will then need to manage the relationship to some degree, even if much of it is automated via smart-contracts (CSMs).
Further reading: