Developers get what it does, not why to choose it
Trials end with “looks great” and no next step, because the comparison with the free or in-house alternative was never made for them.
Strategic marketing advice for developer toolsMarketing advice for developer tools
Find the friction between developer interest and sales
Developers download, trial, and star your product, yet too few of those evaluations reach a sales conversation. Find out where they stall, and which three changes to test first.
Developer Pipeline Review$3,000 fixed feeFindings in 10 business days
Developer tools I’ve helped bring to market
ReSharper
NServiceBus
PostSharp
NDepend
Typemock Isolator
FDT
Sound familiar?
Developer interest isn’t turning into sales
You don’t need another list of tactics. These are the three patterns I see most often.
Sales shows up too early, or too late
Trial users get a sales email on day one, or hear nothing until the trial expires. Either way, the conversation starts at the wrong moment.
Plenty of activity, too little clarity
Webinars, docs, and community programs are running, but nobody can say which ones produce sales conversations or where to invest next.
Why it stalls
The developer starts the evaluation. A group finishes it.
Developers champion tools all the time. Turning that endorsement into a purchase takes managers, security, and finance agreeing too, and a story built only for developers doesn’t survive that room.
47%
of developers influenced or endorsed a new technology purchase at work in the past year. But 19% of developers backed a tool that was free or never bought.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, 37,341 responses to this question5–16
people, across as many as four functions, make up a B2B buying group.
Source: Gartner, May 2025, survey of 632 B2B buyers2.5×
Buying groups that reach consensus are 2.5× more likely to report a high-quality deal. Yet 74% of buyer teams show unhealthy conflict.
Source: Gartner, May 2025Every evaluation that stalls with an unconvinced buying group is developer interest you already paid for in docs, DevRel, and content, with nothing to show in the pipeline.
How I help
Developer Pipeline Review
Find where developer interest loses momentum on the way to a sales opportunity, and decide what to improve first.
One product · One customer journey
The review follows the path from interest to sales opportunity
We pick one journey, for example trial signup to sales opportunity. Using your materials and funnel data, I check the five points where evaluations commonly stall:
- Positioning: why choose you over the free or in-house option?
- Technical proof: what backs up your claims?
- Evaluation experience: what makes trying it hard?
- Follow-up: what happens after the trial or download?
- Sales handoff: when and how does a person get involved?
For each, I separate what your data shows from what still needs testing.
What you provide
A structured questionnaire, relevant campaign materials, available funnel data, and one kickoff call to establish the journey we’ll review.
What you receive
- A diagnosis of where the journey stalls, supported by your materials and data
- Three prioritized changes, with the reasoning behind each
- A practical test plan your team can implement
- A findings presentation and one clarification round
Your team implements the recommendations. Campaign execution, customer interviews, new asset production, and ongoing management are not included.
Your advisor
Nearly 20 years of marketing to developers
Britt King · Salt Lake CityLinkedIn ↗ (opens in a new tab).
Most of my career has been spent inside developer-tools companies, working on one question: how does developer interest become a sale?
I joined Particular Software in 2013 to help bring its new Service Platform, built around NServiceBus, to market. As Marketing Director through 2026, I connected developer education and marketing campaigns with product trials and sales opportunities, using measurement and testing to improve the journey.
Before Particular, I built a consultancy that helped developer-tools companies such as PostSharp, NDepend, Typemock, and Powerflasher go to market. My first developer-tools role was leading developer community marketing at JetBrains.
The Developer Pipeline Review brings that experience to a single customer journey: finding where developer interest stalls, and deciding what to test first.
Founder & strategic advisor, GravityGears
Inside the review
Three changes, ranked, with a test for each
The Developer Pipeline Review connects an observed problem to a specific action and a measurable test.
Illustrative example · Not a client result
Developers see the value, but internal approval stalls
1 Evidence to examine
Developers complete a technical evaluation, but opportunities stall before engineering leadership gets involved. Follow-up focuses on features, with little support for explaining the business value, adoption effort, or risks to the wider buying group.
2 Recommended change
Give the developer a concise internal business case they can adapt and share. Connect their technical problem to its business consequences, explain the expected value and adoption requirements, and address the questions engineering leadership will ask.
3 How to test it
Send the business case to half of your qualified evaluators. Keep the current follow-up for the other half. Compare how many introduce another decision-maker and how many reach a qualified sales opportunity.
The review includes three prioritized changes, the reasoning behind each, and a test plan grounded in your journey and data.
A good fit
When the next move matters
- A developer product that needs a clearer route from technical interest to a sales opportunity
- An existing campaign or customer journey, with materials and data available to review
- A team ready to implement changes and test the recommendations
- You want an independent view of what to change first, before spending more time and budget
A few practical questions
What if our funnel data is thin or messy?
That’s common, and it doesn’t stop the review. I work from what you have, mark which findings the data supports, and turn the gaps into tests. Fixing your measurement can be one of the three recommended changes.
Why not hire an agency?
An agency is paid to run campaigns. This review tells you which change to make first, so any spend afterward, in-house or agency, goes where the journey actually stalls. It’s a fixed fee with no retainer.
Do you guarantee more sales opportunities?
No. The review provides a diagnosis and a test plan, rather than a revenue guarantee. Results depend on how your team implements the changes and how buyers respond.
Who will I work with?
You’ll work directly with me, from the kickoff call through the review and findings presentation.
Let’s start with the question
What’s stopping interest from becoming a sales opportunity?
Bring one customer journey you want to improve. In 15 minutes, we’ll decide whether the review is the right next step. Just know which journey worries you.
Book a 15-minute fit call Prefer email? britt.king@gravitygears.com