Casual conversation or “small talk” helps you sell yourself, which is frequently the most essential thing that you have to sell. If you have read my book Eliminate Your Competition or you have read much of the pages of my blog, you know that I frequently talk about the importance of selling three different things: Your product …
The next in our series “Skinned knees—what an MBA didn’t teach you for rebel sales in a software startup” where we discuss your promotion from individual contributor to leading a team. Is it for the faint of heart? Navigating the move from enterprise executive to startup VP of Sales or Chief Revenue Officer is not for …
Are you doing things every day to make you a successful salesperson? Are you following the best practices of top salespeople?
For managers, do you know which traits to encourage in your reps? Do you have a plan to make them better by pushing them in the right direction for success?
Read More Five Habits of the Best Salespeople (and how they differ from their underperforming peers)
There is one consistent sign that the entrepreneur is going to be rejected by the Shark Tank panelists. It is when the founder starts to talk about how massive the market is for their product. Mark Cuban is usually the first to pounce on this aggressively, and often it is his reason for not funding the startup.
Nothing else matters. Just go sell something.
Read More As Mark Cuban says – the market size is almost immaterial
Salespeople excel when the quality control of the product that we sell is fantastic. This means we don’t need to cover for an overdone or under-seasoned dish (or outside of the restaurant world – a product or service that was not made to par). We can focus on other high-value activities that add continued relationship value to our customers.
This post is primarily for my peers as sales leaders in startups in the software market. If you are like me, you probably have years of experience selling for great companies where you refined your sales skills. You were a front line and second line manager for several years. You may have also helped some startup companies that didn’t really ever start.
One of the challenges of a new company with a new product is pricing the product. Every software startup struggles with this. It is almost impossible to make the correct decision for all time.
Every day at a startup has challenges. You know this. That’s why being a founder or a member of the founding team can be very exciting. Having been in your shoes, I find that developing the sales pitch can be both heartbreaking and exciting. Starting from scratch and being ready to take on the world is noble, yet the downside is having absolutely no historical examples to jumpstart the creative process.