The idea that a good product will sell itself is a developer's fantasy.
Begin to build revenue through marketing and sales from day one.
Every startup should focus on its inbound and outbound strategies.
Inbound Marketing: Publish great content (blog posts, white papers, videos,
resources, things people will find genuinely useful) on your site and across
the web on topics related to your service so that users find you. Put the most
compelling resources behind a lead form that helps you qualify them as potential
buyers. This gets the user acquainted with you and also gives you their contact
info for follow up marketing or sales contacts.
Outbound Sales: Reaching out directly to the leads you have acquired (best quality)
or off some other list (lower, variable quality). Sometimes the contact will be happy
to engage and learn more. Other times not.
You can and will win sales from the inbound piece alone, especially if you have a clear
and efficient sign up process. But you'll find you can greatly amplify the number of
closed sales by reaching out to users and engaging them directly. That human touch adds
a whole new element.
If we keep implementing we are doomed. we need to release ASAP
https://blog.codinghorror.com/just-say-no/
# Learning sales
`study -> try selling -> success -> study even more`
take a look at:
- https://www.close.com/blog/cold-email-templates
- https://www.close.com/guides/sales-pitch
- https://www.close.com/guide/sales-pipeline
- https://www.close.com/guides/sales-startup-founders
- https://github.com/swyxio/brain/blob/master/R%20-%20Product/Launch%20Cheatsheet.md
- https://tsenkov.net/2018/09/03/a16z-crash-course-on-sales
- [All Things Sales! 16 Mini-Lessons for Startup Founders](https://a16z.com/all-things-sales-16-mini-lessons-for-startup-founders/)
- The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million
- [Enterpid - How to sell](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57daf6098419c27febcd400b/t/5b0b4dc68a922dbfa263b389/1527467516482/Entrepid_How+To+Sell.pdf)
- https://www.close.com/resources/saas-sales-book
- https://www.close.com/resources/startup-sales-resource-bundle
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55z5yl_naco
- https://predictablerevenue.com/field-guide/
- https://predictablerevenue.com/methodology/
- https://predictablerevenue.com/guides/the-ultimate-guide-to-sales-coaching/
- https://predictablerevenue.com/guides/the-ultimate-guide-to-sales-development/
- https://predictablerevenue.com/guides/outbound/
# The art of demo
I guess its obvious now but when I demo'ed/try-to-sale my software projects I would
spend 15 min showing "the guy" all the features.. INSTEAD of listing and teasing-out
the ONE requirement/problem the guy had and THEN spending 15 min showing him how
the software will fix he's one big problem.
This is the art of the demo. If you don't have 1-3 big problems that you're about
to show the customer how you'll solve, you're just shouting into the void. If customers
won't tell me what problems they're trying to solve, I adopt a very monotonous cadence
and tone and repeatedly say, “I can keep going through standard features, but this would
be a lot more useful for both of us if you could tell me a bit more about your needs.”
# Sales stack
- 1. **process first** - then 2. train people - then 3. find software to enable the process
1. Process: start with your pipe and qualification stages
(if you want a helpful breakdown search Jaimie Buss MEDDPICC - she's
VP Sales at Zendesk and forecasts quarterly rev within 1%).
2. Call plans: scripts/outlines based on above qual methodology.
If you do those two manually in Google sheets you'll be better off than wasting time
implementing tech.
Tool examples: CRM, Engagement: close.com, Data: zoominfo, Notes: Dooly
# Pricing
# VCs
A good growth rate 5-7% a week. If you can hit 10% a week you're doing exceptionally well.
If you can only manage 1%, it's a sign you haven't yet figured out what you're doing.
## Quick "VC" analysys
1. Will this make money, and how soon?
2. If you were to tell people about tit, where would you go?
3. Are there existing solutions that solve the same problem? How are you different from them?
4. How long will it take to ship the first version?
5. Are you solving a problem you personally faced?
6. Does the solution save time/money?