I gained my sales education the hard way: I lost deals. I lost a lot of deals. This was usually because I talked too much and sounded desperate. After years of losing, I knew something needed to change. Then I had an insightful conversation with a fellow founder. He had recently exited his startup with a big payout. He said something that stuck with me, “the best sales meetings I ever had was the ones where I said nothing. Sales is about people, not products.”
With that insight in mind, I made some changes. Rather than talking, I listened. Rather than hoping for the sale, I planned for it. Rather than playing a game with the odds against me, I started changing the game, so the odds were at least even. In time, I was winning more deals than I was losing. Along the way, I accumulated a set of concepts and best practices for startup sales. Let’s walk through this list, with my favorite one at the end.
NOTE: This blog is an excerpt from The Founder’s User Manual: Practical Strategies for the Startup Leader
You Sell Pain Relief
You may think you sell products and services, but that is not what people buy. They buy pain relief. All your sales messaging must focus on this simple idea. Talk about the problems (pain points) your customers experience and how you resolve them. I will talk more about customer pain later in this chapter.
Something Free Has No Value
Avoid giving away your company’s expertise, products, or time. Bundling free items into a paid package of products is okay. You can also do free trials. However, all of these must end with the customer paying for your products.
Furthermore, customers who demand free items do not value you. Anybody who tells you they will provide you with “exposure” in exchange for products or services is trying to cheat you.
The goal of sales is to bring in revenue. Giving away stuff is the opposite of sales.
Desperation is Repulsive
Desperation repulses good prospects and attracts bad ones. Suppress all signs of desperation, even if you really are desperate. Effective salespeople remain positive and enthusiastic during the darkest of times.
Never Waste a Loss
Salespeople are experts at inventing excuses for why a deal was lost. Avoid speculation and get the facts. Ask prospects why they chose a different product. Most people will tell you.
As I have said previously, understanding failure is more important to success than success itself.
Measure Results, Not Activity
In sales, results are what matters. This is a harsh reality of sales. It does not matter if a salesperson calls a thousand people. If none of those calls led to a sale, the effort was not worth it.
You want to track activity for analysis purposes to see what level of effort is necessary to achieve the results you want. However, a salesperson’s performance should never be based exclusively on activity (effort).
Salespeople will constantly try to convince you that their activity is valiant and worthy of praise. Do not praise or reward people who are unable to deliver results. Instead, have them reflect on their efforts and find ways to change and improve. Activity (effort) that does not lead to results is meaningless busywork.
Salespeople who do not produce results are not merely useless, they also drag down the company. Sales is not a job for timid people. Do not retain salespeople who are not producing results.
You Cannot Sell in the Dark
No part of sales should be hidden, secret, or known only to a few people. Your processes, practices, metrics, and results must all be open, transparent, and public. Never allow your sales team to function “behind closed doors.”
Specifically, all sales goals and accomplishments must be made public. This creates pressure to perform. Weak salespeople will often complain that making sales attainment metrics public is “demotivating.” Low sales numbers should motivate salespeople to work harder. If it demotivates them, then maybe sales is not the ideal profession for them.
Hope is for the Holidays
In sales, hope is dangerous.
Salespeople would routinely tell me how they “hoped to hear from the prospect,” or similar excuses. You cannot run a business on hope. When a person is hoping, they are delegating success to fate. This allows them to dodge responsibility. Require people to have plans, not hopes. Do not even allow people to use the word hope.
No Badmouthing
Nothing telegraphs to the world your desperation, immaturity as a leader, and lack of strategy more clearly than allowing anybody in your company to badmouth competitors. As my CEO coach once said to me, “Are you in the ‘anti-them business’ or the ‘pro-you business?’”
Always be in the pro-you business.
Get to “No” Quickly
Dragging out a sales cycle for months wastes time and resources. Stress-test your prospects early in the sales process to ensure they have the budget and authority to make a sale.
Call the Bluff
One way you can get to “no” quickly is to do the opposite of what your prospect expects and call their bluff. I used this technique regularly. It is counterintuitive but astonishingly effective.
When a prospect raises an objection about your product, rather than countering their objection, agree with them. Tell them they are right and that maybe it is not a good fit. This will either cause the prospect to back down from their objection, which is good, or end the discussion.
For example:
Prospect: We require a vendor that is open 24 hours a day.
Seller: Okay. Our company is not there yet. I guess we are not a good fit for you.
Prospect: Well, that is not a deal breaker. Can you provide a dedicated support person?
Seller: Yes.
Calling the bluff (which is also called Negative Reverse Selling technique) forces the prospect to reconsider their position. If they want to work with you, they will back down from their objection. This makes the prospect convince themselves you are a good vendor.
Moreover, it encourages the prospect to negotiate and discuss other options with you. This gives you deeper insight into what the prospect really wants.
Calling someone’s bluff is difficult to do. You must resist the desire to counter objections. Moreover, you must be willing to walk away if the prospect agrees.
Calling the Bluff has multiple applications. You can also use it with a prospect who keeps putting you off or rescheduling meetings. Tell them it is obvious they are not ready for a meeting and to contact you when they are ready. This changes the dynamic and gives control to the prospect.
The Early Bird Gets the Sale
Once you have a possible prospect, get a proposal (price quote, etc.). in front of them quickly (within 24-48 hours). Without a proposal, you have nothing to sell. Moreover, invest in proposal designs and layouts that are concise and attractive.
Moving quickly shows a prospect that they are important, and you are reliable.
The Time is Now
Do not wait to contact a prospect. Do not wait to send out a quote. Do not wait. Do it now, so you can move on to the next task. Momentum begets results. Keep moving and do it now.
If It is Not in Salesforce, It Did Not Happen
Regardless of which CRM tool you use, require salespeople to enter their contacts and sales notes. I had salespeople constantly try to convince me of the important meetings or conversations they had. I would check Salesforce (the CRM we used) and they had not entered anything. I would say, “sorry, it did not happen.” Naturally, this infuriated them. I would remind them that, without documenting their engagements, I had no way to determine that they were real.
This underscores the importance of the next item on this list.
No Verbal Agreements
Never allow your employees, customers, or partners to use your own memory against you. Talk is cheap. Documentation is forever. Require all agreements, regardless of size or complexity, to be in writing.
Do Not Negotiate Against Yourself
When a customer pushes back on some aspect of a deal, resist the urge to immediately engage and negotiate. Ask the prospect for a counterproposal. Otherwise, you are negotiating against yourself.
Also, do not be afraid to walk away. This may compel the prospect to re-engage and become more agreeable to your proposal.
Ask for the Sale
Ask for payment as well. Salespeople should never feel awkward about asking a prospect to buy and pay. Closing the deal and getting paid is the entire point of sales.
No Signature, No Deal
I had prospects swear up and down they were going to buy, but they could not sign a quote. I fell for this a few times and got screwed each time when the customer would not pay.
Get them to sign that is dotted. Otherwise, walk away. Without a signature, you have nothing.
Sell the Brighter Future
Focus on how your products and services will help the customer. Everybody wants to buy a brighter future.
Sell Your Way Out
When money is tight and things look bad, there is only one way out of the hole: sell your way out. Stop whining, blaming, and avoiding reality. Get out there and book meetings, do demos, and push for sales. I once turned my company from being $1M in the hole, to $750K cash positive in about 90 days. It absolutely sucked and I had to work 15 hour days, but what choice did I have? There is a limit to what you can cut, but no limit to how much you can sell.
Change the Conditions of the Test
As a startup, the odds are against you in almost every way. Your competitors have every advantage: money, time, talent, brand recognition, etc. If you look and sound exactly like your competitors, buyers have no reason to select you. They are better off sticking with an established brand. Moreover, you cannot claim to be an innovative, disruptive startup when you look like everybody else.
The only way you can start winning this game is to Change the Conditions of the Test and even up the odds. That means intentionally sounding, looking, and feeling different from your competitors. Different is good. Different closes deals. Different is your only way to stop playing your competitor’s game and make them play your game.
However, a word of warning, many of the people around you, especially investors, board members, and employees, will fight you on this. Prove them wrong.
Conclusion
You know what it takes to do startup sales? It is not made of brass. It is intelligence, discipline, and resolve. Follow these fundamentals to get your sales team on target.
Always be closing.
Need help with sales? How about a sales comp plan? Zenaciti does that. Contact us today to discuss how we can help. Also, did I miss anything in this blog? Your feedback and insights are valuable.
