Transcript
Startup Sales 101
Content Marketing Tactics: Effectiveness Vs. Difficulty
Startup Sales 101A presentation about the best practices for technology Startups looking to begin selling their technology
Hi, thanks for checking this out, My Name is Dominik Suter, a Hi-Tech start-up Growth Hacker, Marketing + Sales leadersince 2002 US/ Israel @DominikSuter(+972) 058-4785492
So you’ve been working on building a great product or service, at least you and your team believes its the best thing since the invention of sliced bread, great, what’s next?
Startup Sales 101
Thinking the heavy lifting is all behind you?
Startup Sales 101
Well, sorry to break the news to you: The hard part is only about to BEGIN..
Sales is typically an activity that follows other activities such as: • List Building• Marketing• Lead Generation • Sales
Development
Startup Sales 101
and is often followed by activities such as:• Customer Success• Up-Sales & Cross-Sales • Retention • and Winbacks
Startup Sales 101
Here are the 3 main ingredients needed to launch you company’s sales:
1. Sales Planning2. Sales Activities3. Sales Essentials
Startup Sales 101
In a young startup, where the team and budget are small, following are the 6 key questions you need to consider when discussing • What you offer?
and • Who are you dealing with on the other end of
the table?
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
1. What problem does your product or service solve?2. Who is your typical customer? (the User)3. Who is the DM? (decision maker)4. Are there influencers? 5. How are buying decisions made in this company?6. How important is your product or service to this
company? (Nice to have OR Must have)
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
Explanation next
1. What are you really selling? What Problem do you solve?
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
Disney Theme Parks are amusement parks, but the company is actually selling family togetherness and family memories.Rolex is a watch company, but it is really selling luxury and status. (Source: Eileen Rudden and Marissa Lowman are co-founders of LearnLaunch)
2. Who is your typical customer? (the User)
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
What industry/ Vertical? Company size? Revenue? B2B/ B2C/ B2B2C? C-Level? Mid-management? Region?
3. Who is the DM? (decision maker)
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
Be sure to know who it is. Is he/ She involved in the evaluation? Should you approach him/ her? How to approach?
4. Are there influencers?
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
Be sure to know who they are. Are they involved in the evaluation? Should you approach them separately?
5. How are buying decisions made in this company?
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
Get your potential customer to talk as much as possible so you can find out what matters most to them...Salespeople need to find out from a potential customer how decisions are made in their organization (Source: Eileen Rudden and Marissa Lowman are co-founders of LearnLaunch)
6. How important is your product or service to this company? (Nice to have OR Must have)
Sales planning: What do you sell and Who is your customer?
The half Full as opposed to the half Empty cup has been effective for me over the years: ‘Buy this product and youDo A+B+C’, and than circle from the other end, ‘Don’t buy this product and your competition will ride circles around You with A+B+C….How will Not buying effect your business in the long run?’
following are the 3 key questions you need to consider when discussing how to present and sell your product or service: The sales process
1. Do you present face-to-face or via web conference?2. What are the steps of the sales process? 3. Who should participate in each of the calls?
Sales planning: The sales process
Explanation next
1.Do you present face-to-face or via web conference?
Sales planning: The sales process
If your meeting takes place either on the phone or via web conference, you will miss all of the visual cues that generally help you gauge a prospect’s reaction to you and what you are presenting…web meeting, should, be more visual and fast paced than an in-person meeting. Asking a lot of questions and being extremely passionate about your product will help a potential customer stay engaged.(Source: Eileen Rudden and Marissa Lowman are co-founders of LearnLaunch)
2. What are the steps of the sales process?
Sales planning: The sales process
Typical steps include: Disco call, Demo, Free Trial, Proposal, Decision, Account kickoff call, etc
3. Who should participate in each of the calls?
Sales planning: The sales process
Typically: Sales, Product specialist, Customer success, Executive
1. 1st Touch2. Introduction3. POC4. Proposal5. Decision6. KickOff
Sales Activities: 6 Steps
Explanation next
Cold Calling & Cold Emailing
Sales Activities: 1st touch
Cold calling is defined as the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call, therefore making the call cold. Cold calling is used to attempt to convince potential customers to purchase either the salesperson's product or service. (Source: Wikipedia)
Cold emailing is a tactic that focuses on sending relevant, personalized emails to prospects that you've previously had no contact with. It's an outbound sales tactic that has gotten really popular and effective in the recent years.(Source: Pipetop)
Pre-Sales/ SDR
Sales Activities: Introduction
Disco Call & Demo
Demo is Not always relevant/ required
Sales + Product Specialist (sometimes)
Sales Activities: POC
POC is Not always relevant/ required
Sales + Product Specialist
POC: Free Trial/ Pilot
Sales Activities: ProposalSales
Proposal/ Order Form
Sales Activities: DecisionSales
Decision: Signup
Sales Activities: KickOffSales + Customer Success
Account KickOff
Things you need before selling?
Here is a list of things salespeople need to do their job
Sales Essentials
Explanation next
• Website signups: contact us, demo requests, trial requests,
• customer referrals, • winbacks, • Trade show info requests
Sales Essentials: Leads
• Website• Email templates• Product-Service one pagers• Videos• Customer testimonials• Customer referrals
Sales Essentials: Collaterals
• Voice solution for international dialing• Web conference• CRM• Email• Email nurture automation• Email analytics
Sales Essentials: Tools 1 of 2
Sales Essentials: Tools 2 of 2• Prospecting tools to locate DMs and
Influencers• Website analytics• Social tools to engage• Sales accelerator - Sales automation
Bottom line, Sales is the ultimate test of the performance of your product or service development process, your design, your marketing and your leadership.
Selling is the peak of all your other company activities and being that, be sure to prepare well when moving from sales planning to sales activities
Bottom Line
Thank you for watching
Have a question?
Have a comment?
at 058-4785492Call or Drop me a line
dominik@KickOff.agency
@DominikSuter
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