Early-stage founders are constantly trying to sell too fast. I get it. Revenue is king, but it’s still possible to sell too hard, too fast and go for the close too soon. Here are a couple of specific examples…
1) Years ago, I became co-owner of a software development shop. I had 20 years of startup development under my belt, and when people called with their run-of-the-mill tech projects, I was quick to say, “yeah, we can build that.” Sometimes we got the gig, sometimes we didn’t.
I brought a mentor into the organization and he soon flagged my behavior.
“I don’t care if you *know* you can build it. You’re saying 'yes' too quickly. People all think they are unique, and if you don’t ask for details, they won’t trust you.”
That flew in the face of everything I believed about selling. Move ‘em through the pipeline as fast as possible and ask for a close. But, hey, Tom was old-school sales and probably knew what he was talking about. I taught myself to fall back on this same phrase over and over:
“That sounds like something we would be good at, but I don’t know. Every project is different and I can’t tell in a single conversation whether we would be able to build that for you. How about we set up a call with your whole team and really dive into what makes your software different?”
We closed more deals (and better deals) by adding some friction into the process.
2) I have an amazing client, at the earliest stages of her business. Right now, it’s all about pilots. Test her product on a small part of someone’s business and if it’s successful, expand to the whole organization. Whenever she demos with an executive, they get excited and she’s like, “let’s go!”
Makes sense. She wants to prove her business model out. She wants to learn. She wants to scale. These are natural (and necessary) business goals. Yet I am coaching her to slow down. We now know that people love her idea and we can get any pilot we want.
The question is what happens next. It’s easy to assume that if the pilot is successful, there will be a full rollout…
But what makes the pilot successful?
Is it number of users?
Engagement per user?
Revenue generated?
How will we measure the relevant KPI?
Who's measuring? Us or them?
Are there competing projects that might muddy the attribution?
Does the sponsoring executive have complete budget authority or are there other decision makers?
The list goes on and on.
Don't get me wrong, we want pilots and at small organizations, damn the torpedos! Close! Close! Close!
For large prospects, we should slow down and ask those questions. If the client can't take the time to walk us through their process, and just keeps asking "how much will this cost for a full roll out" (hint: we don't know yet), what are the odds we'll expand? Until we have a brand, we're relying on internal champions and champions invest time.
Startup strategy is filled with counterintuitive lessons like this. What are you biggest unexpected lessons?
#startups #sales