startup sales 101 (salesmasters)

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)


Explanation next

1. What are you really selling? What Problem do you solve?


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)


What industry/ Vertical? Company size? Revenue? B2B/ B2C/ B2B2C? C-Level? Mid-management? Region?

3. Who is the DM? (decision maker)


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?


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?


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)


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?


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?


Typical steps include: Disco call, Demo, Free Trial, Proposal, Decision, Account kickoff call, etc

3. Who should participate in each of the calls?


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

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@DominikSuter