Why Startups Need To Focus On Sales More Than They Think

Some entrepreneurs fail to build a business that can realize its full profit potential. This occurs because they haven’t spent enough time thinking about how their product will be marketed and how it will achieve sales.

Sales Make Your Business More Attractive For Investors

One of the most important things for the investor is traction. And it’s not always only about the money it’s about people that trusted you, liked your product and they proved it with their wallets.

Sales Pay For Daily Expenses

Maintaining a steady cash flow available from sales will help you pay for these expenses without going into debt or raising more capital. The business will be more stable early on, employees will be happier, and you will be less financially stressed.

Focusing On Sales Means You Create A Better Product

If you have a cool product people will want it so much so they will pay for it. Keeping sales in mind during the development phase also leads you towards the long-term sustainability of your startup.

Sales Show That Your Company Is Valuable

Being able to bring a product to market and find customers willing to pay for it demonstrates that your company is valuable. It won’t just be “another startup”, it will become a real business that has a product that consumers are willing to purchase.

Sales Mean You Don’t Need Investors

If you’re selling products early on, your business will be financially independent sooner and you will have capital available to grow. You won’t have to give up partial ownership of your startup to a third party to obtain the capital necessary to grow.

5 practical steps your sales team can take today:

1. Sales brief meetings 2 times per day.

Get your team together at the same time every workday morning and afternoon. Have the team lead set the agenda, try to give everyone with something to say a chance to be heard. What’s on the pipeline? How many leads did you connect, what was their questions or rejections? This is a great way to stay on track and see if everyone is doing what they need to do.

2. Sales team recap meetings

Meet every week, month or quarter to share lessons learned. Tweak the strategy if needed. Share the lessons each salesperson can bring to the table – including any
challenges encountered.

3. Celebrate small wins

Small wins are stepping stones to big wins. So at least a high five or ring the bell in the office so everyone knows about the win! If they go uncelebrated, unrecognized, or worse, unheard, the true value of a small win diminishes. It wakes up the office and can make a salesperson’s day. So make sure you give them confidence to carry through the week. This is a great way to show that even small actions will be noticed and team will be focusing on goals and help them stay on track.

4. Celebrate big wins as a team!

There’s nothing better than kicking back with your colleagues to discuss sales victories and war stories. Get out of the office together to do something active that can expose the talents, skills and even hobbies of your team. Celebrate with good gifts so team can see the value of all these actions.

5. Work hard, play hard!

Getting pumped and having the energy to storm through a list of 100 leads, clear your tasks, empty your inbox and take a dozen calls to keep crucial deals on track. Make sure you and your team rest and recharge to have that energy consistently. You need to be as strict with your downtime as you are when you’re selling.

Marketing, development, branding, etc is important but it’s useless if nobody pays for it. So you definitely need to focus on sales. You can learn how to sell yourself or try to hire someone with sales experience. Start with creating sales goals! Write down the plan! Having a detailed plan for how you will sell and what your goals are will help your business do well in sales.

Stay tuned!