17 Sales Tips for Startups

How do you sell a new product, for a new company, in one of the worst recessions?

Conventional business advice would tell you to hone in on your pitch and pitch to as many people as possible. Sales is a number game after all, isn't it?

I would say otherwise. For the past couple of months, I've had to learn how to sell a new product for Acquia, a startup commercializing open source Drupal. (It's been my first job since I graduated from Boston College a couple months earlier.) Although, we just launched about 3 months ago, we've been able to meet and exceed all of our goals. It's been extremely difficult not only because of my newness to sales, but because its a new product for a new company - during a time when people are scaling back budgets and finding every excuse to preserve their money.

Producing revenue is crucial for the success of a startup. Not only for obvious reasons, but because revenue serves as a proof of concept that your company will succeed. Or, at least proves that you have a product that people are willing to pay for. Generating sales early on is important because it'll inevitably attract more investors, talent, and resources for your startup to utilize while growing.

However, building sales for a startup is more than just a numbers game. Success lies heavily on a willingness to adapt, ability to iterate on your value proposition and product, deploy creativity, and integrate different resources from you company.

Here are 17 tips that I've learned over the past couple of months that have helped me double my quota and exceed projected sales:

1. Figure out what your customers want and figure it out fast. People aren't going to pay for something unless they want it, no matter what price point. But, you shouldn't need to convince them either. Don't tell them they need it (in the form of a sales pitch), show them why they need your product and how they will use it to gain utility or value.  Ask questions, listen, and respond with valuable advice and feedback.

2. Iterate and tweak your value proposition. You may not have what the customer wants initially, and need to have the expectation and willingness to adapt as you figure that out. At first, we were only supporting a limited number of modules for Drupal websites, but quickly learned that our customers needed and wanted support for all of their modules. We adapted, changed our policy to support all modules. Instead of assuming we had the best solution, we focused on designing our subscription based model off what people were asking for. This may seem like obvious advice, but many companies assume they have the greatest product when they don't. In the same way a web application goes through an iterative process while being built, your value proposition and model should, too.

3. Be a consultant, don't act like a sales guy. Don't you hate it when someone tries to sell you something in a store? Just like lawyers, there is a certain connotation that is associated with a sales role. No one likes being sold to, so stop trying! My philosophy is that your prospect shouldn't even realize that you're a sales guy. Act more like a consultant. Give them information and suggest solutions after learning about their pains and problems that your product seeks to alleviate.

3. Be presumptuous. Talk as if the sale has already happened. Don't ask if they are interested, ask when they would like to sign up. Make a recommendation for what product will best suite their needs and explain why with analogies and examples that relate to their specific situation. Speaking as if the sale is going to happen helps prepare your prospect to think in the right direction. Just don't be cocky.

5. Use the feedback you receive and communicate it to the rest of the company. You won't know how to iterate in the right direction or change your model unless you listen, absorb  feedback that prospects give you, and apply it. This feedback should be circulated through the company. It's extremely valuable information that people need in order to build a product. The whole team needs to understand what is working and what isn't. It's an obvious statement, but one that doesn't get fully applied in the corporate world because information is lost in the "telephone game" as it gets passed from one person to the next in the hierarchical bureaucratic ladder. Startups can't afford this, so there has to be open channels for everyone to communicate with one another in the company.

6. Work closely with your marketing team to create an efficient lead generation machine. In fact, sales and marketing need to be as closely integrated as possible. The marketing team usually defines branding, campaigns, and consumer messaging that help attract new leads and customers. It's therefore critical to pass on as much feedback to them as possible. What are our best customers? Who is most profitable to go after? What type of prospect leads generate the largest sales? Tight integration between marketing and sales helps to create a more efficient lead generation machine. High quality and more qualified leads result in a high ROI on marketing dollars and higher conversion rate for sales.

7. Be persistent and don't give up on ANYONE. At one point I was recommended to just focus on the "better" opportunities that I had created in the pipeline. But I didn't, I was persistent with everyone rather then just the top. This probably accounted for 25% of my sales. If you are persistent in the right way, people will appreciate it. There were some people that gave a verbal commitment and then wouldn't answer their phone for weeks. Later, saying they would buy in the next couple of days, only to disappear for another couple of weeks. However, persistence eventually brought them in. You can potentially lose a lot of sales if you give up on those types.

8. Don't assume you've lost the sale if someone isn't interested. They're probably not interested because they aren't a qualified lead, or because you haven't explained the value of your service in a context that they understand.

9. Use creativity. Creativity is the result of combining different ideas to create new ideas. A single explanation of your service will only appeal to certain number of people. You need different approaches to reach a larger portion of the pie. Try and think of new analogies, new uses for your product or service, and new ways to create value that appeal to more people.

10. Sell on value, not on price. It doesn't matter how cheap something is, someone is not going to buy it unless they realize they need and want it. Lowering the price may make it easier, but its the conveyed value that presents a prospect with a real reason to buy.

11. Create more products. This simply increases your chance of having a product that fits someones specific requirements or needs. You can split your offerings into smaller pieces and build new services that contain different combinations or have add on services/products that you can use to tailor your solution to your prospect. Appreciation comes when you spend additional time to exceed their expectations, and as a result, increases your chance of landing the deal.

12. Receive help from the rest of your team. In the beginning, I was basically speaking jiberish to people. I didn't know much about open source or Drupal. I had to learn quickly, and did this by asking a lot of questions. By doing this, you build a stronger arsenal of tools and knowledge that you can use to help the people you are doing business with. People appreciate it when you are able to say you don't know, but will search for the answer and get back to them. You learn in the process, and will inevitable be able to talk to your product better.

13. Create a selling culture. Especially for a startup, everyone on your team should know how to talk to sell your product. The ultimate goal is to create as many touch points for possible sales as possible. For instance, take a support team. They talk to your customers everyday. Each conversation provides an opportunity to explain new products and services. Creating this type of culture helps your organization reach more people with different angles.

14. Understand the problems that your product aims to solve. You might know what your product is, but do you fully understand the problems your product aims to solve? A lot of times, when people pitch their ideas to me, they just regurgitate what their service, application, or product does. This is just half the battle. You need to convey your solution. This is how people understand how you're going to be able to help them, and as a result, gets them wanting your help because they can't find it anywhere else.

At Acquia, our goal is to provide the best support services for Drupal, help people maintain their websites, and provide advisory support to facilitate and expedite development. Since Drupal is open source, users can only receive support from Drupal.org forums. Although the community is very vibrant and extremely helpful, its not always possible to get the kind of support or advice you need in a timely manner. You also don't know how qualified someone is to give you advice for complicated problems. In other words, Acquia aims to bridge the gap between proprietary and the open source model of Drupal.

Shoot me an email if you would like to discuss how Acquia can help you with Drupal.

15. Talk to people as if they're your friend. This helps build trust. People will be more willing to talk to you, now and in the future. The goal should be to create lasting relationships that result in new introductions and more opportunities. Your clients will be more likely to recommend you and your products, as well. The goal here is to engage in converstations rather than one sided pitches.

This approach has actually resulted in new relationships that I have formed through Acquia. I've met and kept in touch with a handful of people that I now make introductions for and who help me meet new people in the industry as well. For example, I met Steve Bell, a startup consultant that provides strategy expertise to help position startups for funding or to help them get off the ground.

16. Listen more than you talk. There's nothing worse than listening to someone that drags on in a conversation. People eventually tune out after a short period of time because its either too much information to absorb, or you're saying the same thing over and over again. However, people love to hear themselves talk and they love it when people listen. A good balance of listening and talking aids in facilitating my last point.

27. Have fun. If you're not having fun, why are you even working where you do? A job takes up a large portion of your life. You should do what you love; because inevitably, you'll end up devoting more time, thought, and passion. This is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Do you have any advice? Feel free to share in the comments and we'll add the best ones, along with a link to who provided it, to our list.

Feel free to shoot me an email at collegemogul2 [@] GMAIL dot COM.