| What are the key benefits of your product to your customer? Who exactly is the customer? You need to work these two out first for sales. Most early stage startups don't have a product as beneficial to anyone as they think. So really need to work out the value and make it stand out, increase the value. They say 10x better because of this. Chances are an early stage product's value is mildly beneficial. Mildly beneficial = No sales. Work out the audience. Go to a slightly less-than-ideal customer = Too much effort to sell or no sales. OK So once you are at this point you are already equipped to sell. A nice product whose key benefits are clear, and we know exactly how the buyer will use it and benefit from it. I will bet dollars that you are not there yet. Now all you need to do is help and enable the customer (e.g. integrate your product, make them see the magic by configuring it for them, or give them samples). You must not be salesy, but act as if you are an assistant that works to make the product's value realized for the user. At this point before spending the resources (time) double check this is a serious buyer with budget. At this point as the user has seen the magic, you can ask for payment. Sales #1 complete. Do 50 such sales and then you can care about metrics, efficiency etc. |